# "Businesses hire only when more employees are needed to meet unmet demand." - anyone disagree?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-hire-only-when-more-employees-are-needed-to-meet-unmet-demand-anyone-disagree/665796>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [August 9, 2013, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-hire-only-when-more-employees-are-needed-to-meet-unmet-demand-anyone-disagree/665796 "2013-08-09T12:22:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 4

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-hire-only-when-more-employees-are-needed-to-meet-unmet-demand-anyone-disagree/665796/61 "2013-08-11T23:39:56Z")

</div>

> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> This is exactly what I am talking about.
> 
> You have no evidence. What you have is basically faith that Walmart must know what it’s doing.

I have read many articles on WalMart’s use of data mining - they are even hiring in Silicon Valley about this. I know they were pushing for RF tags, I know they have figured out which items get sold together during snow storms (shovels and hot chocolate IIRC). That is not proof that they spend all this money on greeters for a reason - but it is hardly an unsupported hypothesis. WalMart may be evil, but they aren’t dumb.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-hire-only-when-more-employees-are-needed-to-meet-unmet-demand-anyone-disagree/665796/62 "2013-08-12T13:50:15Z")

</div>

> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> This is exactly what I am talking about.
> 
> You have no evidence. What you have is basically faith that Walmart must know what it’s doing.

First, that’s not the kind of thing they’d feel compelled to cough up in the annual statement or otherwise publish.

Second, even if it’s just a touchy-feely exercise of employing old folks and mentally disabled folks to grin and say hello, they clearly feel that they derive some benefit from it- whether it’s goodwill in the community, making the shopping experience more pleasant, or something else (shoplifting prevention?), or they wouldn’t do it at all.

Personally, I suspect it’s some combination of all of the above; it’s an easy way to look more socially conscious by pointedly employing underemployed demographics, a way to easily cut down on shoplifting (we presume), and something that might make their customers have a slightly more pleasant experience in their store.

But, like I said before, it’s a pretty easy data mining exercise to determine if the presence of greeters either reduces shoplifting or increases sales (through pleasant experiences).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-hire-only-when-more-employees-are-needed-to-meet-unmet-demand-anyone-disagree/665796/63 "2013-08-12T14:45:44Z")

</div>

> [@drewtwo99](#):
>
> Walmart greeters are a huge counterpoint to anyone who argues that companies will only hire the absolute minimum amount of people to work for them.
> 
> Some companies hire more than the bare minimum, for various reasons.
> 
> I don’t think there is anyone in the world who shops at Walmart over other stores because of the greeters, yet they have them anyway.

Somebody thinks they are needed, why do you think they are hired?

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-hire-only-when-more-employees-are-needed-to-meet-unmet-demand-anyone-disagree/665796.md?page=3)