“Sir, sir - what cable company do you have” Damn, I will go through the women’s clothing section to avoid those salesmen.
Why?
The cable company wants their people in a position where you have to try hard to avoid encountering them. And Walmart management values the payments they get from the cable company for that premium space more than they value your convenience.
Next question?
Plus while Verizon or AT&T sell you service, I assume Walmart makes money when you buy the phone there.
My supermarket lets vendors push new food products (that they sell, but I think the food companies also pay for that space.) This seems very similar.
Really, it’s this. Walmart’s goal is to maximize revenue from their stores. Renting space in the aisles to third-party companies is, effectively, free money for Walmart; it may inconvenience or anger a small number of customers, but very likely not enough to offset the increased revenue from that rental.
My old roommate (from before I was married, decades ago) had a similar job recently: he was a contractor for AT&T, and his job was to staff a little booth at Target stores, and try to convince shoppers to switch to AT&T for their cell phone service. Frankly, that sounds like a miserable job, with a really low success rate, but AT&T must have done the math, and determined that it paid out for them.
As above. And it’s not just Wal-Mart. They’re at Kroger, at HEB, at Costco, etc. They’re not always in the aisles but they are usually somewhere nearly every customer is forced to walk past. There aren’t many grocery stores or large retailers around here that don’t have them at all. Maybe none
Your goodwill is only worth so much, and most of it is intangible and has no revenue value until the loss of it makes you decide to boycott the store. Which, for most people, is a very high bar.
They make the most money by allowing you to be annoyed by paying company reps juuuuust short of ragequitting the store. Your shopping enjoyment doesn’t even register on the balance sheets.
I haven’t seen this here in NJ, maybe we’re less likely collectively to put up with such nonsense. Though Wal-Mart might be doing it, I don’t have any near me. None of the other big chains do it though in my area of New Jersey.
'Zactly.
As I’ve often said, we each don’t get the service we deserve. We all get the bare minimum we’re collectively willing to put up with.
As in my personal pet peeve: Until we en masse start walking out empty handed whenever there are both lines and unstaffed registers at peak times, that won’t change.
I don’t necessarily mind that they are there, but what I mind is that they don’t take no for an answer. They should behave like the samples vendors do. The samples vendors say “Would you like a sample?”. If you say no, they say “Ok. Thanks.” and that’s the end of it. But the other kinds of vendors keep harping at you no matter what you say. My standard response is something like “Thanks, but I’m just visiting”. That closes down most lines of responses. If they ask where I’m visiting from, I’ll say a little known country like Estonia. If they ask why I’m here, I’ll say I’m putting my mom into hospice. Basically, I’ll say something which they don’t have a response for. Walking on by without saying anything at all is also an option, but it’s hard to do that because my emotions don’t like being rude like that. I don’t like lying either, but it’s a way to stop the interaction without too many hard feelings.
I don’t shop at Walmart, but I shop a LOT at Costco. My only complaint about those vendors is when they clog up the aisle and make it difficult to get past them. And actually it’s not them that do the clogging, but shoppers who stop in front of their display in the middle of the aisle to hear the pitch (or wait for a sample). Those people deserve to have a shopping cart driven into their ankles!
Costco is the only place I see this. Mostly solar panels and rain gutters between checkout and the exit.
Can’t say I’ve experienced that, but I don’t engage at all beyond saying “I’m not interested.”
ISTR hearing that Costco had a policy for the vendors that they had to take ‘no’ for an answer. They were allowed to make their pitch, but if a member declined, they weren’t allowed to follow up with a back-up pitch. I think the person I heard this from was a Costco employee who worked in their customer service unit. I don’t know about Walmart or any other retailer.
The first time, I say “No thanks.” If they don’t stop I say, “I said NO. THANK. YOU.” In any case, just keep walking.
“Ovaltine?”
To that point, I visit Home Depot a lot, and I notice I rarely see those isle vendors more than once. I long speculated that they make almost nothing but as long as you have other salespeople standing by, it’s a workable business model.
Yeah, never at Walmart, but always at Costco- here i admit i have not been to Costco for a few years.
They definitely do this at the Walmarts on Long Island and if I see them ahead of time I will purposely go down a different aisle.
My fried/former roommate had that job for maybe two years; he lost it not because of low performance, but because the company he worked for lost its contract with AT&T.
That said, my friend has been working at a variety of low-pay retail jobs for 30+ years. So, I agree that it’s likely that he didn’t make much at that job, either.