Have They Changed Your Wal-Mart?

[piercedqt78 658]

Like I stated before, if you are unable to load the cart just ask, they will do it for you. If you have a bad back then ask for help, don't play games by paying slowly so they will give up and help you. I worked retail for a time and it's not an easy job, and can be made much harder by difficult customers. ~Mandy

[green 6]

I will pack my own cart and rush out of Wal-Mart in the future since I really don't want to impact a clerk's paycheck. Actually, the clerks usually help load the cart so they can get on to the next customer. About loading stuff, I have a bad back. My spine is pressing on my nerves and it hurts. But I can usually load the car, unless my back is really throwing a tantrum.

It's just that I'm old. I remember when someone always carried your groceries or whatever and put the paper sacks in your car. I remember when you pulled up to a gas station and an attendant not only filled up your car, but checked the oil, washed the windshield and vacuumed out the floorboards. And gas cost 39 cents a gallon! I remember going to department stores where elevator men in uniform took you to whatever floor you wanted. Then the clerks wrapped up your purchases in brown paper and string. Stores smelled good then. I suspect I was just spoiled as a child and should not mind all the wonderful advances we are experiencing today. Alternatively, maybe I'm senile and starting to reminisce rather than getting on with life.

I, too, dimly remember those days, Bitter, but that train has long since pulled out of the station and the trade-off has been much lower prices. To be honest with you, I doubt that anyone but the extremely privileged will ever experience that level of service again. Apart from our unwillingness to pay the ticket is the fact that the (largely hidden in Canada and the United States) caste system has finally truly dissolved; you are not going to find people who want to earn indifferent amounts of money doing work of this nature anymore.

At my local Walmart the clerks will bag your goods and hand you the bags and that's it. From that moment on you must deal with your own purchases. This doesn't really bother me. I am used dealing with my purchases and I understand that these workers are making mini-money.

In fact the Walmart treatment works out better than the situation at my two local discount grocery stores for there you must purchase plastic bags if you have forgotten to bring your own, pay, and then pack your own groceries. Customers can get very jammed up when they are behind someone who is slow moving and who has done a lot of shopping - the proverbial little old lady, let's say.

My husband and I shop together and we always bring our own luggage in order to avoid unwanted plastic bag build-up. For many years this used to be a gym bag but now many of the Canadian grocery chains are making a point of producing and selling permanent shopping bags; these are Water resistant, hold a whole lot of groceries, are very strong, and have a lifetime guarantee. Locally they are referred to as enviro-bags. And they are cheap - we paid 5 bucks for 5 of them! We use them instead of the gym bag now. They make great beach bags, too. (We took one to Mexico.) And the cat likes them. She will nest in one for hours.

I am under the impression that pretty well all the people who work in our Canadian grocery chains are unionised employees and so do get a fair wage and good benefits as well as job protection. But I have read that people who work as cashiers do have a tendency to end up with carpal tunnel syndrome. This is a crippling and very painful repetitive strain injury and is the result of the constant reaching and grabbing for items. Since reading about this my husband and I make a point of setting our groceries within easy reach of the cashier. This means that we place all our stuff, especially the heavy or awkward stuff, closest to her. I really don't know whether this helps but I like to think that it might.

You do raise an interesting point in your grumble, Bitter. Many of us are ageing and will have to deal with bad backs, lousy eyesight, etc and yet we will need to shop, get around, and live our lives, for we won't be sick, and we won't belong in homes - we'll just be slower, less agile, and not as strong. Bette Davis said: "Old age isn't for sissies."

[Lucy 0]

I absolutely refuse to shop at Wal-Mart. If they were the last store on earth I wouldn't shop there. They are a horrible company with terrible and sexist business practices and they alienate all of the local comapnies that are good for every community.

I wish Wal-Mart would renovate all of their stores by dynamite explosion.

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

I absolutely refuse to shop at Wal-Mart. If they were the last store on earth I wouldn't shop there. They are a horrible company with terrible and sexist business practices and they alienate all of the local comapnies that are good for every community.

I wish Wal-Mart would renovate all of their stores by dynamite explosion.

I completely and totally agree.

They cost taxpayers money in the name of saving us money and earning themselves huge profits. They hire illegals for one, they also pay people cents below the cutoff so people will qualify for welfare (working poor). WE are paying their benefits, not Walmart. Walmart doesn't have to pay insurance if they pay them low enough wages that they qualify for welfare. They cut out Mom and Pop businesses so they go belly up and we are left paying their employees insurance costs. They don't promote according to ability but gender instead, they treat customers like a herd of cattle, the aisles are too narrow, the employees are overworked... the list goes on.

Their motto *should* be: Come work for Walmart and be on welfare for life. The taxpayers don't mind, they save a penny on each pair of shorts they buy.

I really hate that store.

[green 6]

Japan's domestic economy is run on mom and pop stores. Unemployment is extremely low and all goods, including such local brand names as Sony, Hitachi, Yamaha etc, are very expensive in Japan. This is why Japan has made it impossible for U.S. big box mass retail stores to gain a domestic foothold. Many American and Canadian business types complain bitterly about what they see as an unfairly protectionist attitude on the part of Japan. Of cource this is because they see the glowing successes which such companies as Sony, Fuji, Honda have achieved in the west and they figure that they are owed a crack at Japan. This theory might be described as the "tit for tat" school of economics and the argument does have a lot of merit.

The thing is that Japan has chosen to drive its internal economy on the mom & pop approach. This means that just about everyone will have the honour of having a role, a role which permits the family to honourably support themselves, in society. It also means that everyone pays through the snout for all their goods and services. Life is expensive in Japan. There are fewer rich people and there is less waste for this is not a lavish society. Your average middle class Japanese works harder, works longer hours, and lives in a much, much smaller crib than we who live in the States or Canada do.

At the same time there is far less disparity percentage-wise between the paycheck of a worker, his manager, and the CEO of a Japanese company.

I find myself writing about this in response to some of the above comments concerning Walmart and this company's ability to smother local economies.

[carolel 0]

I try to avoid Walmart at all cost....I'm thinking it might be the Anti-Christ. LOL

OMG!! I just told my husband that a few days ago. They're in control! What will we do when there's nowhere else to buy meds, food, fuel?

[blugini59 0]

I hate Walmart. Everytime I go there because it's on the way home I am reminded of my absolute distain for the smell of the place (it's only 3 months old), the rude people shopping and working there, the fact that no matter how large they build it, it is always overcrowded with only 3 registers open. Please bring back my farm stand, small hardware store, family owned pet shop, and all the other mom and pop places who cared about the customer spending their $. To Walmart my few dollars means nothing. That's why they're products suck and they have no customer service.

[piercedqt78 658]

In my area you are all describing Target. My local Wal-mart, while not the greatest place in the world, employees mostly women (including the managers) is clean, has good prices, and is reasonable about returns. My local target and k-mart will only do a return (or even exchange) with a reciept. My daughter got an outfit for her birthday that was target brand she needed a larger size, I had to call the giver and get the reciept to get the larger size. If that had been wal-mart it would have taken 5 minutes. I miss the old K-mart, they were the best. ~Mandy

[Wheetsin 714]

Ugh, I hate Walmart. I've found that sometimes it's a necessary evil in that it's the only "24 hour service!" place within 20 minutes that sells things you sometimes need without warning (outside of what the gas station would carry).

I enjoy Target. Their Archer Farms home brand (grocery side) has some great choices, especially in Ethnic selections. Just don't wear any combination of khaki and red when you shop there.

[Pam in MI 0]

8 or 10 years ago I was thrilled that Walmart opened in my area. There were hardly any stores here. I live in the boonies if you haven't already figured that out. Now I HATE going there. Within a year after opening, the place went totally down hill - dirty, unfriendly cashiers, but I kept going back because of the low prices. Now that gas has gone up so much and I am back to working fulltime after staying home with my kids, I just go to the much nicer grocery store closeby - Martin's. They actually bag my groceries and ask if I want help out to my car. In fact, if there isn't a bagger I will start to bag my own stuff and often someone comes rushing over to bag for me! Must be the charm of small town Michigan! I only go to WalMart if I have to and then I usually go to the one in Indiana near South Bend where it's clean and the employees are helpful. Oh - the WalMart here has a Subway as you walk in - better than McD's, huh? Bitter - I miss paper bags, how about you?

[bitteroldhag 0]

We have a grocery store that uses paper bags for the heavy stuff. I love it. They are so useful. They use plastic for drippy stuff and whatever the bag people can use them for without getting an earful from the customers. But I think I told you all about visiting Colorado where they not only used paper bags, but the guy took my groceries to my car!!! I almost fainted. In fact, he had this big cart which he put the bags in, and I asked if I was supposed to take it to my car. That's when he informed me that he'd be taking my bags to the car. Be still my heart. I want to move to that town just to shop at that store.

About Walmart's cleanliness, I go along the aisles and pick up stuff people have knocked off of the shelves. I wonder how much money Walmart loses every year on stuff that people destroy. I have noticed that the other stores here don't have that problem. Apparently Walmart's attitude toward its customers makes the customers have a bad attitude toward Walmart. Or Walmart just attracts a lousier level of customers. I still shop there but I spend a fraction of what I used to spend. I only buy things I can't get anywhere else. I have discovered the Dollar store. They are great for cleaning supplies and stuff like that. I went to the Dollar Tree and bought 3 pairs of sunglasses for $3.00. I can't do that at Walmart. I destroy or lose sunglasses very quickly so cheap sunglasses are great. They also have superior gift wrapping. But our housekeeper (who recently quit, alas, sob) works at Walmart and she says she thinks the new practices have resulted in loss of business. They may be more efficient for the store, but customers are apparently voting with their feet.

[NanaRenan 0]

Hmmmm....either I'm blessed to live near a really great Wal-Mart or my personal standards are horribly low and I just don't realize it! :omg: LOL

28 years ago when I started keeping house, Wal-Marts were dinky-ish things you had to drive to really small towns to find. Then about 21 years ago, or so, I happened to live just a few miles from one of the first "SuperCenters" in the country -- it was called HyperMart. I guess I never got over the novelty of doing all my shopping in one location!!

All these years later, I still do the bulk of my shopping at Wal-Mart.

As to their treatment of employees, through the years I've known several people who work there and I haven't heard any worse complaints about them than any other retail store.

I do think the demise of independantly-owned businesses is a shame -- but Wal-Mart is only partly responsible. We'd have to lambaste Home Depot, Lowe's, Target, and a couple of dozen other corporations, too.

[Kat817 19]

I shop at Walmart regularly---but do it for my own convenience, and the money I can save. None of the other stores here will price match. I can sit down with my newspaper on Wednesday with the grocery ads, or Sunday with general sale ads, and if I find it on sale wherever, Walmart will match that price. That means to me, I can make a list, load up the kids (granddaughters aged 2 & 6), drive to one store, and do all my shopping. The cashiers here, vary, some fill a bag, and move it back to your shopping cart, others just let them pile up on the carousel. I too have worked retail---and the cashiers greeting, and attitude set mine. If she is pleasant, I am. If she acts like I am wasting her time....then I will! Where I live, there are help wanted signs EVERYWHERE!!! If they do not want to be there, they don't have to be---so I expect to be treated like a customer, insuring your employment! I hate store employees who try to run you over with freight loaded carts---when I worked retail, the customer come first, and you waited for them, not run them over! I expect to be treated that way still!

On the debit/credit card machine now in our local Walmart, it asks a question each time, usually it will be Was your Walmart store clean today? I don't think I have ever seen this Walmart clean!!!! Or it will ask "Did your cashier greet you today?" And I ALWAYS answer in honestly. Those machines are my biggest complaint, in stores lately. My Mom has arthritis, so she has begun using her debit card in place of the pain of writing a check. Well she is also over 70, and has trouble seeing what some of those machines ask. Some want your zip code, others want a yes or no if the amount is ok...they are all different, and some of the cashiers treat her horribly when she does not know how their particular machine works. I hang on to the receipt, and I cannot tell you how many managers I have called and complained about impatient, snotty cashiers being rude to my Mom! Some things I will put up with, but here we are complaining about changes, and to the senior citizens out there, the changes are even more dramatic and they deserve to be treated with respect! My Mom is sweet to everybody, way too much so---she tells them thank-you and they ignore her!!!

In high school I cashiered at K Mart, and each of our registers had a sticker across the cash drawer that had TYFSAKM on it---to remind us to say to EVERY customer...Thank You For Shopping At K Mart. If we didn't --- it was a write up! And I didn't make any more for the time than they do now----but a lot more was expected of me!

So....yes I shop Walmart, and I make them match every sale price I find that I need!!!! I wish I could both afford the time, energy and money to avoid them...but I can't!

My DH was putting LED lights on a trailer last week, and he hates shopping so he went to a local NAPA store and bought some they were $19.49 each. When I was in Walmart I bought him some for $6.57. They were both made in China....which one would you have taken back? We needed 8 of them, you do the math!!! We shop there because it is affordable.

Kat

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

...and they have these neat little buttons that you press and someone comes to help you within 60 seconds!!!

Is THAT what those buttons are for?

I like Target too, it's a fav.

[green 6]

Sadly for us, we don't have Target in Canada. My mum once came home from a visit to my brother who lives in Virginia and she had been to a Target. She absolutely loved the store and spent quite a bit of time raving about it.

"You must visit your brother and see the Target store," she said.

I have only been to 2 Canadian Walmart stores but both of them were clean and well-tended. We Canadians are an orderly and docile (boring) bunch and tend to put things back where we found them. We also tend to pick up after those individuals who are slobs and knock merchandise onto the floor and then leave it there.

The thing that used to freak me out about Walmart when it first opened locally was those greeters. In my city we are not used to aggressively cheerful people accosting you unless these are Mormon missionaries. It seems, however, that Walmart has now tapped into local cultural norm. The new greeters hang around and ignore you unless you ask them a question or the alarm goes off when you are in the process of leaving the store. They are not so much greeters as enforcers. Everyone here much prefers the new approach.