I went to one of a few Walmarts in my area, this one in particular was a supercenter of sorts, really big and particularly well stocked after reopening after a protracted closure for a rebuild. Anyway the first few times I went there it was professionally run with a decent amount of qualified employees who were helpful and were clearly glad to be there. But when I went there last a day or two ago, it was horrible. No one answered the phone, not the department I wanted to talk to, nor anyone in customer services, none, nada. So I went to the store and stopped by customer service, there were four employees in customer service, doing pretty much nothing, including apparently not answering any phones. So I asked them if they had an item, and the lady looked it up. She said Walmart listed them (which I already knew), but didn't know if she had one in the store. I said can you look it up in your inventory system, she said no she couldn't do that. So she sent me to the department in question, that guy in the dept looked it up, and said yes they had it, but it was in a different department. So I went to that department and they didn't have it, though there was no one in that department that was capable of helping. So I just left the store. Afterward I called another Walmart, the customer service guy said they did have it, so I went there to the dept that had it, and the young man found it and sold it to me.

My point is that like a lot of chain stores, some are clearly better than others, and it's frustrating.

I'm not sure but it seems largely driven by the neighborhood, the level of clientele, and the related quality of the employees working at that location.

I also tried calling a very large Target store, no one answered. As in, no one, not in the department, not customer service, no operator.

So where is brick and mortar retailing heading ? I'm sure for privately held specialty retailers, things will probably remain well run. But for generalized box box retailers, it seems that if too many stores are like the fist Walmart store where I wasn't able to get the most basic thing done, which was to quickly spend a non-trivial amount of cash on an easily identified piece of electronic gear, then what the heck is the long term prospect for brick and mortar retail inn the US going forward ?

I like buying over the net, it has its advantages when it works, but if you need to buy from a brick and mortar and you walk in the door with a large amount of cash in hand, how the hell do they feel about staying in business ? It seems many just don't care if they do or don't. That doesn't make much sense to me.

What do you think about this situation that we've all been experiencing with big box brick and mortar retail for a number of years now? It's hard to tell where it's going.

It's the Gene pool they have to draw from.
I weep for my grandsons.

I related my latest Cabela’s visit on Tuesday in What’s Your Deal.

Between the lack of merchandise and the lackadaisical attitude of the staff this will probably be the next Sears/K Mart/Montgomery Wards.

And as their world comes crashing down around them management’s cry will be “I don’t understand it, we were doing so well a few years ago.”

From my observations, much of this can be attributed to employees finger-diddling their cell phones instead of working. I see it regularly. The most recent example being yesterday at the drive through window of McDonalds, where I stopped for a sausage biscuit and cup of coffee. The chick “working” the window was fooling with her phone while waiting for the sausage biscuit to meander its way to the register.

They have an app and it has that information. Seems to be accurate at my local store.
Even shows the location in the store.

Alot of the young people working retail don't seem to care about the quality of their output. Get fired in the morning have a new job that afternoon.

^^^^
Blueye… you are spot on. My lovely Mrs has been in management for Walmart for 35 yrs, she’s held many different management positions from single stores to having as many as 30 stores under her and now back to just a single store because of being home more. She said the exact same thing as you, they just don’t care if they get shit canned because they can have something else by later in the day if they want to work. It’s a very sad state of affairs. Not all stores are created equal, she took this store over because the original manager created a toxic work environment so they canned her, not saying a good manager can make a store great, but it helps. She says Sam would be rolling over in his grave if he saw what Walmart has become

After 35 years of retail experience I feel qualified to offer this.

The support from upper management is no longer there.

There was a time when customer service and employee education and support was directly related to net income at the end of the year.


That was 35 years ago and 45,000,000 people ago.


They stopped employee education to put the extra money in the pockets of the suits upstairs.

Retail is the new ditch digging.


Why in world would anyone consciously choose to work at pleasing today's discourteous , demanding and sometimes dangerous customers only to put up with demanding, uncooperative and often times unknowledgeable management
For $15.00 per hour and almost no benefits?

You will!
Shop at their stores and like it !

Regardless

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bendable,

My wife was in retail management as well , Lowe's .
The stories she would tell me about the employees under her were hard to believe at times . Most of them had a terrible work ethic . You had one type that would make up a lie to leave early , or just not show up at all , and then you had the ones that needed the money and came to work but it was a constant fight to get anything productive out of them .If you pushed a little too hard they would call the HR hotline and report you for harassment or worse . One girl said that my wife gave her PTSD ..

It's all in the management.

A local neighborhood Walmart was the best run Walmart store that I had ever been in.

The outstanding manager was promoted, and his replacement, who appears to be a DEI type, has let the store deteriorate into one of the worst Walmart stores.

Yes, they have an app. I have to use the fucking app to find anything? I had a similar experience in WalMart last week. I wanted simple garden hose washers. After 30 minutes of searching and lots of no help from staff, I went home and ordered some off Amazon.

I’m between two WalMarts, one about four miles and other one about seven miles. I’ll drive seven miles any day.

That one has real cashiers, they even greet you as you walk into the self service lanes. No gatekeepers wanting to see your receipt. They have food items that the closer one doesn’t such as Fat Free Cottage Cheese and never seem to be out of egg substitutes, things that I have to use to maintain a low fat diet.

Store’s a lot cleaner there too. Despite the four mile one going through a freshening a couple years back it still looks dingy.