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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.
by 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 agoI 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 agoTarget (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).
- manyxcxi 10y agoTarget didn't get hacked for not having updated software. They were hacked because an HVAC contractor was hacked to get the HVAC system credentials and it wasn't properly segregated from the same network as the POS terminals. They even had FireEye installed and detected the exfiltration malware [0], but for some reason ignored the alarms. [0] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-03-13/target-missed-warnings-in-epic-hack-of-credit-card-data http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-03-13/target-mis...
- davidf18 10y agoI used to work as a consultant to a subsidiary of one of the largest software security firms. The security hole exploited by the hackers was essentially closed by Windows 7 embedded in 2010. Target was running Windows XPe (embedded). I had read the Bloomberg article when it came out with some interest, because the reason Target was hacked was simply because they did not upgrade the POS OS as recommended and it was for this reason that Target was hacked. "Both Home Depot and Target Corp. (TGT) -- whose registers were compromised last December -- appear to have fallen victim to a decade-old exploit of Windows XPe. What's more, these losses -- which may total as many as 100 million customer credit and debit card numbers -- could have likely been prevented by simply paying to upgrade to a more modern Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) operating system, such as Windows 7 for Embedded Systems." [1] Each version of Windows has security upgrades (sometimes using new features of Intel CPU hardware) that previous versions of Windows don't implement, even with security updates. Many of these security hacks happen because firms that use computers refuse to pay for proper security software, perform recommended upgrades and to hire very competent people to work with their systems. Of course, the systems can still be hacked, but there are easier systems to exploit and the attacks can be caught earlier and with limited consequences. [1] http://www.dailytech.com/Appalling+Negligence+DecadeOld+Windows+XPe+Holes+Led+to+Home+Depot+Hack/article36517.htm http://www.dailytech.com/Appalling+Negligence+DecadeOld+Wind...
- slededit 10y agoAt least when I worked there, stock was never in the "store room". The back was merely for stock that they hadn't got around to unpacking yet. The company was legendary for logistics in the 90s and early 2000s. Part of that came from having most stock in one of two states: In transit, or on the shelves. Stock in the back is a cost center. Most stores do not operate this way, their Just In Time delivery system isn't up to the task. And so customers used to this inefficiency liked to ask you to check. They don't really want an explanation on JIT or walmarts inventory management so pretending to check was best for all involved.
- decwakeboarder 10y ago> 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've been in IT Engineering / SRE for over 10 years now and you just described 80% of my days.