Walmart observations

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by veteran+ »

NCR is the WORSE!!!!!

Even their own service techs says so!

LOL
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by Super S »

Alpha8472 wrote: September 25th, 2020, 8:30 pm
The NCR repair people are notorious for poorly maintaining the machines so that they break down. Everytime there is a problem the store gets charged $500 for a repair person to come out. It is sabotage for sure. There is one creepy NCR repairman who lurks at the local Walmart just looking for problems to be found. It is ridiculous that they break down so much. It would be cheaper to just hire another cashier to run a regular cash register.
The newer self-checkout machines at my Walmart never seem to be broken. But there have been times where they were broken in the past, and in typical Walmart fashion, only one out of 20 checkstands were open with an extremely long line. Walmart seems to do whatever it can to avoid staffing the front end.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by cjd »

Alpha8472 wrote: September 25th, 2020, 8:30 pm The emergency exit doors are never to be used by employees because it sets off the fire alarm. It must have been a shoplifter and security probably was chasing them. It takes a manager to turn off the alarm.
I thought it was very strange. But they don't actually set off the fire alarm, at least in this case, there was a loud beeping that could be heard from the parking lot. But the fire alarm didn't go off.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: September 25th, 2020, 8:30 pm The emergency exit doors are never to be used by employees because it sets off the fire alarm. It must have been a shoplifter and security probably was chasing them. It takes a manager to turn off the alarm.

Turning off self checkout only happens if they are so short staffed that they do not have attendants to monitor the self checkout area or if the machines are out of cash / broken.

The NCR repair people are notorious for poorly maintaining the machines so that they break down. Everytime there is a problem the store gets charged $500 for a repair person to come out. It is sabotage for sure. There is one creepy NCR repairman who lurks at the local Walmart just looking for problems to be found. It is ridiculous that they break down so much. It would be cheaper to just hire another cashier to run a regular cash register.
NCR self checkouts have been lousy for years. It started with their initial failure at Kmart, followed by failures at Ikea that led to Ikea taking them all out, failures at Albertsons who took most of them out, etc. Also Hyatt used to have self serve hotel check in kiosks that were interfacing very much like the NCR self checkout- those got yanked out too with the last ones removed a few years ago.

Yet for some reason we see retailers like Wal Mart (US only; they use Toshiba self checkout in other countries), Raleys, Save Mart, etc. keep installing these NCR Self Checkouts with the stock NCR self serve checkout software.

Also note Home Depot and Target recently transitioned away from the NCR Self Checkout Software onto their own software (not sure if this software is NCR software too- I don't think it is, because it sure interfaces better).

Of all the stores with these self checkouts, they seem to work the best at Wal Mart. Most times I can go to Wal Mart, pass my items over the scanner, insert my payment card, and I get through the transaction without having to touch the screen at all and only about 15% of the time I need employee intervention. With Raleys and Save Mart's NCR self checkouts, in Raleys which I visit often I need intervention about 75% of the time (really terrible implementation of the software there) and at Save Mart which I very rarely shop I need it about 25% of the time.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by klkla »

cjd wrote: September 26th, 2020, 10:16 am
Alpha8472 wrote: September 25th, 2020, 8:30 pm The emergency exit doors are never to be used by employees because it sets off the fire alarm. It must have been a shoplifter and security probably was chasing them. It takes a manager to turn off the alarm.
I thought it was very strange. But they don't actually set off the fire alarm, at least in this case, there was a loud beeping that could be heard from the parking lot. But the fire alarm didn't go off.
It shouldn't set off the fire alarm. It should set off an alert to notify the staff that the door has been opened as part of the security system.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by storewanderer »

klkla wrote: September 26th, 2020, 4:19 pm
cjd wrote: September 26th, 2020, 10:16 am
Alpha8472 wrote: September 25th, 2020, 8:30 pm The emergency exit doors are never to be used by employees because it sets off the fire alarm. It must have been a shoplifter and security probably was chasing them. It takes a manager to turn off the alarm.
I thought it was very strange. But they don't actually set off the fire alarm, at least in this case, there was a loud beeping that could be heard from the parking lot. But the fire alarm didn't go off.
It shouldn't set off the fire alarm. It should set off an alert to notify the staff that the door has been opened as part of the security system.
One time last January I was in one of the Reno Wal Marts in the inside part of garden (they had Christmas Clearance there, 90% off, and a ton left) late at night and it was a cold windy night. I kept hearing an alarm going off and then noticed the wind kept blowing a door open and closed out at the back corner of this inside garden area. I kept thinking someone would come do something (this is a high theft store)- but at least in the 20-30 minutes I was there, nobody did anything and the door kept blowing open and closed as some alarm was going off.

Great thing about Wal Mart is I go into the place with no expectation of any standards so seeing this sort of thing doesn't phase me.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by Alpha8472 »

Walmart has a new decor. The Black decor is no more. The newest decor being used on recently remodeled stores is a new Blue Decor. This decor goes back to the blue color of Project Impact. There is a tiny bit of black on signs such as thin black borders. The department signs have no more giant photos of people or pets. Each department is assigned a new blue logo such as a car for Automotive. The smaller signs hanging from the ceiling also have smaller little logos of items such as Cosmetics or Jewelry. There are no Walmart Spark logos on the walls for this new decor.

The Black Decor was so bland and boring. Bringing back the Project Impact blue color brings some color back to the store. The blue reminds you that you are at Walmart. Previously black and white signs could mean you were at any other store that has given in to the black and white trend that has swept retail over the past few years.

I have seen another decor change, but it could just be a repaint of one store only. The store still has the Cheap Project Impact decor, but they repainted the poles black on the bottom and put bars of color on each pole. The colors correspond to the new Walmart Spark logo. The Pickup Logo now features a multi-colored Spark logo instead of the yellow Spark logo. The poles now have a barcode of some kind on each pole. Is this the barcode that tells the robotic floor cleaners to clean the floor?
Last edited by Alpha8472 on October 1st, 2020, 8:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by SamSpade »

It's kinda pretty!

Coming to 1,000 domestic stores by the end of next year.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90557727/wa ... ng-is-dead
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by klkla »

It looks clean and modern. The blue trim color is good because it matches their logo.

I like how it doesn't look cluttered. Should be easy for customers to locate what they're looking for
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by storewanderer »

klkla wrote: October 1st, 2020, 2:32 pm It looks clean and modern. The blue trim color is good because it matches their logo.

I like how it doesn't look cluttered. Should be easy for customers to locate what they're looking for
Wal Mart has generally de-cluttered its (larger) stores with the various resets and remodels they've done in the past 5 years.
One thing that would help them further if they are trying to make it easier for the customer would be standard layouts for departments as their department layout is kind of all over the place in my area. Weird differences like pet on the back wall in one store and in the opposite front corner in another. Pharmacy on the food side in 2 stores and on the opposite side of the store in the other 2 stores.

Most of their stores I go into are clean and orderly once you get onto the sales floor, even the ones in the bad areas. There may be a lot of locked up merchandise in certain departments, but that is better than empty shelves. The other thing I notice with Wal Mart is they seem to be stocking certain departments basically at all hours. Specifically food, drug, and to a lesser degree pet. It doesn't seem to matter if I go in the morning or at night, those areas are always being actively stocked. The stores are spacious with wide enough aisles that the stocking projects do not really hinder the customer much.
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