Watch my prediction- Wally-World-Mart is on it's way down!

I went to the local Wally-World today as I was instructed to pick up a gallon of milk. A few things happened that lead into why I feel Wally-World is on its way down as being the largest business in the world. Keep in mind that this will not happen overnight, nor will it happen by the end of 2007. But if you own stock in the company, I would talk to my investing firm about looking for a more stable company.

What makes me think this is the following. They have totally lost touch with reality on customer service. I walked the store in a round about way heading towards the milk coolers I noticed that most worker bees were just hanging around. Not that I really care, but none really looked like they want to help anyone.

I get to the checkout area and this lady looked like she would rather be somewhere else. She was friendly enough, but she sure made it look like it was a drudge to be there. My purchases included a large amount of softener pellets and with my bad back, I didn't want to load all those bags, so I asked for an assistant to help. This is when it got interesting.

The checkout girl looks to a lead person, and asked for assistance. The lead ask the same question to me twice and that was “Will you be parked next to the SALT?” I answered both times, “YES”. I thought to myself then that I should just park down the road and see if they can find me, but thoguth better of it.

Then the checkout girl turned,picked up the phone and announced/called for an assistant to come to the front and assist at the water softener area on the grocery side of the building. I jumped in and stated “No, the salt is at the other side of the building”. They both looked at me and together they stated, are you sure?

By now I was wondering why I was there.

Needless to say I ensure them that I knew where my truck would be parked and please have someone there. I go get my truck, park it at the right spot next to the salt and wait. In fact I make a phone call home during this time. At no time did a stock person/anyone come out to see if I needed assistance. I finally loaded the salt myself, and then drove over to the other side to see if there was any other stock pile. There wasn't, so I drove off, a little sore and a little pissed. I just hope I had a stock person walking the lot looking for my truck, me and the salt.

Anyway, tonight I read were Wally-World will now implement a new and improved work schedule policy where a computer will tell the employee when they can work and at what time. This sounds minor except it also means the associate may have to work only a few hours then go off the clock, only to come back again to work a few hours more and then go off the clock again. The logic is they don't want associates around if they are not stocking shelves or checking people out. The computer scheduling system will monitor their time so close, that the associate will never ever get close to a hourly position were benefits are paid.

This means all those people who are at the bottom of the pay scale will never-ever gain anything. The Wally-Pay system will keep them at the bottom. It means less associates on the clock, all in the name of helping the bottom line.

I guess what I witnessed today was this simple fact. The associates on the clock had read the same information and were wondering where they will have to go to be able to buy a gallon of milk.

By the way, the next time I have to get a gallon of milk, or a bag of salt, I'm going down the street to a local firm. At least there, I may get a smile in every isle.

later all