Walmart observations

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Walmart observations

Post by storewanderer »

bryceleinan wrote: May 8th, 2021, 8:52 pm One of the problems we have had lately is getting food for our spoiled felines. Wal 1648 (South Carson) was pretty much out of wet cat food the other day when I was getting stabbed by the pharmacist, and the associate in the area told me they have pallets and conexes full of stuff but no help to offload them. I picked up some other garden stuff, and had to grab it off the pallet in the middle of the area - the store manager was over there trying to stock because they don't have man-hours.

3277 (Damonte Ranch) was a little better a few weeks ago - same deal though, no cat food and pallets everywhere. When I worked for Wal back in 2002 the majority of the workforce was full-time, now, I believe it is just the opposite. Plus, everyone is feeling the effects of a lack of employees.
It seems like when Wal Mart reduced the overnight stocking is when all these problems started with pallets everywhere and shelves not being stocked. The other problem is when they take an order for online grocery pick-up and the shelf is empty, the directive is they find the item, period. Do not cancel the item. So that means go search the pallets for that one box of OTC medicine that someone ordered but isn't on the shelves but the system says 30 are on hand since they are in a pallet somewhere.

There has been a shortage of certain canned pet food items, centralized on the Nestle products (Friskies/Fancy Feast on cats). For the past few weeks, most Wal Mart, Target, and most of the Smiths had a number of out of stocks and Safeway had problems for a few days (they sold out last since their pricing isn't the best).

The worst condition Wal Mart regarding pallets at present is the one in NW Reno on 7th and Mae Anne. They have so many pallets unstocked, and it has been this way for months now. I did notice this week they finally cleared all of the pallets that were in the center walkway of softlines but the hardlines side of the store is still a sea of hundreds if not thousands of pallets.

At this moment Wal Mart is hiring for stocking and full time on swing shifts. But they have been pro-actively reducing the number of full time employees for years most recently eliminating even more department managers, assistant managers, adding some new titles, and other ongoing restructuring.

The Damonte Ranch Wal Mart was full of pallets almost as bad as 7th/Mae Anne, but got cleaned up about a month ago somehow. They had a regional manager meeting in the store of some kind so the store was cleaned up in preparation. Obviously whoever it was who came there, did not bother to visit any of the other area stores. Such a funny phenomenon in retail how these chains will have management visit a store and that management only visits one store so they get it cleaned up.
SamSpade
Store Manager
Store Manager
Posts: 1568
Joined: September 13th, 2015, 4:39 pm
Has thanked: 374 times
Been thanked: 57 times
Status: Offline

Re: Walmart observations

Post by SamSpade »

Off Topic
storewanderer wrote: May 8th, 2021, 12:04 amUmpqua was recently sold to Producers of Fresno, CA. Does the milk show an OR or a CA plant code? The former Dean facility here in Reno was also recently sold to Producers. So far I have purchased various items from Producers some made here at 32-01 and some with a CA plant code, without issue.

Wal Mart's problems with in-stock seem to be getting worse... they are going to start to bleed shoppers quick if they don't get control of this.
I'm sorry to hear that Umpqua Dairy had to sell out. Hopefully Producers is still a good operator.
My milk jug actually had *no* plant coding, only a best by date and the comment that it is guaranteed 7 days past that date (gov't. vs manufacturer feelings I guess?).The sticker on the jug listed the normal Roseburg address for the dairy.
User avatar
retailfanmitchell019
Assistant Store Manager
Assistant Store Manager
Posts: 891
Joined: November 10th, 2019, 11:17 am
Location: 760 area code
Has thanked: 39 times
Been thanked: 57 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Walmart observations

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

I have a question, what regions of the US does Walmart do best and worst in?
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Walmart observations

Post by storewanderer »

I think Wal Mart struggles in the Pacific Northwest against Fred Meyer. There are pockets where Wal Mart seems to have very busy stores and areas where Wal Mart has opened where Fred Meyer has not, but generally speaking when the two are up against each other the Wal Marts just don't seem as busy as I am used to seeing Wal Marts.

Another spot where Wal Mart comes off as weak is Minneapolis area. Between Target HQ there, previously Supervalu HQ there with Cub, I think Wal Mart has had a hard time finding good spots to build stores in that area and hasn't gotten to build very many stores. There are more Super Targets in that area than most as well. Hy-Vee timed its entry perfectly as Target was struggling and Supervalu was completely screwed up.

Have not really looked at a Meijer vs. Wal Mart head to head situation ever but suspect similar there.

To put it bluntly it seems wherever Wal Mart actually has a serious competitor who does the same thing they do, they run into some problems.
HCal
Assistant Store Manager
Assistant Store Manager
Posts: 612
Joined: February 1st, 2021, 11:18 pm
Has thanked: 21 times
Been thanked: 67 times
Status: Offline

Re: Walmart observations

Post by HCal »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: May 22nd, 2021, 9:23 pm I have a question, what regions of the US does Walmart do best and worst in?
I don't think it's regional so much as socioeconomic. Walmart does best in poor, working class areas, and not so well in wealthier areas. They do better in rural areas where it is easy to find large plots of vacant land, than in urban areas where there are already established players.

But if you want to look regionally, I think their store count by state gives it away. They are strongest in the south and midwest, and weakest along the west coast.
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Walmart observations

Post by storewanderer »

HCal wrote: May 22nd, 2021, 11:59 pm
I don't think it's regional so much as socioeconomic. Walmart does best in poor, working class areas, and not so well in wealthier areas. They do better in rural areas where it is easy to find large plots of vacant land, than in urban areas where there are already established players.

But if you want to look regionally, I think their store count by state gives it away. They are strongest in the south and midwest, and weakest along the west coast.
Wal Mart actually does very, very well in California- where they have been allowed to open stores. In some cases they do too well, and cannot control things like theft or other shrinkage and have had to close very high volume stores because of that issue.
Romr123
Assistant Store Manager
Assistant Store Manager
Posts: 693
Joined: February 1st, 2021, 4:26 pm
Has thanked: 37 times
Been thanked: 56 times
Status: Offline

Re: Walmart observations

Post by Romr123 »

Legacy Meijer territories stomp all over WM--at least around most of Michigan/Ohio, WM has a faint odor of desperation, where Meijer is the "no excuses" store which no one ever needs apologize for---the only parts of Michigan where WM beats Meijer is the Thumb and the UP; and that's strictly store count--Meijer had the choice in the very early '90s of prioritizing Detroit or Thumb/UP expansion and chose to solidify Detroit. I think Meijer has one store in the Thumb proper, where WM has 3, and probably 3 in the UP where WM has 6 or 7...K-Mart was also relatively stronger here so helped buffer/delay WM a bit. Meijer uses their grocery heritage as well as their "fruit belt" location intelligently to run some smart produce programs...they have an apple festival in the early autumn which is a "don't miss" as you can try some interesting varieties. They also have made a strategic investment into Fresh Thyme which is just the smaller footprint/specialty store to keep Whole Foods out of mid-sized midwestern markets---one or two Fresh Thymes in conjunction with 2-3 Meijer in an area the size of, say, Lansing, or Kalamazoo, or Muncie or Springfield pretty well closes things off.
Alpha8472
Posts: 3929
Joined: February 24th, 2009, 8:55 pm
Been thanked: 79 times
Status: Offline

Re: Walmart observations

Post by Alpha8472 »

Walmart does very well in lower income areas in California. The lines of customers is out of control. The problem is that Walmart does not staff enough employees at checkout. They are losing tons of sales when customers get tired of waiting in line and leave. The shelves are out of stock all the time due to a lack of employees. The locked cabinets of merchandise need employees to unlock them, but again Walmart does not schedule enough employees to unlock the cabinets.

Walmart tries to save money by scheduling as few employees as possible, but they are losing even more money in potential sales.

Walmart will never learn. They are giving up sales to other retail stores.

This is why the other chains can charge more and still get sales. The lines are not as out of control at other stores.
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Walmart observations

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: May 23rd, 2021, 1:42 pm Walmart does very well in lower income areas in California. The lines of customers is out of control. The problem is that Walmart does not staff enough employees at checkout. They are losing tons of sales when customers get tired of waiting in line and leave. The shelves are out of stock all the time due to a lack of employees. The locked cabinets of merchandise need employees to unlock them, but again Walmart does not schedule enough employees to unlock the cabinets.

Walmart tries to save money by scheduling as few employees as possible, but they are losing even more money in potential sales.

Walmart will never learn. They are giving up sales to other retail stores.

This is why the other chains can charge more and still get sales. The lines are not as out of control at other stores.
The experience at rural Wal Mart Stores is so radically different from the experience in the densely populated areas...
Alpha8472
Posts: 3929
Joined: February 24th, 2009, 8:55 pm
Been thanked: 79 times
Status: Offline

Re: Walmart observations

Post by Alpha8472 »

Walmart corporate does so many things to sabotage themselves. They put pressure on store managers to cut employee work hours, keep payroll costs down, etc. It makes the few employees overworked. They hate their jobs, they hate the lack of help, the tons of work placed on short staffed employees, etc. This leads to people quitting left and right. The managers hate their jobs, and it gets passed on down to the lower level employees who are pressured to do more work with less staff.

Walmart needs to realize that low morale and overworked employees are suffering burnout. The employees who are stressed out are not productive and feel even less motivation to do a good job.

This is the downfall of Walmart. Their own employees hate their own company, hate their jobs, and hate their lives.

A billion dollar company cannot continue to mistreat employees and survive. The employees are the ones who keep the company alive.

Staffing levels needs to improved. Get those shelves restocked with more employees. Then get those cash registers staffed with more employees. Keep the customers coming back with shorter lines and the customers will happy to come back and buy more.

A happy employee is a productive employee and sales will go up. The employees will take pride in their work and the entire shopping experience will be more pleasant for customers and employees.

Never have Walmart employees ever felt this level of stress and apathy with staffing cuts. Millions of Walmart employees on the verge of rebellion and hating Walmart corporate. I do not know of any employee that just loves to work for Walmart now. It might have been a good job before, but now the joy has been taken away by corporate decisions.

Walmart corporate does not realize how much employees hate their jobs now. The token employees satisfaction surveys are so easily manipulated. Providing free candy and food just before job satisfaction surveys is blatant bribery.

Walmart corporate needs to realize this and realize that changes need to be made. The emphasis

The employees keep this company running and they can bring down this company if you treat them this badly.

All corporate does is hold conference calls saying profit goals are not being met. Go and cut staff and force your employees to work harder. It is slave driving.
Post Reply