Wal Mart does not recruit store managers from schools historically (that is a Target thing). In fact just recently there was some press that they were going to start to do more recruiting from schools to try and beef up their store manager ranks due to the current store manager shortage. Historically, they recruited store managers from within. The vast majority of Wal Mart Store Managers worked their way up in the stores... even the ones at the present time that seem to be sinking pretty fast in the position.buckguy wrote: ↑June 15th, 2022, 6:04 am Nothing really surprising here. Walmart has continually cut back on management and made relatively extreme use of scheduling software for decades. The supply chain disruptions and the increasing transition to online ordering/store pick-up taxed the system. I 've been wondering what would break their system and this combination of factors seems to be doing it. They tend to recruit store managers from schools that aren't exactly Harvard and turn out compliant people who can work in a top down system that doesn't reward real initiative. I would imagine that even the pliant people reach a point where they look for and find other work. The decline of malls and many kinds of brick and mortar retail probably kept the labor market in check for a while, but now Walmart has a situation they can't control.
Their last annual report mentioned something cryptically about their operations changing as more of their customers shop online. I suspect that means that the stores will get even less investment in the future and whatever the skill of their logistics people, stuff is going to pile up and service will deteriorate further.
There are limited cases where a store manager from a different retailer can go join Wal Mart and get on a fast track program to store manager but even that usually takes a couple years (or used to, not very long ago).
Also I don't know what you are talking about with Wal Mart's system not rewarding initiative in the context of the store managers as that is simply a flat out lie (that statement would be more true about Target). The Wal Mart Store Managers are heavily graded on sales performance of their store, along with remaining in budget. The store manager has a high degree of latitude in how to merchandise the free spaces/endcaps in the store and pricing as well. They have lost power on ordering over the years, that is pretty top down now, yes. A store manager that generates sales and remains in budget wins in the Wal Mart organization. It used to be pretty easy to do that (yes they worked hard... but they were given the tools- a steady flow of merchandise and the power to price it to sell). The problem is the Wal Mart organization for a number of years now keeps dealing the poor store managers a losing hand, every time. They keep restructuring things, losing middle management in the stores, one new program after another that doesn't stick, and you have the poor store manager trying to implement all of this stuff (in addition to the basic operations to try and drive sales in the store) and half of what is implemented is scrapped right as everyone is getting used to it, so it is a losing battle and this is why the position has become so high turnover.
Target on the other hand, wants a robot manager. They want a manager (I mean "store director") who is completely robotic, following everything Target says to the T. There is no room for your own ideas, your own opinions, or your own anything. Everything is a top down order. Everything is tracked by various metrics and the store manager is basically living or dying based on the metrics (I'm not talking about sales metrics, I'm talking about metrics like how long it takes to stock this shelf, how long it took this cashier to scan items, how long it took this receiver to unload a truck, how many out of stocks the store had, the response time for the store to fill the out of stocks once the system sent an alert to stockroom there was an out of stock, etc.).
Also that Target Store Director gets paid about half what a Wal Mart Store Manager gets paid... and there is a reason for that. All part of that rewarding initiative thing.