I hate W......(big retail chain)! (Rant)

I go there for the prices, not necessarily for their customer service, because they really don't have any.

One year I was looking for a simple wall calendar. I looked in the stationary where you would think they would be. Nope. I looked in the centre aisle near that same department. Nope. Not there either. I went to customer service, stood in line and then asked them where the calendars were. She said "Stationary". I told her that I was just there but I'll go and look again. I went and looked and looked, but no calendars. I saw an employee and asked him where the calendars were. He said that he didn't know and then carried on about his business. I asked him if he could please go and check with someone and find out. I said I would wait there. 15 minutes later he comes back and said that he asked one person but they didn't know. And they called the store manager who told them that they do have calendars but no one knows where they are!

About a month ago my friend and I were killing time before a movie. We had some coupons for soft drinks and fruit juice and some coupons for free Crest Toothpaste. I had 2 toothpaste coupons, 2 soft drink coupons, and 1 juice coupon. My friend had 6 toothpaste coupons, 4 soft drink ones and 2 juice ones. The girl stood there and before entering a coupon, read the entire back side of the coupon, for every single coupon before she would scan it in!!!! And let me just say that she was not a fast reader!!! It took us almost 1/2 hour to get through her check stand, and we were late getting to the movie because of it!

Like I said, I go for the prices and I expect zero customer service when I get there. Because I go with that expectation, I'm not disappointed.

I generally try and avoid the W stores ... I used to go all the time when we lived with the in-laws, but a few bad customer service experiences there turned us to a store a mile down the road. They had much better service, and some of their items were actually cheaper as well.

Its not always just the people who work at Walmart that are crappy, some of the other customers you run into are enough to make you want to stay out of there.

Originally Posted by catlover19

When it comes to retail chains, I would much rather go to Wal Mart than Zellers. Zellers are always dirty, their items barely ever scan properly and the staff are usually rude and not even trained to do their job properly. I used to work at one and know just how bad it is.

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Yeah, Zellers is my only other alternative. While I find the staff decent, as you said the stores are usually dirty. I also find that things they have advertised in flyers are never at the store. Or it is really hard to find.

The Walmart closest to me is actually more towards a rich, snobby area. (Not to say all wealthy people are snobs, so please don't get offended if you have money, just this particular place is well known for its "I'm better than you" attitude). There are a lot of younger people there but even the older generation that work there are just as bad. I guess it's not fair to blame the company as a whole but they advertise friendly, helpful employees and so far, I've yet to find a store in Nova Scotia, anyway, that stands by that.

Personally, I don't care if people are unhelpful, as I have social anxiety and rarely ask for help anyway but when you're face to face with the cashiers and they are being rude you can't really avoid it.

I was tempted to talk to the manager out here (my previous boss) but I am sort of hesitant because I don't feel comfortable around him. (He used to make inappropriate comments towards me).

I really miss the days when employees were helpful and made your shopping trip an easy one. Some of these cocky kids today need to learn manners and learn to respect customers.

I go to the one in the city often. It is clean, they have great customer service. Always friendly. I have returned several items, Never had an issues.

W. didn't become big because of poor customer services and cheap knock off Chinese products, but that is what it is today and that does serve a niche. That niche is composed of quite a bit of the people I detest being around though, so the solution is to just not shop there!

In the girl's defense though, I wouldn't be surprised if half the w. shoppers lie to the checkout attendants on a daily basis to the point they become callous, and its not like they are given millions in compensation and if its just a temporary summer job then I'd probably have a stick up my butt too after a while, lol! I remember when I worked retail selling sporting goods I'd have people lie to my face blatantly all the time, and haggle with me constantly even though I reminded them we have fixed prices, and then complain that I'm lying and working on commission and trying to up-sell them when I tried to lean them towards products that weren't crap that would fall apart in a year... and did that everyday for $7.50 an hour, ugh. I am sure on some days I took that out on a very nice person based on a misunderstanding.

Target has slightly higher prices, but you also get slightly better products and customer service accordingly IMO. I highly recommend them for Houstonians at the least.

I never ever shop there. Or S-Club even though its 30 seconded from where I work!

The Wisconsin employee owned Woodman's grocery store beats W on all their similar items and as I mentioned locally owned. Or I go to Target.

Oh btw, another good reason not to save a couple pennies at Walmart: Walmart stores on average experience approximately 450% more police calls than Target: http://www.walmartcrimereport.com/report.pdf

Especially since I shop later in the evening as I'm a night shift employee, I like feeling safe walking through a Target parking lot compared to slinking back to my car at Walmart keeping my head on a swivel!

The Wal-Mart I go to always has a security car going around the parking lot. Constantly. So I feel pretty safe. . .just wait a few seconds and the car will get around to my location. Lots of cameras, too.

The Target I go to was recently remodeled, to include a small grocery section (not enough to make it a SuperTarget). So now it's pretty nice. But before that it was kind of dingy and dim, with badly-laid-out aisles. And the employees were about the same as Wal-Mart's.

Both of the Walmarts that are close to where I live aren't very clean. The only thing I buy there is cat litter and since I live right across the street from a supermarket I usually just pay a little more there for it. I just can't buy food, even packaged food, from a place that doesn't look clean. I know I don't know what the clean stores look like in the back but with a store that isn't clean where I can see I know what it is like in the back. I used to live in Dayton and the one close to where I lived there was clean so I know I can't say that all of them are dirty.

I haven't been to the new Super W..... yet but if it is like the old one, I don't want to go. The employees were nice enough but it was the other shoppers that made it a terrible experience.

Once I had picked out several items of clothing and put in my basket. While my back was turned, some kid took some of the stuff out. I saw her out of the corner of my eye, and grabbed it back saying that it was mine. She just stared at me. The other shoppers thought nothing of running into you with their carts and no apology. Just a dirty look from the shopper.

One store that gave me bad service was a home improvement store. I was looking for a certain item (don't remember what it was) but no one was willing to help me. And they prided themselves on their "excellent customer service"!

I won't shop there on principle. They might save the average American family money each year, but have displaced so many manufacturing jobs in the process. Give me the local mom and pop place over Walmart any day.

Walmart was founded on the "Buy American" principal.

Now it's nearly impossible to find anything produced in the US.

I'd boycott them on principal, but can't. The only thing we buy at Walmart is litter and certain things for the RV. Can't find other 99.9% dust free litter I can afford anywhere else, and can't find stuff for the RV other than 2 hours away.

Originally Posted by Ducman69

Oh btw, another good reason not to save a couple pennies at Walmart: Walmart stores on average experience approximately 450% more police calls than Target: http://www.walmartcrimereport.com/report.pdf

Especially since I shop later in the evening as I'm a night shift employee, I like feeling safe walking through a Target parking lot compared to slinking back to my car at Walmart keeping my head on a swivel!

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That said, in our area it's the Target that has had armed robberies in the parking lot and has to put a police tower out there on a regular basis. AND they close at night, which WalMart does not.

If Target has exactly what you need/want, you're in luck. If it's not in their line, they just don't carry it. Almost no automotive stuff, for example, at our local store.

When Sam was alive, WalMart had a "Bringing It Home to America" program that encouraged American companies to bid on their stuff. They would even pay more for the American items, if they were otherwise competitive. Now they'll cut the legs out from under anybody who is a penny higher than their imported stuff.

Sam's motto was also, "You're next in line." By that he meant that if there was more than 2 people in line, they would open more checkout lines until they were either all open, or none of them had more than 2 people in line. Nowadays, you're likely to see 10 people waiting for each of the 4 lines that are open, and 32 other lines closed.

Sam's policy was also not to borrow to expand. Everything they bought they paid cash for, including warehouses, stores, trucks, everything. But after he died, the kids wanted to expand into California, and they figured it would be cheaper to do it all at once, instead of one store at a time. They've never gotten out from under that debt.

These are just a few reasons that WalMart stock, once a dependable grower, has essentially done nothing for almost 10 years now. They used to reward their employees with WalMart stock, and a number of the early employees (even secretaries and truck drivers) retired as millionaires. It's not happening now!

Originally Posted by LDG

Walmart was founded on the "Buy American" principal.

Now it's nearly impossible to find anything produced in the US.

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Not quite as true as you might think.

The last time this argument came up on another forum, I went and checked the ten items we had just bought at WalMart. Six were from the U.S. Four were imported, and only 2 of them was from China.

It's hard to find anything made in the US anywhere. Even at Sears. My dad always tries to find stuff (mostly tools and boots and stuff like that) made in the US and he can't find much locally. And when he does, it's extremely expensive to the point he feels they're trying to gouge him, and the quality is questionable at best. I'm not sure Wal-Mart is responsible for all that or if it's just the way things are now.

Keep in mind that Sears is now owned by K-Mart.

Originally Posted by LuvMyParker

Yeah, Zellers is my only other alternative. While I find the staff decent, as you said the stores are usually dirty. I also find that things they have advertised in flyers are never at the store. Or it is really hard to find.

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The staff at the one here (not the one I worked at) are horrible. One time, I stood in line waiting and when it was my turn the lady turned off her light and said she had to make a phone call and walked away. There was nobody behind me and I only had a couple of items, it would have taken her only a minute to ring me through. It's all ladies at the one here (like 40-70s) not young kids but it's still horrible. They have even stopped putting the toilet paper on the rolls in the bathroom, they just sit it on top. I also found the womens washroom silly stringed once and I told them at the service desk and they said oh yeah we know we just don't have anyone to clean it up. There was 2 employees standing behind the counter talking, I wanted to tell one of them to go and do it.

The reason you can never find the stuff in the flyers is because Zellers doesn't pull their sale items and put them on display. If they get a big shipment before a sale, they will just stick it on the end of an aisle or they will put in a random spot in the store. Frequently, I have found water, peanut butter, sugar etc thats on sale at the back of the store by the restaurant.

This is why I like Wal Mart, its much better than Zellers.

Oh shoot me now.... I shop at Wal-mart, will continue to shop there, and it is what it is.... Shop at the super wal-mart, and at their grocery store... Why? Because I work very very hard for my money, have tons of vet bills, and save where I can.
I pay top $$$ for the kids food and care, and wal-mart helps me to have the money to do that. I don't particularly remember bad customer service - on the contrary, I have always been very well serviced on my local store... It is clean, it has a great selection of fresh produce, and I am thrilled they are around. It is one of their fresh mart - I think that's what it is called (the one in my neighborhood).
When I lived in California, I saved $$$ by shopping at Trader Joe's... Unfortunately for some odd, sad reason they are not here in Dallas.... so Wal-mart is my way to saving money. We do what we can..... IMHO

I think Trader Joe's is moving into the Dallas area.

Do you shop at the Neighborhood Market there on Central Expressway? I've delivered there many times.

Originally Posted by mrblanche

I think Trader Joe's is moving into the Dallas area.

Do you shop at the Neighborhood Market there on Central Expressway? I've delivered there many times.

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Yep, yep, that's the one - I like it!
it is very close to my house......