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Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

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Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#271

Post by taurath »

Scoundreller wrote: post #222
raverbashing wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Self-checkout? Best invention of the 2000's

Sorta. Took them a while to turn it off criminal mode. Wasn’t long ago you had to bag an item before you could scan the next. But I have more than 1 hand. Sometimes multiple people. French ones still run in criminal mode.

They’re in criminal mode in the US depending on the store location. 2 Safeway’s about a 10 minute drive from each other have opposite policies, also the more poor the area the less likely to have self checkout at all

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#272

Post by taurath »

dylan604 wrote: post #225
dmfb wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rules against gathering. in a group are not just weird. It’s a blatant anti-union mechanism.

As a customer visiting any store (not just Walmart), it is rather frustrating to need assistance from an employee but unable to find one until you find a gaggle of them all "hanging out". I have no idea what they are doing. They could be talking about unions, they could be talking about the weather, or they could all have just completed assiting the movement of a heavy item require 4 "teammates". Either way, it is no…

Having worked retail stores, you really underestimate how little time you have as any individual to get your shit done and also help customers. That gaggle may be them deciding how to make the store look right with only 4 people when normally it’d take 8.

If you want good customer service go somewhere they dont cut corners on staffing while paying the heroes that have to do 3 people’s jobs minimum wage.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#273

Post by grogenaut »

leesalminen wrote: post #148
MiddleEndian wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>They've obviously carefully tuned their check out staffing so that the lines are always long. This is such a constant that it has to be intentional, and they're doing a good job of it. Macy's has a similarly annoying policy. They deliberately keeping their cash registers unmanned, which they apparently tell their employees is to "avoid intimidating customers" so you have to stand around waiting or seek out an employ…

Once, as a child, I grabbed the phone behind the counter, hit the PA button, and requested a cashier at our section. It worked! Probably wouldn’t go over so well as an adult, though.

I've done this as an adult. They got mad but I just ignored it and said "are you going to check me out" and they did.

Tangentially related. In college or football team would go to old country buffet. Which has a microphone in the wall to order more from the kitchen for the staff. One of our smart ass players went up and said "we need more fried chicken". The manager caught him and scolded him. Then looked at the buffet and said "make that two orders of fried chicken" in the mic.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#274

Post by darkscape »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #217
Spooky23 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walmart has some weird cultural issues that make store operations hard to adapt. It’s a pretty miserable place to work. They hire anyone, turn them out quickly, and have weird work rules for things like gathering in a group. Target’s pickup operation is superior in every dimension. They made the decision to put it front and center, and their employees seem happier. It takes The other issue they have is that their log…

I'd just like them to observe Walton's imposed limit of no more than two customers in line. I'm getting really fed up with retailers that won't staff their registers. And no, self checkout is a slap in the face where you exit the store as a presumed criminal after providing free labor. It's like they want me to buy from Amazon.

Free labor - not with the portable scanner type of self-checkout. You put stuff directly in your bag instead of the cart, so no extra effort is necessary. Although tbh, even the scale-type machines are quicker to use than waiting in line. They do perform randomized checks, but very rarely and only 3 items ie 1-2 minutes total delay.

Plus with contactless payment my shopping is an essentially frictionless walk through the store building.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#275

Post by cwilkes »

kortilla wrote: post #255
Red_Leaves_Flyy wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The staff are miserable because the pay is shit, and they’re likely collecting or eligible for welfare. The customers treat them like shit. The shit that happens in and around Walmart’s is soul destroying. If Walmart started treating their staff like Costco we’d see a lot happier staff, and pay less taxes on entitlements.

> If Walmart started treating their staff like Costco If Walmart paid their staff like Costco their prices would be high like Costco’s and there would be little reason for them to exist anymore. For people on a budget, Costco’s prices are terrible on many basic items. The “bulk prices” in many categories (e.g. dairy) are at best the same price per unit as Walmart with the huge purchase requirement. Costco is for midd…

“If Walmart paid their staff ... little reason for them to exist”

I would believe that if the Waltons weren’t one of (the?) richest families in the world. They can afford to pay more but don’t as the US taxpayer is making up the difference in welfare.

Privatize the profit, socialize the cost.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#276

Post by taurath »

cbozeman wrote: post #200
mc32 wrote: post #2

I think Wal*Mart has an image problem. I’ve gone into their stores. Their stock assortment isn’t bad compared to the competition. In fact, aside from Whole Foods on the organic/bio side of things, they measure up very well and better compared to their competition. They are more of a hypermart where you can do one stop shopping ala Carrefour. The issues I see are: very drab color palette. Working class shoppers. Sure,…

> Working class shoppers. Almost everyone in America is "working class". America no longer has a leisure class to speak of, if we ever had one. Looking at the most recent data - I forget where I saw it - but the wealthiest Americans also put in the most hours at work. I know a lot of people have brainwashed themselves into thinking they're something they're not, but they're all wrong. If you have to go to work in the…

/someone/ owns the boats in the marina. Usually someone very old for whom the economy worked out well for them. Bought a house worth a million dollars now on a near minimum wage job.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#277

Post by m-ee »

taurath wrote: post #271
Scoundreller wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorta. Took them a while to turn it off criminal mode. Wasn’t long ago you had to bag an item before you could scan the next. But I have more than 1 hand. Sometimes multiple people. French ones still run in criminal mode.

They’re in criminal mode in the US depending on the store location. 2 Safeway’s about a 10 minute drive from each other have opposite policies, also the more poor the area the less likely to have self checkout at all

The checkout situation alone has made it so I haven’t gone to my local Safeway in almost two years except to use the DMV registration machine. The self checkout is almost unusable, and ever since the private equity buyout years ago I’ve never seen more than two normal registers open at once.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#278

Post by kortilla »

cwilkes wrote: post #275
kortilla wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If Walmart started treating their staff like Costco If Walmart paid their staff like Costco their prices would be high like Costco’s and there would be little reason for them to exist anymore. For people on a budget, Costco’s prices are terrible on many basic items. The “bulk prices” in many categories (e.g. dairy) are at best the same price per unit as Walmart with the huge purchase requirement. Costco is for midd…

“If Walmart paid their staff ... little reason for them to exist” I would believe that if the Waltons weren’t one of (the?) richest families in the world. They can afford to pay more but don’t as the US taxpayer is making up the difference in welfare. Privatize the profit, socialize the cost.

“There exists people who got rich” does not make a model suddenly sustainable.

Estimated Walton family wealth is $250 bill. Walmart employs 2.2 million people. Pay them all $10k more per year and the Walton wealth would be gone after a decade (ignoring the fact that losing money for years in a row would eliminate the Walton wealth much faster due to stock declines).

Walmart’s model is just not sustainable at Costco level pay.

> They can afford to pay more but don’t as the US taxpayer is making up the difference in welfare.

If you don’t like that people can get welfare on minimum wage, either eliminate welfare at that wage level or raise the minimum wage until people who make minimum wage don’t qualify.

> Privatize the profit, socialize the cost.

It is the government who decides to pay welfare at these levels. If you want to ban people from making money at those hourly rates, go ahead. But this is not a case of “socialize the cost” because being a Walmart employee making $25k + welfare is still better than being unemployed and just getting welfare.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#279

Post by handrous »

protomyth wrote: post #100
jcims wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Broke people need to shop too.

GP probably should avoid shopping on the 1st in the US too. Be a shame to run into those EBT people. They hold up the line with coupons also. I'm still debating the merits of growing up on a Rez versus how I see my fellow humans.

Only three of my seven observations are about the shoppers. Only one of those three isn't a choice: seeming sad, at a much higher rate than at other stores—shit, even Dollar General shoppers don't look as down as Wal-Mart shoppers, though, given the rest of my list, maybe they just look sad because they're at Wal-Mart. Dollar General's fun (for me, dunno about anyone else who's there). Wal-Mart is... exhausting.

Only time I see that much concentrated sadness in a store, that consistently, is when I find myself in a dying-rural-town grocery store that looks like it time-travelled from 1990. I don't remember whether those were sad places when I was growing up, mostly in those same sorts of dying rural towns. Wal-Mart wasn't, and their store function, service, cleanliness, and design all improved constantly through about '05, then abruptly reversed course and haven't stopped going downhill. Dunno what happened. Maybe Amazon happened, though that doesn't explain some of their oddly ill-looking paint color choices from the last couple re-designs.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#280

Post by taurath »

m-ee wrote: post #277
taurath wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re in criminal mode in the US depending on the store location. 2 Safeway’s about a 10 minute drive from each other have opposite policies, also the more poor the area the less likely to have self checkout at all

The checkout situation alone has made it so I haven’t gone to my local Safeway in almost two years except to use the DMV registration machine. The self checkout is almost unusable, and ever since the private equity buyout years ago I’ve never seen more than two normal registers open at once.

Private equity is synonymous with “customers and employees will suffer” in my mind.

I get really miffed at how our system of economics seems set up to destroy rather than promote the common good.

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