Last night, I dropped by Walmart. It was disappointing, as always.
I needed to pick up a couple of potholders, as one of ours has a bad spot–I’ve been burned by a couple of pizza pans through that mit–and the other decided to go missing. I figured a pair of cheaper potholders from Walmart would fill the gap until I found something at Costco.
Before you ask: Yes, I found the potholders. But the rest of the visit was bad.
I had to use the restroom; that was a mistake. The only open stall in the front restroom was faulty; the door was either too large or it was crooked. Either way, it could neither shut nor lock at all. So that meant walking to the back of the store. I managed to get back there, find an open stall with a functional door, and ended up being accosted twice by two separate people trying to barge into a locked stall. Once? That’s a mistake and I can let it go. But twice? No, we’re not paying attention. I made sure to get out of there as quickly as possible. I didn’t want to deal with this a possible third time because then I might say some choice words.
I grabbed the potholders, then decided to get a couple of cans of soup for lunch tomorrow or maybe dinner tonight. That’s where it got bad.
The soup aisle had multiple empty spaces on the shelves. The associates weren’t even trying to make it look decent. The soup I wanted–Campbell’s Chunky baked potato–was almost empty. There were three cans left and they weren’t visible. If I hadn’t read the shelf tag, I would have missed them entirely. No one had zoned that area at all. It was obvious.
I had to grab them from the back of the shelf. When I noticed there were only three left, I took all of them. Then, I headed to the front end.
The registers. Mother of Solus, the registers.
There were only self checkouts open. The ones on the grocery side were completely full. The larger “Scan and Go” self checkouts were busy. On the general merchandise side, it was the same story, only two of the smaller self checkouts were down; one had a paper jam and the other was stuck in card mode only. I took the second one but kept an eye on it. I’ve had self checks decide to completely crash when they’re only in card mode. Stable they are not. I know this from personal experience.
On the store survey, I gave them one star. Apparently, there’s a huge push from management to make sure that customers are giving the stores a five star rating because the more of those a store gets, the higher the bonus for the manager. Yeah, it benefits management and not the associates.
You better believe that I’m not doing anything to help out management at Walmart. Fuck those people. They have screwed over a lot of good employees all in the name of money the Waltons. It’s disgusting.
I also don’t know how long it will last. The store wasn’t busy. At least, not as busy as it should be in the middle of November. Meanwhile my Costco is ridiculous even during the weekdays.
Looks more and more like Walmart is swirling towards oblivion. Oh well, as the toilet flushes and the kitchen sinks.
Iacon East 