Wal-Mart has a big problem:
Margaret Hancock has long considered the local Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) superstore her one- stop shopping destination. No longer.
During recent visits, the retired accountant from Newark, Delaware, says she failed to find more than a dozen basic items, including certain types of face cream, cold medicine, bandages, mouthwash, hangers, lamps and fabrics.
The cosmetics section “looked like someone raided it,” said Hancock, 63.
Even worse… the products are there:
It’s not as though the merchandise isn’t there. It’s piling up in aisles and in the back of stores because Wal-Mart doesn’t have enough bodies to restock the shelves, according to interviews with store workers. In the past five years, the world’s largest retailer added 455 U.S. Wal-Mart stores, a 13 percent increase, according to filings and the company’s website. In the same period, its total U.S. workforce, which includes Sam’s Club employees, dropped by about 20,000, or 1.4 percent. Wal-Mart employs about 1.4 million U.S. workers.
Basically, Wal-Mart is hurting itself by being what it worships – Cheap.
A thinly spread workforce has other consequences: Longer check-out lines, less help with electronics and jewelry and more disorganized stores, according to Hancock, other shoppers and store workers. Last month, Wal-Mart placed last among department and discount stores in the American Customer Satisfaction Index, the sixth year in a row the company had either tied or taken the last spot. The dwindling level of customer service comes as Wal-Mart has touted its in-store experience to lure shoppers and counter rival Amazon.com Inc. (emphasis mine)
Seriously? I use Amazon… a lot. I use it because it’s easy and I don’t have to go out – I use Amazon because I don’t want an in-store experience! Why Wal-Mart thinks it can rival Amazon, when the two business models aren’t comparable, is nuts.
And are they kidding about the Wal-Mart in-store experience? Is there any retail store more depressing and dirty than Wal-Mart? Granted, I’m not a Walmart shopper, but I have been in their stores. And every single one I’ve been to is filthy. Yuck. Perhaps they could hire janitors along with people to stock their shelves.
The fact that they are hurting themselves by being cheap… priceless.