The Wal-Mart Weekly: back to customer service basics

The reason they can't keep help is because they fire people for no reason .Then they say its because they can't find good help. Its not that at all, it's the way they treat people. If more people would let there carts set and walk out they might just look into hirering mor help but people won't do i and they know that I know a girl that got fired that they said she wasn't mopping the floor right , this just goes to show you they'll find any excuse I bet old Sam Walton is spinning in his grave as we speak

Good God almighty, you are just now finding this out? I think there actually was a time when Wal-mart didn't suck as much as it sucks, but that time hasn't been in the last 10 years.

All of your observations hold true, but you missed the most important missing link: BODIES. The reason there are not enought checkout lanes open, or that stocking is not being done between 10:00 PM to 7:00 AM (which is Walmar policy) is that they can't hire enough people to be available to do the work at that time.

And with Bentonville constantly blaming the associates they do have, or not providing career advancement as they used to, providing a consistant work schedule for it's employees, or not offering quality benefits, it is not likely that they will fix this problem anytime soon.

They like to brag about being so big they can negotiate merchandisers into lower prices, but they can't negotiate a decent health care plan?

You are right, quality customer service is coming back as a make or break issue. The sooner Walmart realizes that being penny wise, pound foolish with its most important asset, it's hourly employees, the sooner the company can get back to being the company Sam Walton founded.

We need more HELP! For the last few years its getting harder and harder to get good help. The reason? The comments by Kathy are spot on. One more is sales vs payroll dilemma. When sales are down, they cut the staff, which makes the sales fall further. Good people get tired and the new ones don't stay because of the workload. Until they let the store managers staff and run their stores, its not going to get better. This was the downfall of
K-mart and we are on the way. Staffing is the #1 complaint of every store but home office wont recognize or admit it.

Self checkouts are a great opportuninty for theft. Do you really think that a thief is going to pay for everything in that line? They will scan what they want or make it look like they are scanning items, then walk out.

Just this past week, Princeton store 2171 had visits from Edwardo Castro Wright and Wall Street analysts. The store looked the best it has ever looked. One thing that no one tells you is that the brought in close to 100 associates and managers from around the region to fill the shelves and make it look like there were no outs. To a regular like me, you could see items in the wrong spots all over the store, but the shelves were full. They even hired temps so that overtime would be minimal.

They repainted walls, hung new clutter control(signing on the walls and ceilings), and much more. All this from a store that went through a complete store remodel last summer. What did that cost to fool Wall Street?

As a Merchandiser I know for a fact Wal-mart overloads stores with merchandise they do not need to store for such a long period of time. With overstocking stores this causes expenses in having to move the merchandise out of the stockroom to unload their trucks at night. Many of these same pallets are moved back and forth numerously clogging ailse in the late mornings because the 3rd shift has run out of time and has to go home so the 1st shift takes over and it hinders the checkout operation. Wal-Mart has never had a good merchandising program and buyers are rewarded in how many sales their departments have at the end of the year. So how do they get these rewards. By loading up to much merchandise at one time. And to get general ordered merchandise cancelled is hard and the manager gets criticized. Ron Evers

I've worked for Wal-Mart almost six years now. I have also owned my own retail business. To me, the number one rule in retail is, "Take Their Money", and Wal-Mart is dropping the ball when it comes to checking out their customers. They lose money from me all the time because I just walk out of the store leaving my shopping cart full of goods when I see the long lines I have to wait in. Makes me feel unappreciated and disrespected. I believe Wal-Mart knows what they are doing and they are just seeing how far the customer can be pushed before doing what it takes to bring on more cashiers... weather it be increasing salaries, offering more full time positions and thus health benefits, better training, or eliminating their stringent new criminal background check. Our store has a turn over rate of 98%. Wake up Wal-Mart!

I WALK OUT TOO! wow, I'm not the only one, but more so -

I JUST talked to 2 wal mart employees (separately) and the first said, "do you have your receipt? (for wal mart brand milk? I said) yes, they're on us about food returns bad, and to get your money back you have to have your receipt.

I said, well if you would quit selling junky low quality food which is being made for the lowest possible price, then you wouldn't have returns. The milk I bought was sour, and I bought it, stood in line 10 minutes, and put it in the fridge in 10 more.

#2- I told the cashier although the lines were horrible, at least SHE was quick, and she said, "they're always yelling about cutting more hours"

So there's TWO instances in one day of cutting costs for what they THINK is better profit, all it does is make me go to Publix! arses!

I agree that service is lacking but at least they have some cashiers working at all times. The Kroger in my neighborhood doesn't have a single cashier until 8am each day or after 11pm at a 24 hour store. Until they start paying me to scan groceries, I will leave my basket and walk out before I will use one of the self checkouts. I'm a customer, not an employee and I expect a cashier to be available to take my money.

At Walmart two weeks ago, I needed a can of paint mixed. I stood at the counter for 10 minutes without seeing a single associate. I finally went to the nearby auto department and asked them to page someone. 10 minutes later, I was still waiting. I returned to auto and asked them to page a manager. 15 minutes after that, one finally appeared and had no idea how to mix paint. This was the middle of the afternoon so the store should have been staffed. As a former retail manager, I can tell you that there is NO excuse for your management staff to not be cross trained in all departments. Particularly the departments you don't keep staffed.

I agree with much of what has been said but have long been complaining about some additional issues. Certain health care items are badly understocked. One product that I use on a daily basis, as do thousands of middle and senior aged citizens, is stocked but is almost always sold out at my local Walmart and many others. It costs slightly more at other chains but is always available. Many items I have searched for are available only on an upper shelf I can not reach and assistance is rarely available.

As regards the handicapped, Walmart barely complies with the laws re: handicapped shoppers but give very little real thought to those customers' problems . Many stores spread their reserved spaces thinly all along the front of their monster parking lots, making many of them much further from the entrance than they could be. In addition, Walmart parks their handicapped shopping scooters (usually only two)by the Exit doors. The customer limping in the entrance must go around thru checkout to get to a scooter, if available, or go back out the entrance and come in the Exit doors to get one, thus having to move against the flow of traffic. This is pure bullshit.

I realize that a large number of assholes abuse the handicapped privileges, fostering resentment by stores and other shoppers and making it more difficult for those of us who truly need such privileges. I offer my apology to the general public for those who are so ignorant.

I have stopped looking for most things at Walmart due to the issues described above. The only reason I go to Walmart anymore is to pick up part of my medications which are on the $4.00 list and I do give them credit for this assistance. The other meds I take are so much more expensive at Walmart I have to get them somewhere else.

For more than two years I have been telling people that Walmart's patterns of operation are the same I experienced at K-Mart a number of years ago before they filed for protection in bankruptcy. If Walmart does not get a handle on adequate staffing, customer service and logical design and stocking patterns, I believe their "low prices" will not hold many of their inconvienced customers.

By the way, before being forced medically to retire, my work took me to towns all over nine southeastern states for one to three weeks in each town and for two to three months at a time. I bought a ton of medications, clothing, small appliances and food items at Walmarts over the eight years of that profession.

Another issue that caused me to start avoiding Walmart was the cutbacks and discrimination they imposed on their employees' health insurance.

I have read the 8 previous comments and I hope that maybe there is some company worse than WMT.If there is not then I will consider these comments to have made me rethink my feelings to more negative than positive concerning WMT. The comparison to Kmart is scary as to what happened to them. Billy Martin

IT SEEMS TO ME THE MAIN OFFICE IN BENTONVILLE,WANTS TO HAVE TOTAL CONTROLL OF ALL FUCTIONS OF ALL STORES AT ALL TIMES, PROBLEM 1, UNDERSTAFFING,2 OVERSATURATING THE MARKET,(STORES 5 MILES APART WITH NEW ONES ON THE WAY,3 UNDERPAYING AND UNDERSTAFFING FULL TIME EMPLOYES,4 NOT LETTING EACH STORE CONTROLL HOW MANY EMPLOYES WORK AND AT WHAT TIMES. 5 INSTEAD OF CONCENTRATING ON WHAT THEY SHOULD (RETAIL SALES)THEY ARE TRYING TO PUT THEIR FINGERS IN AS MANY PIES AS THEY CAN (BANKING, HEALTH CARE CENTERS,ECT).6 MOVING ALL THE PROFIT OVERSEAS BUILDING AS MANY NEW STORES IN CHINA AND EUROPE AND INDIA AS FAST AS THEY CAN WITHOUT ANY REAL RETURN TO INVESTERS SHORT OR MIDTERM AND NONE IN THE IMMEDATE FUTURE,IN SHORT SAM WALTON COULD AND WOULD ADDRESS AND CORRECT THESE PROBLEMS IN SHORT ORDER,HE WAS HANDS ON, WHEN HAS ANYONE SEEN THE CEO VISIT STORES AND TALK TO EMPLOYEES WHILE AT THE STORES LATELY, SAM WAS FROM THE BOTTOM UP, THESE GUYS ARE FROM THE TOP DOWN,AND WHEN A BUILDING STARTS TO CRUMBLE IT'S AT THE FOUNDATION NOT THE TOP FLOOR.

Wal-mart has done away with mant items people are used to purchacing there, so if they have to drive else ware they figure might as well get other things they need in the area they drive to also. There are not enough cashiers, not everyone wants to deal with a machine when checking out. It is getting harder to find an associate when help is needed because they are spread out covering too large an area. Law-away has been done away with in the Millington Tennessee store ( dont know about others) but that really helped people who dont have deep pockets. Try come common sense who ever makes these decisions.

Until Wal-Mart (and other companies) figures out that you can't treat customers OR employees as disposable, things won't change. If you won't give employees satisfactory working conditions (How about consistent shift schedules? That doesn't cost a penny) and satisfactory wages, you won't get the quality of workers you want. If you treat your customers as disposable ("Eh--so what if the store is a mess and there's a long line at checkout? People just keep buying"), those customers will get fed up and shop elsewhere (or not at all).

I use to work at Wal-Mart some years ago,then I had a family emergency and had to quit. I talked to my supervisor and she said everything would be fine. Some years later when I wanted to return to Wal-Mart I found out she lied on me and said I was a no show no call for three days and therefore I could not return there anymore. I felt very betrayed and hurt. On some of the other things now going on with Wal-Mart is taking away layaway,I think was one of the most stupidist things ever,a lot of people denpend on that during christmas time and right before school starts. Things are so different now I really dont shop there anymore except to pick up a few things that they have that I cannot find at some of the other local stores. I hate going in there and waiting in the lines or looking for someone to come to there register to check you out and they dont care about how you feel or what you may have a complaint about,even the managers are just as bad. There was one lady came in to return something and they didnt want to give her her tax back on the item she was returning,she asked to speak to the manager and he wasnt any better,the lady left with her product and said she would take it somewhere else,she paid the taxes and she should have been able to get it back. ITS AWFUL!!

Wal-Mart put a store in my town less than 3 years ago. Today it's the filiest, nastiest, most disorganized mess around and an embarassment. I've been in that store about 4 times in the 3 years and it went down hill faster than an olympic skier on steroids and my dealings with the place have come to a screeching halt.

For some reason my husband who is a landscaper loves Wal-mart brand jeans for work. He's cheap and knows cheap when he sees it. I wouldn't buy a pair of undies in the place myself. So today we went to get him his precious jeans and I thought what the hell I'll buy some scoth tape while I'm here. Normally you couldn't give me anything from Wal-mart but being lazy I didn't feel like walking across the street to Office Max for it. A decision I would regret.

We get to the check out and the smelly disheveled barely sober looking individual that was there to "help" us threw the scotch tape at me and said "There ain't no price on this." He didn't offer to get a price, He didn't say "Oh lordy god there's upc label let me fix that for you!" Now normally I'm the type that would go running back to the aisle to get the damn price but this kid's attitude just literally stunk up the place so I said "That it ain't got no price on it isn't my problem - I don't work here - do you?" He said "Well you can buy it I guess but you'll have to wait 10 minutes while I get a price" in other words you ain't gettin your scotch tape anytime soon lady so f off already cause I gots to go out back for a smoke. I was shocked. He actually handed over a reason with a big ribbon tied around it to NOT EVER walk into a Wal-Mart again - Thank you God. I probably should have kissed him but the odor made me think better of it. So thankfully my husband was present for this little scene and finally realized that cheap ass jeans aren't worth the grief and we went to Target. Wal-Mart's merchandise is cheap for a reason - it's low quality. You get what you pay for.