4 ms·

Another Wally post that gets many comments. Perhaps I am the only HN poster with actual working experience at wally - in the retail area too. So let me react to

Another Wally post that gets many comments. Perhaps I am the only HN poster with actual working experience at wally - in the retail area too. So let me react to others' posts. The Walmart worker image I seem to read by comments are the sales floor and cashier type associate. Yes, there are Some that you wonder if they can be employed elsewhere. But that is not even close to a majority at the store I know about. Can a Walmart worker work at a Starbucks? Of course!! Can a Starbucks worker work at Wal-Mart? Sure. But retail sucks at times and I would bet more Starbucks -> Wally failures than the other way around. Many wally workers have been there decades. They earn 50 -125% more than the $10/hr publicised. First level managers Get the 48k required to avoid overtime when the new law takes effect. Since the new wage hike in my store there has not been any "ventilation" of out with the old and in with better employees. Its really really hard to hire anybody now. Heartbeat? You are hired. Promotions come at such a rapid pace it is truly wonderful to see. 20 year old given 4 Promotions in 18 months to become assist the manager at 48k. It happens. On another site Many posts about how rapidly promotions occur. Many store managers who make 130-250+ and more started out selling dirt alongside those "can't be employeed elsewhere" associates. In many cases it only takes 10 years to get to that level. Retail is its own form of servitude. It's hard. Takes work and a special person to succeed. Once off the clock you can not work. The "$10" pay more to employees was a brilliant move. The press ate it. I'll finish by my own transformation. I used to think Wally workers were in a class of their own. I worked at Costco too. There is no difference. There are substantially fewer Costcos than Wally. And Costco has much less need for employees. So you don't see the "can't work anywhere else" types.

Namrog84 10y ago
"Perhaps I am the only HN poster with actual working experience at wally" Nope. I'm sure there are others. I worked at Walmart for a bit making $7/hour. Stocking and other misc things, though never a cashier. When min wage was like $5.15 or $6.15. A lot has changed since then though. I now have a masters in CS and work at Microsoft.
- losteverything 10y ago
  Different path for me Cps degree (pre Microsoft): work (overpaid) at large monopoly until cell phone penetration was 35% and displaced.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
fuqted 10y ago
I've worked at Walmart as recently as a month or so ago and, after being fired, I now work at Target - please reserve judgement for one of America's lost boys. I only worked there for a short time and the fire came from not showing up to work, so I'm not holding any grudge. This store was in the Bay Area. I'd say there were quite a few of the types that were nearly unemployable, including new hires. This is probably due to the fact that the job is nearly unworkable. One time I mentioned the fact that I was tired to a woman who had been with the company for 15 years, she said 'Working at Walmart will do that to you'. I don't think it takes a 'special type of person' to succeed at working there, and I'm not sure I'd call it succeeding. I only worked on weekends so my perspective may be skewed but it felt like doing a wave of work, consisting mostly of putting things back to there proper place, only to come back tomorrow and do the same thing with no end in sight. This may be a phenomenon of employment at large, I don't know. I'll say that my experience with Target astounds me how Target is apparently so much less popular than Walmart, and for the reasons that this article was trying to push. The training software with Walmart felt very cheap,and something to be rushed through (or in my case something to be milked for a week while I read a book on my phone). Target's training is done in small groups by team leads. I worked at Walmart for almost two months and, despite a few attempts at trying, I was never trained in finding items in the storage room (I was actually coached to say 'we're out of that item'). I was trained in this after working at Target for a few days. Not only that, but there's the fact that business management software is much more deeply embedded into the average Target employee's workday. It makes for a better store. More on 'the investments', some Walmart employee's get 10% off select items in the store. All Target employees get 10% off everything in the store (except produce, which is an extra 10% for a total of 20). Anyway, I'm just chipping in.
- losteverything 10y ago
  I worked at target too. Conclusion? Retail sucks. I think the difference for me between the two is the opposite of yours. I leave it to different store management and cultures. The statement "each store is different." is very true
- davidf18 10y ago
  Target (and Lowe's) were hacked for credit cards (but not Walmart) because they did not update POS software to newer OS as recommended by the manufacturer, Microsoft. So, glad to see Target spends money training employees, for it didn't spend the money for upgrading their POS terminal software (and apparently Walmart has).
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

Namrog84 10y ago

"Perhaps I am the only HN poster with actual working experience at wally" Nope. I'm sure there are others. I worked at Walmart for a bit making $7/hour. Stocking and other misc things, though never a cashier. When min wage was like $5.15 or $6.15. A lot has changed since then though. I now have a masters in CS and work at Microsoft.

losteverything 10y ago
Different path for me Cps degree (pre Microsoft): work (overpaid) at large monopoly until cell phone penetration was 35% and displaced.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

fuqted 10y ago

I've worked at Walmart as recently as a month or so ago and, after being fired, I now work at Target - please reserve judgement for one of America's lost boys. I only worked there for a short time and the fire came from not showing up to work, so I'm not holding any grudge. This store was in the Bay Area. I'd say there were quite a few of the types that were nearly unemployable, including new hires. This is probably due to the fact that the job is nearly unworkable. One time I mentioned the fact that I was tired to a woman who had been with the company for 15 years, she said 'Working at Walmart will do that to you'. I don't think it takes a 'special type of person' to succeed at working there, and I'm not sure I'd call it succeeding. I only worked on weekends so my perspective may be skewed but it felt like doing a wave of work, consisting mostly of putting things back to there proper place, only to come back tomorrow and do the same thing with no end in sight. This may be a phenomenon of employment at large, I don't know. I'll say that my experience with Target astounds me how Target is apparently so much less popular than Walmart, and for the reasons that this article was trying to push. The training software with Walmart felt very cheap,and something to be rushed through (or in my case something to be milked for a week while I read a book on my phone). Target's training is done in small groups by team leads. I worked at Walmart for almost two months and, despite a few attempts at trying, I was never trained in finding items in the storage room (I was actually coached to say 'we're out of that item'). I was trained in this after working at Target for a few days. Not only that, but there's the fact that business management software is much more deeply embedded into the average Target employee's workday. It makes for a better store. More on 'the investments', some Walmart employee's get 10% off select items in the store. All Target employees get 10% off everything in the store (except produce, which is an extra 10% for a total of 20). Anyway, I'm just chipping in.

losteverything 10y ago
I worked at target too. Conclusion? Retail sucks. I think the difference for me between the two is the opposite of yours. I leave it to different store management and cultures. The statement "each store is different." is very true
davidf18 10y ago
Target (and Lowe's) were hacked for credit cards (but not Walmart) because they did not update POS software to newer OS as recommended by the manufacturer, Microsoft. So, glad to see Target spends money training employees, for it didn't spend the money for upgrading their POS terminal software (and apparently Walmart has).

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]