Wal*Mart Discussion Thread: Store Questions
 

If anybody here on the site has a job in retail, i've got a question for you about something that really bugs me.

Why are the stores set up for like 50 register lanes, but at any given time, no more than 3 or 4 are opened?

I notice it in Walmart the most, especially the one around here. Even during the day on Saturday, there is no more than 5 open at a time. All of the lines are completley full, and nobody comes up from the back to open a new one. I'm talking about a line of at least 10 to 20 people per register.

Martins in Stephens City is the same way, but at least they have the self-checkouts. Whats the point of building the store with 50 lanes when they know that they will never, ever, have a person at all of them.

Could the economy have something to do with it? Meaning they dont have the money to pay more workers?? I saw yesterday that the 7-11 down here now has only 1 person working at a time....

Re: Serious Question to anyone who works in retail
 

The economy probably has something to do with it. Wal-mart has always seemed bad to me when it comes to long lines and not enough cashiers on hand. It's one of the reasons I avoid the place at all costs.

Re: Serious Question to anyone who works in retail
 

is there anybody on the board who works at walmart or anything that could give an official answer??

I mean the biggest question is why build them with all those registers when they never have the intention to use them...

Re: Serious Question to anyone who works in retail
 

[quote=Mattyk;656474]The economy probably has something to do with it. Wal-mart has always seemed bad to me when it comes to long lines and not enough cashiers on hand. It's one of the reasons I avoid the place at all costs.[/quote]


Agreed! I hate that place, when I do have to go I try to check out in lawn and garden, I even park over on that side.

From my experiences Target does a good job of calling in reinforcements when the lines get long.

I always say this about the self check out lines at the grocery store. "The self checkout line is only as fast as the IQ of the person in front of you."

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[quote=SolidSnake84;656475]is there anybody on the board who works at walmart or anything that could give an official answer??

I mean the biggest question is why build them with all those registers when they never have the intention to use them...[/quote]


I don't work in retail but I have an understanding of that type of business model.

My thought is they build as many as possible for that extreme situation. Better to have them then not, they are probably fairly cheap to put in. Also, it is cheaper to build the station then man the station.

I bet on Black Friday at Wal-mart most if not all are manned.

Plus I bet they are used as a security measure as well, limits the amount of open space in front of the store to get out.

Re: Serious Question to anyone who works in retail
 

[quote=mredskins;656479]
I bet on Black Friday at Wal-mart most if not all are manned.

[/quote]

While searching through a website called ihatewalmart.com (it is for walmart employees), this was proven false. There was a poster who specifically said that their store in Pennsylvania never opened all of the registers, and according to the employee, this was done on black friday to make the store look busier than it really was.

Re: Serious Question to anyone who works in retail
 

Thank god for online shopping. I probably do 90% of my shopping that way.

Re: Serious Question to anyone who works in retail
 

OK i've spent the last few minutes browsing different forums and websites and i've came to some conclusions that are all backed up by the statements of employees and a few anyonymous managers..

#1) Walmart is attempting to gradually introduce more self-checkout lanes in order to bypass the need for extra human workers.
[B]ihatewalmart.com says that Walmart has 1 worker monitoring 8 self-checkout stations, so walmart could significantly reduce human workforce to 2 humans overseeing 16 lanes, which is probably the most open lines walmart has had for some time. This however will backfire because your average person is too dumb to operate one.[/B]

#2) Walmart service/store appearance is directly related to the economic situation/location of where the store is in relation to its customer base.
[B]Old Winchester, VA Walmart: Decrepit old building, only painted cinderblock walls, worn down/torn interior tiling on floors. No self checkout lanes. Store is located in slum/run down area of town. Store always understaffed badly (Poverty level of customers)[/B]


[B]New Walmart on Route 50(Winchester, VA): Attractive stucco cielings, vinyl siding outside, terra cotta roof, and fully paved parking lot. Location is in a country, rural setting, so average customer base is probably upper-middle class. Service here is noticably better and there are more workers.[/B]

The bottom line is i think that Walmart figures the poor people are used to being treated like crap, so they give the poor stores nothing, while they take care of the richer areas.....

a manager on walmartsucks.org states that their unspoken motto is "Do more with Less". As Walmart continues to be the retail leader, they can get away with providing worse service and laying off human jobs, since they realize that customers aren't going to shop somewhere else...

Re: Serious Question to anyone who works in retail
 

Solid Snake you should watch this DVD:

[url=http://www.walmartmovie.com/]WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price[/url]


Then come back here and express your thoughts, if you think you hate them now LOL watch the above.

Re: Serious Question to anyone who works in retail
 

[quote=mredskins;656499]Solid Snake you should watch this DVD:

[url=http://www.walmartmovie.com/]WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price[/url]


Then come back here and express your thoughts, if you think you hate them now LOL watch the above.[/quote]

They watched this video in the marketing classes when i was a sophomore in college. I am watching excerpts from it now.

Totally blown away that 80% of the walmart workforce is considered below the poverty level going by their salary alone.

A guy just said that if they only raised the price of every item by .10 cents, they could afford to pay their store workers 10$ an hour...

Watching this now makes me wonder why/how the government has not been involved yet....

Re: Serious Question to anyone who works in retail
 

[quote=SolidSnake84;656501]They watched this video in the marketing classes when i was a sophomore in college. I am watching excerpts from it now.

Totally blown away that 80% of the walmart workforce is considered below the poverty level going by their salary alone.

[B]A guy just said that if they only raised the price of every item by .10 cents[/B], they could afford to pay their store workers 10$ an hour...

Watching this now makes me wonder why/how the government has not been involved yet....[/quote]

To be fair, Walmart typically underprices competition by 1 to 3 cents for marketing purposes - lowest price etc. so if they raise prices by 10 cents they will have successfully undercut their main selling point and reduce their customer base. The logic on that thought sounds purely governmental, ie ignore real world consequences and force an action that sounds good to the masses.

I am fairly certain Target and Kmart would love to see Wal-mart make that pledge!

Yes I do shop at Wal-mart, I do like the self checkout lines, and I can be patient in line when at a popular market place. If I am in a rush, I probably would go to a slightly more expensive store and expect their lines to be shorter.

I don't work in retail, but I do know how expensive even part time workers can be on a company's bottomline.

Re: Serious Question to anyone who works in retail
 

I think you're missing my point. They can still be the #1 leader in retail and can afford to pay their employees more than minimum wage. They dont have to be shady with their employee health care, or lack therof.

Target is just as busy and they at least give people 8.25 an hour. I think Target could overtake WM if they had the # of locations.

I've read Sam Walton's book before. He pulls no punches. He was all about coming in, driving the "mom and pop" places out of business, and beginning his monopoly. With that said, he also beleived in treating his workers better..

Re: Serious Question to anyone who works in retail
 

you are missing my point, you said they could pay better if they just increased their price 10 cents. But increasing their price by 10 cents would incredibly reduce their customer base, because their base is the bargain hunter/lowest price customers. Target has fairly loyal customers that would shop there even if they are not the lowest on every item, Wal-mart does not have that type of market. Wal-mart markets two things, convenience and low price. If you take away low price, suddenly BigK's or Super Targets look mightily convenient.

Re: Serious Question to anyone who works in retail
 

Ok CRedskins...i get what you are saying.

But asking you honestly, do you think the average person would care if it went up 10 cents? I would not. I do not shop there much, but they would still have that "convienience" factor...its still a one stop shop, etc...

Re: Serious Question to anyone who works in retail
 

My ex wife would!
as for me, maybe not, but I think a huge base of theirs would. Especially if everything was more. I don't think the advertisement " we charge more so our employees are paid better" would make as much of an impact to budget shoppers as a target ad "every item lower than WalMart" would.

But all of this is off from your question. I think mredskins nailed it with his answer: better to have the capacity and not use it, and it's better than having a wide open area right in the front of the store.

Re: Serious Question to anyone who works in retail
 

But at least we all agree that Walmart Sucks

Re: Serious Question to anyone who works in retail
 

[quote=SolidSnake84;656529]But at least we all agree that Walmart Sucks[/quote]


yup!

And let them keep their low prices, it drives al lthe crazies to them and stores like Target have the normal folks.

Price for price on most things Wal MArt and Target are fairly close. Wal MArt just tends to have a larger selection in auto, outdoor stuff, camping, etc...

Re: Serious Question to anyone who works in retail
 

You can have too many counters but you can't have too few. The Mob will revolt if they can't buy crap in timely manner during the holidays.

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Well at least we are "civilized". There was a guy killed at black friday this year, he was 6 foot 5 and like 250, he was a walmart worker and he was trying to protect a pregnant lady from a violent crowd...they killed him for it...seriously look it up

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[quote=SolidSnake84;656529]But at least we all agree that Walmart Sucks[/quote]

I despise WalMart. Living right near the DC-MD line, I would have to travel about 20 miles to get to nearest one anyway, so I never go. When I lived in Florida I did occasionally shop there. They do have good prices on toiletries. In general that place is just gross as hell.

Folks like this keep me away from Walmart:

[url=http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/]People of Walmart: a collection of all the creatures that grace us with their presence at Walmart, America's favorite store.[/url]

Re: Serious Question to anyone who works in retail
 

^ I love that site. A daily stop for me on the tubes.

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[quote=mredskins;656539]yup!

And let them keep their low prices, it drives al lthe crazies to them and stores like Target have the normal folks.

Price for price on most things Wal MArt and Target are fairly close. Wal MArt just tends to have a larger selection in auto, outdoor stuff, camping, etc...[/quote]

This is something my wife and I talk about all the time... prices may be higher other places, but I will gladly pay that premium not to be surrounded with the walmart crowd...

Re: Serious Question to anyone who works in retail
 

[quote=SolidSnake84;656517]I think you're missing my point. They can still be the #1 leader in retail and can afford to pay their employees more than minimum wage. They dont have to be shady with their employee health care, or lack therof.

Target is just as busy and they at least give people 8.25 an hour. I think Target could overtake WM if they had the # of locations.

I've read Sam Walton's book before. He pulls no punches. He was all about coming in, driving the "mom and pop" places out of business, and beginning his monopoly. With that said, he also beleived in treating his workers better..[/quote]
Well maybe they are not shady with wanting to provide health care.
[url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124640564559176649.html]Wal-Mart Backs Drive to Make Companies Pay for Health Coverage - WSJ.com[/url]

Re: Serious Question to anyone who works in retail
 

[quote=SolidSnake84;656473]If anybody here on the site has a job in retail, i've got a question for you about something that really bugs me.

Why are the stores set up for like 50 register lanes, but at any given time, no more than 3 or 4 are opened?

I notice it in Walmart the most, especially the one around here. Even during the day on Saturday, there is no more than 5 open at a time. All of the lines are completley full, and nobody comes up from the back to open a new one. I'm talking about a line of at least 10 to 20 people per register.

Martins in Stephens City is the same way, but at least they have the self-checkouts. Whats the point of building the store with 50 lanes when they know that they will never, ever, have a person at all of them.

Could the economy have something to do with it? Meaning they dont have the money to pay more workers?? I saw yesterday that the 7-11 down here now has only 1 person working at a time....[/quote]

Labor percentages are low, especially in these times, and the need to replenish stock and do other floor work is very high. I've worked retail and there's ALWAYS something to do... if someone is taking downtime they're just avoiding doing something. The stores are built in order to accomodate max flow at busy times such as holidays and other seasonal times (back to school/college), etc.

It really depends how cheap the company as a whole is. They figure once you're in line you're going to buy something so they'd rather have the workers elsewhere doing what they deem is more productive. This is happening more and more. I worked for Bed Bath and Beyond for a few years and if checking out people in our line (if you worked as a cashier) would take longer than it took to get another worker up there, you called for backup. About a year and a half ago they changed the way that stores were graded on service and mystery shops and it was higher penalized to have less people on the floor than to have a line at the registers, so the backup calmed down a lot. Not to mention they were very cheap and typically only had 4-5 people there at a time in the evening so if you had 2 other people up there... you only had 1 other person in the store to do everything... in a 40k square foot store. Not to mention stores like that love to constantly move stuff around from spot to spot so you basically can have 1 or 2 people moving a large fixture's contents to another spot.. and what was in the new spot elsewhere, etc... so you've essentially wasted 20 mins to several hours to literally move things 15 feet by the time that you've done the project, done backup, helped customers, etc.

I don't mind lines... I HATE when workers aren't willing to help and don't know their products. I'll gladly spend more time in line if the store has knowledgeable and friendly people.. unfortunately you don't find that many places.

I've worked retail since I was 16 and have done management since I was 19, 26 now. It's a crazy business.

Re: Serious Question to anyone who works in retail
 

[quote=SolidSnake84;656517]I think you're missing my point. They can still be the #1 leader in retail and can afford to pay their employees more than minimum wage. They dont have to be shady with their employee health care, or lack therof.

Target is just as busy and they at least give people 8.25 an hour. I think Target could overtake WM if they had the # of locations.

I've read Sam Walton's book before. He pulls no punches. He was all about coming in, driving the "mom and pop" places out of business, and beginning his monopoly. With that said, he also beleived in treating his workers better..[/quote]
most retail operations keep their workers under the state's overtime hours in order to not have to offer benefits, etc.. this is far from being exclusive to walmart

another company that I worked for, I was a manager working 40-50 hours a week, sometimes more.. and I was still listed as part time, which is actually criminal.. when I left I printed out a copy of my timesheets, etc.. I had only gone under 40 hours in the first 3 weeks that I was there.. I told them to either give me backpay in sick days and vacation time or it was going to the labor board, I got it.. ironically enough I ended up back there after 5 months with a promotion, 45pct pay raise, full benefits options from day 1, etc

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[quote=SolidSnake84;656545]Well at least we are "civilized". There was a guy killed at black friday this year, he was 6 foot 5 and like 250, he was a walmart worker and he was trying to protect a pregnant lady from a violent crowd...they killed him for it...seriously look it up[/quote]
He was actually trampled at the initial surge of workers rushing the doors at a Long Island location. Several other injuries occurred including that of a pregnant lady, but he wasn't killed because he was protecting somebody.

People are crazy.. they were pushing the doors in and broke them to get in.. workers had actually formed a barricade and that's how several of them got trampled. I never did hear if they were ordered to form the barricade but that seems like a likely scenario.

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[quote=SolidSnake84;656501]They watched this video in the marketing classes when i was a sophomore in college. I am watching excerpts from it now.

[B]Totally blown away that 80% of the walmart workforce is considered below the poverty level going by their salary alone.[/B]

A guy just said that if they only raised the price of every item by .10 cents, they could afford to pay their store workers 10$ an hour...

Watching this now makes me wonder why/how the government has not been involved yet....[/quote]

I used to subscribe to Business Week. One of the most memorable articles was about the retail sector, with a lot of focus on Walmart. That stat of 80% is pretty much in line w/ the sector, about 3/4 of all retail employees earn below the poverty line, and that was 3 yrs ago so it's sure to be higher today. Anyway the gist of the article was that more and more of the workforce is retail and, according to the best stats available at the time, about 1/3 of the total workforce earns at or below the poverty level.

What's crazy is how freakin poor you have to be to fall under the line. I think a family of 4 has to have less than $31k household income to be under the line. That's insane. My wife and I had a couple years of making only around $50k between us and it was paycheck to paycheck.

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[quote=tryfuhl;656786]He was actually trampled at the initial surge of workers rushing the doors at a Long Island location. Several other injuries occurred including that of a pregnant lady, but he wasn't killed because he was protecting somebody.

People are crazy.. they were pushing the doors in and broke them to get in.. workers had actually formed a barricade and that's how several of them got trampled. I never did hear if they were ordered to form the barricade but that seems like a likely scenario.[/quote]

I read other reports that the mob became angry when the man tried to shield the lady, but anyway, having workers to try and form a barricade without any protective equipment or training was crazy.

In 2005, i was still in the military and a few guys from my guard unit was brought in to help the local police provide crowd control/security for a large retail store near Crepastown MD, that was cleverly opening on black friday for the first time. They were very professional....water filled barricades, Police in protective clothing, etc. They were prepared for a crowd riot/unruly situation.

The point is that is different than trying to have a couple untrained workers trying to hold back a violent mob of 300+ people could only end in disaster. Stores need to be more prepared. The water barricades easily installed, could be taken down quickly, and the police made sure that if the mob got violent, they were easily dispersed...

Still though, nobody seems to mind that we as a society, have no problem killing one another on black friday in order to get that last "sale item"...

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[quote=mredskins;656539]yup!

And let them keep their low prices, it drives al lthe crazies to them and stores like Target have the normal folks.

Price for price on most things Wal MArt and Target are fairly close. Wal MArt just tends to have a larger selection in auto, outdoor stuff, camping, etc...[/quote]

Target and every grocery store does the same thing...having one or two lanes of the 20 registers open.

I do try to avoid WAL*MART entirely when possible, but it's more due to the low-class customers and employees (and Spanish) that seems to congregate there.

Target's customer service and customer base are much more tolerable to be around and I'd gladly pay a little more to avoid being in line behind a 300-pound woman simultaneously beating her kids and yelling on a cellphone in Spanish about her baby's daddies and paying with my tax money. Was that a bit harsh? :silly:

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It seems the general consensus is that the store builds the registers with no intention to ever staff them.

There for sure isnt enough employees to fill 20 registers. So i think its stupid...save the money, put in the 4 or so registers that they actually use, and pass the savings down to the consumers.....

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Do they possibly use them for Christmas sales? That's the reasoning for the massive, unused parking lots too.

I agree, spend LESS on registers, MORE on training and better employees to keep the lines moving!

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Now i dont know about everywhere, but i can tell you that 90% of the time i drive by the Walmart here to go to Home Depot, the parking lot is usually 70-80% full...

Still think its asinine for the stores to have all those registers and never have intentions to use them. A friend yesterday told me that he counted 35 registers at the old Winchester, VA Walmart. Some of them have probably never been used at any point in time....

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As someone already pointed out it's probably more for the cosmetic look of things up front and to control the flow of people out of the store.

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Well one thing i didnt know, i was talking to a guy on facebook chat this morning, and he said that his local walmart has now only started opening 1 set of sliding doors, he says he's not sure why...maybe that has to do with crowd control too...

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Are you obsessed with Wal-mart?

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[quote=Mattyk;656944]Are you obsessed with Wal-mart?[/quote]

Really, not sure what he is getting at with all this Wall Mart stuff. Maybe it was early in the morning so they only had one door open or maybe they have had theft issues so they are trying to keep a better watch on who is coming and going. I only will go to Wall Mart early in the morning before 9am. Any time after that the place is a mad house and I hat waiting in lines.

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I am sure they save a lot of money keeping less employees, as they are also paying insurance benefits, etc. per person based on their status.

However, I want to point out that what you are seeing at your Walmarts isnt always true. The Walmart by my house, has 7-10 registers open at a time, if not more. And that is normally, on weekends almost all registers are open.

Re: Serious Question to anyone who works in retail
 

[quote=hooskins;656949]I am sure they save a lot of money keeping less employees, as they are also paying insurance benefits, etc. per person based on their status.

However, I want to point out that what you are seeing at your Walmarts isnt always true. The Walmart by my house, has 7-10 registers open at a time, if not more. And that is normally, on weekends almost all registers are open.[/quote]

You live in NOVA which is a mad house and they can support that kind of work force, Solid Snake lives in East Butt Fawk, Va where they don't have the same volume of folks.

I can't believe how this thread has continued to grow!

I just keep coming back to see Solids frustration.

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No guys, i'm not obsessed with walmart. I can poke fun at myself for this thread.

It was an issue that kind of grinded my gears, and i wanted to know if anybody had like an "official" reason for why they do it. It is just my luck i guess, because i went to Sheetz on my lunch break, and lo and behold there was only 1 person working...i couldnt make this up if i tried.

I guess with all the walmart talk, i kind of got obsessed. Being honest with you, i think i really hate them. But anyway, thanks to everyone for responding

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[quote=SolidSnake84;656974]No guys, i'm not obsessed with walmart. I can poke fun at myself for this thread.

It was an issue that kind of grinded my gears, and i wanted to know if anybody had like an "official" reason for why they do it. It is just my luck i guess, because i went to Sheetz on my lunch break, and lo and behold there was only 1 person working...i couldnt make this up if i tried.

I guess with all the walmart talk, i kind of got obsessed. Being honest with you, i think i really hate them. But anyway, thanks to everyone for responding[/quote]

lol it's all good, just bustin' your chops

I think everyone has a "I hate Wal-Mart" story