Why do lines at WalMart always take forever? It doesn’t matter which of the two area Super-Walmarts I shop, (or the dumpy, cramped Ol-school Walmart)there is always a line of at least 5-6 people at each line. It doesn’t matter if I go at 5 in the evening or 4 AM on a sunday morning. No matter what, there’s a long line of people waiting. Do they intentionally hide their cashiers to prevent folks from getting speedy service?
On a side note, my girlfriend was waiting for her check to clear at Wallyworld, and the damn computer wouldn’t work right. It kept refusing to comply, eventually warranting the presence of some managerial person. As their half-assed attempt to revive this POS continued (can’t move us to a different register), I said in a loud voice “I can’t wait until the Japanese buy this place and make it work right.”
The managerial person, as well as all the cashiers who heard my remark appeared quite irritated.
Yeah, the Wal-mart thing is frickin’ annoying. They never have enough cashiers. Of course, would you want to bag preparation H for fat rednecks all day? Me neither.
That must be the number of cashiers that maximizes Wal-Mart profits. Any more, and they’re paying too much for cashiers (and you don’t stay in the store long enough to think of things you forgot to buy), and fewer and you get so pissed off that you never come back.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they spent a lot of money figuring out the optimal number of cashiers, and the optimal weight time in line, that maximizes their profits.
Sam Walton (WalMart founder) and Tom Smith (Food Lion founder) are cut from the same cloth. It has never failed that when I go into FoodLion (which I do only under protest and because it is right next door to the apartment) there is always a line halfway down the aisle with three or four registers closed. I asked the manager one day why they even bothered to put them in. “Think of the money you could save by not buying the extra registers and eqiuipment. Instead, you could stock more meat with an expired sell by date.”
You must shop at the same FoodLion that I used to go to. No matter what time I went there, I had to wait in a ridiculously long line. If it was busy, half the registers were open, and I had to wait. If it was slow, two registers were open, and I had to wait. I’ve started shopping at the local HarrisTeeter. It’s a little more expensive, but the lines are shorter and the cashiers actually say “thank you.”
The same goes for Wal-mart. I haven’t been to Wal-mart since Target opened a store a block away about two years ago. I don’t care how low their prices are, it’s not worth the aggravation.
Seriousish answer: I’m assuming (we don’t have this particular shop) that walmart is a high-volume discount retailer. They offer lower prices and spread the labour costs associated with check-outs by giving customers the incentive to buy lots of things at once by imposing an inconvenience cost in the form of a queue. Part of the reason that they have lower prices than convenience stores is that they have lower labour costs, and part of the reason for that is they deliberately make themselves less convenient.
The Krogers around here tried to fix the line problem by having scan-it-yourself check-out.
Unfortunately, what we DON’T know is that there is a secret and arcane art to scanning groceries at the mind-numbingly slow pace that it’s done currently. The you-scan-it lines take twice as long.
I used to work at a Meijer, and part of my duties was minding the U-Scans. Let me tell you: though the instructions on how to use them were perfectly visible and perfectly clear, people would walk up to these things, stare at them like a monkey doing a math problem, and then just leave in a huff as they stomped over to a regular register.
As for Wal-Mart; I think most low-paying employers in the service sector are having a hard time finding and keeping people, what with the tight job market and all. I can’t get into and out of a Hardee’s in less than 20 minutes these days. So I don’t think Wal-Mart wants to make you wait in 30-minute lines. I just don’t think they can hire enough people to staff all their registers. Wait until the economy sours a little bit; then you’ll see your local Wal-Mart at full staff.
All of the young people (teens) are spoiled by mommy and daddy and don’t have to work like we did. That’s the entire workforce for places like K-mart, Walmart, etc… They just can’t hire enough people. I see the same problems at all Burger King and McDonalds restaurants as well.
Personally, I think the bigger problem lies with the management of these stores.
I was a cashier for most of my college years and if any of us had been as rude to a customer as the clerks are now, we would have found ourselves suddenly unemployeed and unemployable!! If managment doesn’t insist on good treatment of the customer, the clerks will just put in their time and get the hell out.
What frosts my cake is having the cashier and the bagboy partying with each other instead of paying attention to either their jobs or the paying customer right in front of them. Very, very rude!!!
And Ames tops Wal-Mart for longest lines any day!! And, if they have advertised something that week, don’t even bother going to look to buy it. Either they didn’t get any or they had 3 and they’re all gone, usually bought by the employees the night before the ad came out. I really hate that place!!
I will have to go against the flow here. The Walmart where I live (small city of aprx 45K people) is usually very speedy. On a weekend when it is especially busy, when farmers and surrounding towns people come to town usually ALL the cashiers are open. On a typical weekday morning, afternoon or evening you may not have to wait at all. If you do, its for seconds (>60 for sure). Very often cashiers will be waiting at the front of the till line area and ask if you are ready to check out and they escort you to the till. Very good service in my book. Maybe that is a difference between Walmarts in Canada as opposed to the US?
We have two choices here: We can let this thread be about complaining about long lines at Wal-Mart and elsewhere, and move it to the Pit, or we can have it be about reasons why the lines might be long, and leave it here. I’d much prefer the latter. Just a reminder from your friendly neighborhood moderator.
My favorite “line” story was when I was waiting in a Food Lion line and the young clerk and even younger bagger were horsing around and apparently had a contest to see how fast they could get the grocery items into the bags. It was amazing to watch these kids literally scoop up and more or less “throw” the grocery items into the bags right in front of the customers. The lady in front of me finally had enough and told them to stop it, but it was incredible to see such poorly trained, clueless employees.
I can’t begin to imagine how crappy their training must have been to have them think they could do this for even a second.
My favorite “story” if you want to get into that was last year when I was at Safeway. I think it was valentines day if memory serves. I was inline behind another a young man, 18ish I would say. His items to purchase were:
1 dozen red roses
1 card (halmark type, couldn’t read it)
1 box of condoms
1 tube of KY
The clerk and I did the amazing job of not bursting out with laughter until the young man was through the exit.
To me, by far the worst culprit for long lines, few registers, and incompetent cashiers is CVS pharmacy, a big chain here on the East Coast. The funniest thing about it is that up 'til last year they had a major ad campaign on TV with a sappy little jingle in it. The refrain was “One at a time…” as in “Care that touches everyone… One at a time.” Awww, isn’t that sweet. Every time I stopped at the CVS for toothpaste, got in line behind twelve people, with one open register and three closed registers, with a cashier that has to do price checks on half the items and has to summon the manager because he doesn’t know how to change the paper in the receipt printer, I would get that “One at a time…” song in my head.
Try being a cashier. I"m polite and very friendly, but you can only go so fast, and most of my customers hold up the lines, arguing with me over store policy and going so slow to get out their checkbooks and being ready.
PULLLEEEZE, do NOT take out your anger on the cashiers. Most are trying to help, but it is a sucky, thankless job, and the only one I can find right now.
That must be it. :rolleyes: It’s those damn whippersnappers again. Want me to hold your cane for you while you wave your finger and rant about how things were when you were their age?
(FTR, I’m 22 and have been working since I was 15.)
This is really a more Pit-worthy reply as it’s not much help with the OP, but I’ll keep the language G rated as the thread hasn’t been moved. Yet?
The reason I don’t go to Food Lion anymore is because of their mindless policy regarding the registers. They have a bad habit of only keeping the express lane open during slower shopping times. So everyone ends up in the express lane regardless of the number of items they have, including me with a full cart. After the express line got really long they woke up, opened a new register waaay at the other end of the checkout area and people waiting at the end of the express lane would go over there along with people who just finished shopping. Meanwhile, I was unaware that this was happening, being so close to the register myself. And of course, when my turn came the cashier would then say "This is the express lane and you’re over the limit. You need to go to the other checkout (the one that now has 12 people in it with full carts). Well, this lane was the only choice available when I got in line fifteen minutes ago, and you need to go ahead and honor the people who’ve been waiting here! And I wasn’t about to get out of that line and wait another fifteen minutes behind people who weren’t even in the store when I went to check out! Grrrr…I saw this happen to others in several Food Lions and it also happened to me twice, each time in a different Food Lion. The last time it happened I just left without my stuff (and it was a big purchase too). They haven’t gotten a dime from me since.
At least Food Lion isn’t the only game in our small town anymore, so maybe they don’t pull that stupid stunt nowadays. Still, I won’t go back to find out, EVER. And I certainly don’t blame the cashiers; it’s the policy.
Also (and this is a hijack), they had another bad habit of closing long before their posted closing time, sometimes an hour to 45 minutes before. Isn’t that false advertising?
Muffinman do you ever listen to me when I come home from Publix. Working as a cashier is bull-shit! People come through and take forever because their assholes and want me to check all the price or press the total key after every item so as not to go over the amount of money that they have in their pocekts.Then when i eiether have a retarded bagger or I don’t of one at all. so that slows you down and pisses people off steven think about it if they really did not need the work the would not be there eiether.Remember what you told me the other day. “Unemployment levels are too low.” so just get over it
I work with a lady from Poland and she is amazed that we bitch about having to wait a few minutes at the grocery store. When she lived in Poland lineups were a part of everday life and time was sometimes measured in hours, not minutes.
All this waiting could be for a single item and she said that sometimes the item would be gone before she made it to the front of the line. She reminds me that we have massive stores with no end of goods sold at reasonable prices. She doesn’t mind waiting 10 minutes at the grocery store.
She also tells me that her economy car is more luxurious than anything she could have afforded while in Poland.
