14 Facts About Wal-Mart That Will Blow Your Mind

[Carson Dyle]

(which is one of the things that Walmart has been noted doing nationwide is cutting back on employees and letting shelves go empty).

The Walmart Supercenter that I usually go to is so busy that it's almost physically impossible to keep the grocery shelves stocked around the clock. To do so would take so many employees and require moving so much product that they would clog every aisle with pallets during the busiest times of day. They do stock around the clock, but they have to limit the numbers doing so during the daytime.

I've been there at 11PM and most of the shelves are decimated and aisles are filled with boxes and people stocking. I've also been there at 7AM and the shelves are full again. Try shopping at 7PM (or even 2PM on a weekend) and many things will be out again.

None of the other nearby grocery stores are faced with the same dilemma. They stock a few empty items and fill in low stock once a day.

 

[Engineer]

The Walmart Supercenter that I usually go to is so busy that it's almost physically impossible to keep the grocery shelves stocked around the clock. To do so would take so many employees and require moving so much product that they would clog every aisle with pallets during the busiest times of day. They do stock around the clock, but they have to limit the numbers doing so during the daytime.

I've been there at 11PM and most of the shelves are decimated and aisles are filled with boxes and people stocking. I've also been there at 7AM and the shelves are full again. Try shopping at 7PM (or even 2PM on a weekend) and many things will be out again.

None of the other nearby grocery stores are faced with the same dilemma. They stock a few empty items and fill in low stock once a day.

And that may well be the case at the one you shop at but regardless, cutting 120,000 people (10% of the workforce) while opening 500 more stores means something is left out...

Walmart started aggressively cutting staff during the recession. Over the past five years, its total American workforce dropped by 120,000, even as the company opened more than 500 new U.S. stores. The result is longer check-out lines, backlogged inventory, and poor customer service

 

[squarecut1]

We all know customer service has gone down everywhere but Walmart is in a league of its own.

Any time you have any interaction with any employee there, they act like you have greatly inconvenienced them and they are doing a great favor to you by putting up with you.

 

[Sonikku]

I'm sure if you had to fill the quotas they're now expected to pull off to offset the extreme shortfall in positions they're replacing you too would be pretty cranky hitting a delay and/or dealing with overprivlidged customers with 1st world problems.

 

[squarecut1]

I'm sure if you had to fill the quotas they're now expected to pull off to offset the extreme shortfall in positions they're replacing you too would be pretty cranky hitting a delay and/or dealing with overprivlidged customers with 1st world problems.

I don't doubt that at all.

Personally as for myself, I have my faults, but have never acted like privileged or entitled. Always courteous and down to earth.

 

[QueBert]

We all know customer service has gone down everywhere but Walmart is in a league of its own.

Any time you have any interaction with any employee there, they act like you have greatly inconvenienced them and they are doing a great favor to you by putting up with you.

At the one by me they seem to be about the same as people working at Target and anywhere else I go. They even have 2 paid positions for people to stand by the doors and greet people all day.

I would agree that Target might have slightly better customer service than Walmart, but they also have about a 10th of the employees so I can never find one to help me. Which sort of negates the whole being more helpful thing.

 

[Engineer]

We all know customer service has gone down everywhere but Walmart is in a league of its own.

Any time you have any interaction with any employee there, they act like you have greatly inconvenienced them and they are doing a great favor to you by putting up with you.

I would have to say that customer service in the local Kroger has actually went up, to the point it's almost annoying that every person asks you whether you have found what you need or not and if you need help? I know Kroger has tried to push this the last few years....but of course, at a cost (highest of the 4 major supermarket chains in a recent survey of prices. If you use coupons and sales, however, they can be quite competitive.

 

[Carson Dyle]

I would have to say that customer service in the local Kroger has actually went up, to the point it's almost annoying that every person asks you whether you have found what you need or not and if you need help? I know Kroger has tried to push this the last few years....but of course, at a cost (highest of the 4 major supermarket chains in a recent survey of prices. If you use coupons and sales, however, they can be quite competitive.

Funny, that's exactly what I get at the local Super Walmart. If I go there late at night when there's at least one stocker in each aisle of the grocery section, I'll be asked five or six times if I need help finding anything.

 

[zerocool84]

All the Walmarts near me are always so insanely busy no matter what time of the day I go. I just avoid it all together. I don't mind paying a little bit more to not have to deal with it.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I find Walmart has the best bananas, I don't know what the hell they do to them, and it's probably not good for me, but they are always better than the grocery store ones and last more than 2 days on the counter.

As for growing my own, is there a way to grow that in an area that is no more than 3 feet high? Only way to do it here would be indoors.

 

[Svnla]

Update op with new stuffs.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

I'm one of the lucky 10%. Closest walmart is 29 minutes away. Two targets and a costco within 10-15 minutes though...

15 minutes here bro.

Home Depot/Lowes is the same think. The neighboring town got Home Depot locked out. Everyone was happy (rich weekenders type town mixed with the typical group of people) except for the contractors that were all pissed. A bumper sticker went around town that said "For a small town, we sure have a lot of a-- holes". A lot of contractors had it on their trucks when this happened.

 

[squarecut1]

I find Walmart has the best bananas, I don't know what the hell they do to them, and it's probably not good for me, but they are always better than the grocery store ones and last more than 2 days on the counter.

.

Not the Walmarts here. I find costco's bananas the best

 

[squarecut1]

Walmart fires its US chief. Fifth straight quarter of declining sales. Foot traffic down too.

 

[dphantom]

nm

 

[KeithTalent]

um, that is item "2", 35 million shop at Wal-Mart.

Welcome to six weeks ago.

KT

 

[Svnla]

Walmart fires its US chief. Fifth straight quarter of declining sales. Foot traffic down too.

I saw that last night on ABC News Nightline. WM is trying new tricks. They invite US inventors with new ideas and try to buy/do business with them. Similar as "Sharks Tank" but the inventors have to do their pitches to WM buyers and no one else.

 

[squarecut1]

Many put up with all the other stuff at Walmart because of its price advantage.

It no longer has that advantage for the most part. Plus the other stuff has even got worse