Walmart observations

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
Romr123
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by Romr123 »

Exactly right about Amazon--it's quite exhausting to shop through their endless departments, and the Chinese stuff isn't helping. I'd really like to figure out how to curate an Amazon search so that it's stuff they are selling (none of this resale crap) and thus that they stand behind...call me old-fashioned but that was what Sears had and Costco now has...for those type of staple things I don't want to wade through "promoted" pages of cra%%.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by storewanderer »

Romr123 wrote: June 23rd, 2022, 10:30 am Exactly right about Amazon--it's quite exhausting to shop through their endless departments, and the Chinese stuff isn't helping. I'd really like to figure out how to curate an Amazon search so that it's stuff they are selling (none of this resale crap) and thus that they stand behind...call me old-fashioned but that was what Sears had and Costco now has...for those type of staple things I don't want to wade through "promoted" pages of cra%%.
Left navigation of screen.... checkbox for free shipping by Amazon over $25, then scroll further, stay with left navigation to part that says seller, then check box Amazon.com.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by Brian Lutz »

Another observation at the Tulalip Supercenter currently under remodeling yesterday: The front end of the store has been redone, and many of the checkstands have have been replaced with more self checkout lanes, to the point that there now appears to only be around eight regular checkstands and somewhere around 24 self checkout lanes. The "self checkout corral" setup you typically see at Walmart stores with somewhere around 8-10 self checkouts in a semi-enclosed area seems to be gone, replaced by several straight lanes with 4-8 self checkouts each. Not all of these were open, and it wasn't clear if they plan to use all of them on a regular basis, but it does sort of make sense to do this since Walmart seems to be somewhat notorious in these Supercenter stores for having large numbers of checkout lanes and only 2 or 3 of them open at any given time.

Work on the "Market fulfillment center" that is supposed to be going into this store seems to be going much more slowly though. So far the only evidence of this is a partial wall constructed in what is currently the pharmacy section of the store, and not much else.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by Alpha8472 »

The self checkout lanes have conveyor belts?

The Walmart self checkouts from a long time ago looked like checkout lanes with conveyor belts and a self checkout unit at the end.

In other news, I heard from a friend at a Walmart that they are very short handed in the receiving department due to so many people out sick with COVID again. The new COVID variants are reinfecting people who previously were sick with it even a month ago.

It is really taking a toll on staffing as people are calling out sick for 5 days at a time. Walmart's personnel office is taking a stance now that you are expected to return to work in 5 days. They are so short staffed that they pressure you to return even if you are not yet fully recovered.

This would just cause other employees to get sick. They don't care about their employee's health. They just want bodies back to work to unload the heavy merchandise. Walmart does not want to pay for sick pay. Work while you are sick and coughing...
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by Brian Lutz »

https://fortune.com/2022/07/26/worlds-r ... arsely-api

Walmart is cutting its outlook for the year, expecting as much as a 13% decline in earnings per share, citing reduced consumer spending on big ticket items due to inflation and costs to reduce inventory stockpiles. A couple of months ago they predicted a 1% decrease.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by storewanderer »

They have major inventory problems. They have too much inventory and too few employees to stock it.

The buying and distribution network are working like well oiled machines but the stores cannot keep up with all the freight.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by Alpha8472 »

They have tons of merchandise being delivered automatically. Tons of excess clothing is on clearance clogging the aisles. Again, Walmart is too stingy to pay for more labor hours for employees. They would rather the items sit in the stockroom or get put on clearance than pay for more employees to stock the shelves.

There used to be many employees working in the stockroom, but many of them quit or were let go. Now the stores are short handed. Many Walmart stores near me have tons of merchandise sitting in the aisles with no one to put it on the shelves.

They need to spend money to make money. Hire more employees to restock those shelves or at least give more work hours to those employees already barely getting any work hours.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: July 29th, 2022, 11:02 pm They have tons of merchandise being delivered automatically. Tons of excess clothing is on clearance clogging the aisles. Again, Walmart is too stingy to pay for more labor hours for employees. They would rather the items sit in the stockroom or get put on clearance than pay for more employees to stock the shelves.

There used to be many employees working in the stockroom, but many of them quit or were let go. Now the stores are short handed. Many Walmart stores near me have tons of merchandise sitting in the aisles with no one to put it on the shelves.

They need to spend money to make money. Hire more employees to restock those shelves or at least give more work hours to those employees already barely getting any work hours.
At this point what you describe above has been going on for what feels like 9 months.

Now I see dozens of storage trailers behind/beside just about every Wal Mart. Typically these trailers would show up around Labor Day to put holiday merchandise into. Now they are just putting whatever into them because they are so backed up with freight they have nowhere to put it. One Wal Mart I know of is actually storing whole pallets of goods behind the store out in the open as the 30+ trailers they have are all full.

Slowly stores are resolving the clothing situation. All items $1, one store this past week did all items .50, one odd store I went to in CO was doing "extra 50% off the ticketed clearance price" (not sure I've ever seen a percent off sale at Wal Mart- and every item had to have an override by the cashier).
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by veteran+ »

Hysterical and fun to observe!
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote: July 30th, 2022, 8:34 am Hysterical and fun to observe!
Wal Mart is a great place to shop. When they mark down items to .50 and $1 that were originally $20+ (same crap would be $30+ at Target), you really get great deals. I ensure I always pay them with a credit card, hopefully one that has the highest processing fee, and ensure to bag my items very liberally to ensure there is no risk of bags breaking/puncturing. Does this help?

I do sometimes take another item or two, but I can assure you they do not make much money on what I buy. For instance they have a 12oz bag of frozen vegetables for .84. At Safeway for the 16oz bag of the same frozen vegetable blends they want 3.49 (sale 3.00) or 2.99 (sale 2.50) depending which blend you go after. So I have to assume Wal Mart is either really losing their shirt on this, or Safeway has decided frozen vegetables are the new generic drugs for margin purposes.
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