“Throatwarbler Mangrove”
Yeah, I was wondering how long it’d take 
I could understand the greeting maybe preventing shoplifting in a small store, but in a huge Wal-Mart? If I were of the mind to shoplift (I don’t remember ever having done so, though), I’d’ve already forgotten about the greeter by time I got to women’s lingerie section. Or, you know, whatever it was I meant to be shoplifting.
But that’s more the “fareweller”. The exit and entrance to our WalMart are separate enough that the greeter and fareweller are separate roles. Seems to be the same guy darting (OK, ambling) back and forth.
I’ve never seen a Walmart with entrances and exits in different spots. Our (super Walmart) has two foyers. One with the entrance and exit to the grocery store, and one with an entrance and exit to the classic WalMart. Both foyers have their very own elderly person who handles the greeting and the farewelling for that section. The poor guy at your store must really get a workout with all that going back and forth.
The position was instituted some time ago, when WMs were having problems with shrinkage. One group’s solution was to put someone at the door to make contact with everyone and dissuade theft. Another function that no-one’s hit on yet, but is speculation on my part, is to make things fun for kids. One of McDonald’s strategies is to make things fun for the kids so that they’ll grow up to be McDonald’s consumers, and I feel that something similar might be in place at WM with the fun googly eyes and the stickers.
It’s pronounced “hardcore”.
I always assumed it was partially for the reasons given already, but also partly because it’s useful to hire a really old decrepit person then take out a life insurance policy on them.
However, Wal*Mart apparantly no longer takes out “Dead Peasant” insurance policies on its rank-and-file employees.
I work for Wal-Mart, have done the “door greeter” education modules, etc. Whee. By this point, everyone’s hit most of the primary greeter functions, so I’m just here to confirm the guesses.
They’re a combination of store customer relations (guaranteeing that customers have personal interaction with at least one employee, handing out stickers and advertising tabs), security (tagging returns, watching for carry-outs, deterrence of impulse shoplifters, permanent “Code ADAM” sentries), and information font (directing customers to bathrooms, specific departments, the service desk). They’re certainly effective at stopping some amount of theft-- they recover a few hundred dollars’ merchandise from our electronics department daily. And, at least at our store, they got suckered into being the front-end maintenance guys… salting sidewalks, mopping rain and slush trails, vacuuming the carpets.
Incidentally, regarding the workings of that “return sticker” thing, here’s how it’s supposed to work:
- products being brought in are tagged with special void pop-up tags. The printing on the tags usually is just the store number, district, whatever, so they can’t be taken to another store and applied.
- the sticker allows customers to walk out with whatever they’ve brought in; if they’re challenged, peeling the sticker shows the void pop-up, thus the item was brought in and the tag hasn’t been switched
- the lack of pop-up upon peeling indicates the sticker has been applied to something else. You wouldn’t believe the number of people who try this trick on big-screen TVs and computers… and get caught by the greeter.
- similarly, it allows the returns desk to determine whether they’re refunding money on something actually brought back to the store, or if the customer has switched tags to get a refund on something never purchased.
It is the most boring job ever. Or at least it was when I had to cover the doors when I worked there. I was in clothing, but we all had to do it sometimes. I honestly feel that having people do nothing else is insulting. For an hour or so, it’s all right, but I don’t think that should be somebody’s entire job, unless they are truly not capable of doing anything else.
Do some Wal-Marts have nude greeters?
That’s what I get for posting before that second cup of coffee.
I was trying to say they’d pull us from all over the store to cover the doors if needed, while the greeters had their breaks or whatever. Quite often there simply weren’t enough front end people to cover, so they made us do it.
And then they’d get mad because something in the department hadn’t gotten done. Well, maybe if you’d have let me stay there and do it there wouldn’t be a problem, huh? Idiots.
Um…this is getting off-topic. Sorry.
Mlees,
It’s not the same thing as the Wal Mart greeter, nor is it just the super malls. I live in a small town far from Tokyo and malls of any type, and get the greeting at all convenience marts, hundred yen stores, bakeries, fast-food restaurants, and home centers (like Home Depot but Japan-sized). And it’s not just the person nearest the door; it’s everyone within the store.
Many Japanese appear to ignore these greetings. I, being an American from the South, cannot let a greeting pass without acknowledgement. That gets tiresome browsing through those huge department stores. Every department, every clerk within 3 meters of me saying “Irasshaimase!” in that fake voice, with me turning to them, nodding, and saying “Hai.” Just let me look, dammit! I’d be ecstatic if it were only one person at the door like Wal Mart.
/end digression
I just had to mention that Wal-Mart does not just have greeters in the store. If you go into the main entrance of their corporate headquarters during business hours there is a greeter there as well.
Same here! In fact, I made the news after one of my trips to Wal-Mart.
I had a Japanese language textbook that explained that greeting. The book specifically said that “no response is expected or required.” 
It’s been a while since I walked into a Wal-Mart, but the last time I went, I saw neither a greeter nor any smiley-face stickers. I go to Target all the time, and I haven’t seen any “Target security” either. I do remember many greeters from my childhood, however. I remember all the stickers. Do the Smiley Face stickers still look the same?
I had to occasionally relieve the customer greeter at Kmart in the early 80’s. It’s there I learned just how low down and thieving some people are. The customer greeter’s main job is to note people entering get their merchandise identified, and that obvious walkouts are caught. In addition you secondary job is to keep miscreants and undesirables from entering. Stores do post pictures of past shoplifters, and troublemakers. The last on the priority list is to keep the entrance tidy and be a nice representative of the store. This is the general reasons for store greeters and it just nicer to use that title, than security. The security scanners and cameras have lower the importance of the greeter’s job, but it’s still usful or they would save the money.
The people that used the kids to shoplift pissed me off the most. They loaded down kids, went to get the car and the adults are outside waiting in the car, while they hope the kids walk out and get in. Baby carriers are a favorite of these types. Wrap a couple blankets around the kid with merchandise in between the blankets, and set the kid on merchandise in the bottom of the carrier. Have the 5 year old push out the cart with the carrier. Beep the horn for 10 minutes when the kids are detained, and they can see the kids being held. They are thinking should I leave or go now. They’re thinking damn why’d I teach the kids their names.
Ours does, which makes it impossible to use the same entrance greeter to check deplaning passengers, I mean, exiting guests, I mean, customers. There’s a wall of merchandise, several lines of shopping carts, and a customer service counter inbetween the in and out doors. Nobody checks receipts, although sometimes a greeter-type person is non-confrontationally standing near the exit.
Yes, but as he implied, Southern Mothers would beat us within an inch of our lives if we did not acknowledge a greeting. It is a veritable Pavlovian Response. 
Wait, I’m confused. Are you the guy who punched the greeter in the face, or are you the cop? Because if it’s the former, that’s not something I’d be bragging about. 
Robin