4 ms·

Walmart Is Eliminating Greeters. Workers With Disabilities Feel Targeted

45 points by vector_spaces 8y ago

ngngngng 8y ago
The Greeter at my local Walmart has a nasty scowl and makes me feel really uncomfortable every time I walk in there. I for one welcome this move towards a more anti-social world.
- ddtaylor 8y ago
  Is it possible their face is stuck that way? EDIT: I think you guys are reading into this comment wrongly. It's entirely possible the person doesn't mean to "scowl" at the OP but could have a disability.
- justaguyhere 8y ago
  On one side, I feel bad for those who will lose their jobs. But as a customer who goes to Walmart once in a while, I prefer not to see greeters at the door. I never understood this concept anyway - why do I need to be greeted when I am going shopping? Many business places don't do it, what is special about Walmart?
  - matz1 8y ago
    Agree, this is one of example of bullshit job.
Invictus0 8y ago
I can't recall someone ever saying "welcome to walmart" to me, anywhere in the US. Even so, I don't think someone saying that to me would be enough to humanize the face of one of the world's biggest megacorps. Maybe if they handed out coupons or free food I would be interested. I sympathize with these workers but I don't see myself going into the streets to protest this.
- Consultant32452 8y ago
  I haven't noticed in a while but I specifically recall greeters handing out smiley face stickers to kids at many Walmarts.
- beatgammit 8y ago
  The free popcorn is one thing I love about Ace Hardware and, to a lesser extent, Home Depot. Walmart, on the other hand, feels way worse, yet they probably spend about the same on those greeters as Ace spends on the popcorn. Now, Ace Hardware isn't the poster child of success like Walmart is, but it's famous for that popcorn, just like Walmart is famous for its creepy greeters. And losing the creepy greeters is actually kind of sad in an odd way. I wish we could go back to the time when most people shopped at smaller stores where the registers were run by the owners and they cared about their customers enough to remember them. It's sad that Walmart will most likely be defeated by another large company with even less human interaction, but I guess that's the price of progress...
  - Causality1 8y ago
    I mean, if you're OK with paying a thousand dollars for a 32 inch TV, sure we can do that.
anilshanbhag 8y ago
In a recent interview on CNBC, Buffett said that Walmart CEO Doug McMillon always carries with him a list of top 10 retailers of each of the past decades just to remind himself of the brutal history of retailing. Walmart took Sears to the cleaners and with status quo, there was a high chance Amazon and Costco will take Walmart to the cleaners. So far, they have done a pretty good job modernizing.
- arkitaip 8y ago
  If you are racing to the bottom, isn't it just easier to throw yourself out of the window instead of taking the stairs?
  - ARandomerDude 8y ago
    Is this an analogy? Can you explain it in literal terms?
    - OedipusRex 8y ago
      He means that why take small steps (such as eliminating greeters) and instead do every cost saving strategy possible much like Pepsi Co is doing now [1] 1: https://gizmodo.com/pepsico-is-relentless-automating-its-workforce-and-it-1832804035 https://gizmodo.com/pepsico-is-relentless-automating-its-wor...
  - Pristina 8y ago
    >racing to the bottom It's easier to race to the top. Just increase price on all your items 10000000000000x. im sure you will be the first in line to buy.
- adpirz 8y ago
  Related: Walmart Labs[1] is supposedly doing some cool dev work and is hiring. (I'm unaffiliated but know people who've worked there) [1]https://www.walmartlabs.com/ https://www.walmartlabs.com/
  - 8y ago
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
grandinj 8y ago
That title immediately makes me think this is a hit piece. It looks designed to place Walmart in the worst possible light.
- phy6 8y ago
  Good call. I will add the entire article to my training data. Just running it as is, wow, the headline came out to be 94.40655708312988 positive for clickbait! (I am using a modified keras/tensorflow model trained on clickbait headlines.)
dvtrn 8y ago
According to interviews with workers and documents reviewed by NPR, to qualify for these new host positions, workers must be able to lift 25 pounds, clean up spills, collect carts and stand for long periods of time, among other things — tasks that can be impossible for people with disabilities. Wait 1) Who employed at my local Wal-Mart does this now? 2) Why do these job duties need a new title? Asked only slightly rhetorically, if that's fine.
- pkaye 8y ago
  I'm guessing they are trying to reduce the employee count by combining various responsibilities. You can barely find a cashier or floor staff these days.
  - dvtrn 8y ago
    I'm guessing they are trying to reduce the employee count by combining various responsibilities. Goes to show what I know about the day to day in the life of a wal-mart employee, but I figured those duties were kind of already combined/shared responsibilities of the 'floor staff'-except for maybe the kids who spend most of their days fetching and herding carts (which my time in grocery retail was reserved for A) the newbies for "training" or B) the troublemakers/someone being 'disciplined' by a manager). Interesting.
- privateSFacct 8y ago
  My impression is they are eliminating greeeters. Ie, Amazon doesn't pay for greeters, people don't seem to mind if they are not greated when going to amazon or other stores, so to compete with these highly automated competitors they are reducing headcount where they can. The positions available to greaters, called hosts, have to handle more tasks (presumably to save them money on things like janitorial services etc). So I'm not sure that this isn't somewhat explainable by reasons other than trying to get rid of disabled greeters. And the hosts may reduce costs in other areas (janitorial, restocking? etc).
  - jrs235 8y ago
max76 8y ago
"In 2005, Walmart faced outcry over a leaked internal memo that proposed cutting soaring health costs by, among other things, requiring that all jobs include some physical activity." I wonder to what degree the high cost of healthcare effected their decision to replace greeters with "customer hosts". Is this Walmart reorganizing for a better customer experience, is this Walmart cutting costs to help fight Amazon, or is this Walmart cutting costs to boost executive bonuses?
Causality1 8y ago
A greeter who is also available for other tasks generates far more value for Walmart than one who can only greet. Unless they can pay a disabled greeter an equivalent fraction, probably around 1/3 as much value as an average worker in an unskilled capacity, they're going to do everything they can to spend their personnel dollars on workers who aren't disabled.
- jointpdf 8y ago
  Good thing this is extensively illegal under federal law.
  - Causality1 8y ago
    How? If I need a stocker who can unload trucks, put product on shelves, and spent the rest of their day greeting customers how could I be compelled to hire someone incapable of doing 2/3 of the job?
calebio 8y ago
A great guy from my hometown who has cerebral palsy is one of those losing their jobs. He has worked at the Marion, NC Walmart for almost 17 years. Almost every time I've visited the store, I've heard his voice saying "hey y'all" with the biggest smile on his face. https://www.wyff4.com/article/thousands-petition-for-walmart-greeter-with-cerebral-palsy-after-job-is-eliminated-in-western-north-carolina/26518805 https://www.wyff4.com/article/thousands-petition-for-walmart... The town has stepped up with petitions, calls, etc. He's offered to work for Walmart for free. I read that the local Lowe's has offered him a position. Just wanted to share his story.
- Pristina 8y ago
  If you love him so much you can pay for him. walmart doesn't think he's worth it and your personal story with this guy isn't going to be worth 20k a year.
  - Gibbon1 8y ago
    Don't be too sure you're worth even close to what you are paid because truthfully most people aren't.
ilamont 8y ago
NPR has also learned of several complaints against Walmart with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as well as a lawsuit — all by greeters with disabilities who previously lost their jobs after demands changed. The threat of court action or penalties is one of the few things that will cause giant corporations to rethink discriminatory policies such as this. And it's not greeters that's Walmart's problem. It's Amazon. Walmart needs to be out-Amazoning Amazon in several key areas, and so far it's basically been a game of catch-up.
chairmanwow 8y ago
Things like this are always tough to see on the micro, because individuals that didn’t do anything wrong are losing their jobs. On the macro, it’s tough to blame the business for doing the right thing for themselves. The market places immense pressure on incumbent businesses to innovate to cut costs, reduce inconsistency, and provide fresh experiences. These are the basics of capitalism and any individual agent is _required_ to adjust their personal work policy to maintain their position of employability. Employability is always transient. Any personal skill, specific job category, or asset has a limited period of time that it will be useful to the market. Some obvious examples of this happening: * Walmart has been piloting robots that can take inventory and clean [1] * Short distance Autonomous food delivery robots [2] [3] * Autonomous vehicle delivery of humans and goods [5] * Haidilao (huge Chinese hotpot chain) has been piloting robots that deliver food to your table [4] [1] https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/12/07/business/walmart-robot-janitors-dotcom-store/index.html https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/12/07/busi... [2] https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/22/starship-deploys-autonomous-delivery-bots-on-a-college-campus/amp/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/22/starship-deploys-autonomou... [3] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2019/1/23/18194566/amazon-scout-autonomous-six-wheeled-delivery-robot https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2... [4] https://shanghai.ist/2018/10/29/haidilao-robots/ https://shanghai.ist/2018/10/29/haidilao-robots/ [5] https://www.frysfood.com/f/grocery-delivery-nuro-self-driving-vehicles https://www.frysfood.com/f/grocery-delivery-nuro-self-drivin...
- raincom 8y ago
  >These are the basics of capitalism and any individual agent is _required_ to adjust their personal work policy to maintain their position of employability. The same capitalism doesn't work when it comes to housing, healthcare, etc. That's why ordinary people get pissed off.

45 points by vector_spaces 8y ago

The Greeter at my local Walmart has a nasty scowl and makes me feel really uncomfortable every time I walk in there. I for one welcome this move towards a more anti-social world.

ddtaylor 8y ago
Is it possible their face is stuck that way? EDIT: I think you guys are reading into this comment wrongly. It's entirely possible the person doesn't mean to "scowl" at the OP but could have a disability.
justaguyhere 8y ago
On one side, I feel bad for those who will lose their jobs. But as a customer who goes to Walmart once in a while, I prefer not to see greeters at the door. I never understood this concept anyway - why do I need to be greeted when I am going shopping? Many business places don't do it, what is special about Walmart?
- matz1 8y ago
  Agree, this is one of example of bullshit job.

Invictus0 8y ago

I can't recall someone ever saying "welcome to walmart" to me, anywhere in the US. Even so, I don't think someone saying that to me would be enough to humanize the face of one of the world's biggest megacorps. Maybe if they handed out coupons or free food I would be interested. I sympathize with these workers but I don't see myself going into the streets to protest this.

Consultant32452 8y ago
I haven't noticed in a while but I specifically recall greeters handing out smiley face stickers to kids at many Walmarts.
beatgammit 8y ago
The free popcorn is one thing I love about Ace Hardware and, to a lesser extent, Home Depot. Walmart, on the other hand, feels way worse, yet they probably spend about the same on those greeters as Ace spends on the popcorn. Now, Ace Hardware isn't the poster child of success like Walmart is, but it's famous for that popcorn, just like Walmart is famous for its creepy greeters. And losing the creepy greeters is actually kind of sad in an odd way. I wish we could go back to the time when most people shopped at smaller stores where the registers were run by the owners and they cared about their customers enough to remember them. It's sad that Walmart will most likely be defeated by another large company with even less human interaction, but I guess that's the price of progress...
- Causality1 8y ago
  I mean, if you're OK with paying a thousand dollars for a 32 inch TV, sure we can do that.

anilshanbhag 8y ago

In a recent interview on CNBC, Buffett said that Walmart CEO Doug McMillon always carries with him a list of top 10 retailers of each of the past decades just to remind himself of the brutal history of retailing. Walmart took Sears to the cleaners and with status quo, there was a high chance Amazon and Costco will take Walmart to the cleaners. So far, they have done a pretty good job modernizing.

arkitaip 8y ago
If you are racing to the bottom, isn't it just easier to throw yourself out of the window instead of taking the stairs?
- ARandomerDude 8y ago
  Is this an analogy? Can you explain it in literal terms?
  - OedipusRex 8y ago
    He means that why take small steps (such as eliminating greeters) and instead do every cost saving strategy possible much like Pepsi Co is doing now [1] 1: https://gizmodo.com/pepsico-is-relentless-automating-its-workforce-and-it-1832804035 https://gizmodo.com/pepsico-is-relentless-automating-its-wor...
- Pristina 8y ago
  >racing to the bottom It's easier to race to the top. Just increase price on all your items 10000000000000x. im sure you will be the first in line to buy.
adpirz 8y ago
Related: Walmart Labs[1] is supposedly doing some cool dev work and is hiring. (I'm unaffiliated but know people who've worked there) [1]https://www.walmartlabs.com/ https://www.walmartlabs.com/
- 8y ago

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

grandinj 8y ago

That title immediately makes me think this is a hit piece. It looks designed to place Walmart in the worst possible light.

phy6 8y ago
Good call. I will add the entire article to my training data. Just running it as is, wow, the headline came out to be 94.40655708312988 positive for clickbait! (I am using a modified keras/tensorflow model trained on clickbait headlines.)

dvtrn 8y ago

According to interviews with workers and documents reviewed by NPR, to qualify for these new host positions, workers must be able to lift 25 pounds, clean up spills, collect carts and stand for long periods of time, among other things — tasks that can be impossible for people with disabilities. Wait 1) Who employed at my local Wal-Mart does this now? 2) Why do these job duties need a new title? Asked only slightly rhetorically, if that's fine.

pkaye 8y ago
I'm guessing they are trying to reduce the employee count by combining various responsibilities. You can barely find a cashier or floor staff these days.
- dvtrn 8y ago
  I'm guessing they are trying to reduce the employee count by combining various responsibilities. Goes to show what I know about the day to day in the life of a wal-mart employee, but I figured those duties were kind of already combined/shared responsibilities of the 'floor staff'-except for maybe the kids who spend most of their days fetching and herding carts (which my time in grocery retail was reserved for A) the newbies for "training" or B) the troublemakers/someone being 'disciplined' by a manager). Interesting.
privateSFacct 8y ago
My impression is they are eliminating greeeters. Ie, Amazon doesn't pay for greeters, people don't seem to mind if they are not greated when going to amazon or other stores, so to compete with these highly automated competitors they are reducing headcount where they can. The positions available to greaters, called hosts, have to handle more tasks (presumably to save them money on things like janitorial services etc). So I'm not sure that this isn't somewhat explainable by reasons other than trying to get rid of disabled greeters. And the hosts may reduce costs in other areas (janitorial, restocking? etc).
- jrs235 8y ago

max76 8y ago

"In 2005, Walmart faced outcry over a leaked internal memo that proposed cutting soaring health costs by, among other things, requiring that all jobs include some physical activity." I wonder to what degree the high cost of healthcare effected their decision to replace greeters with "customer hosts". Is this Walmart reorganizing for a better customer experience, is this Walmart cutting costs to help fight Amazon, or is this Walmart cutting costs to boost executive bonuses?

Causality1 8y ago

A greeter who is also available for other tasks generates far more value for Walmart than one who can only greet. Unless they can pay a disabled greeter an equivalent fraction, probably around 1/3 as much value as an average worker in an unskilled capacity, they're going to do everything they can to spend their personnel dollars on workers who aren't disabled.

jointpdf 8y ago
Good thing this is extensively illegal under federal law.
- Causality1 8y ago
  How? If I need a stocker who can unload trucks, put product on shelves, and spent the rest of their day greeting customers how could I be compelled to hire someone incapable of doing 2/3 of the job?

calebio 8y ago

A great guy from my hometown who has cerebral palsy is one of those losing their jobs. He has worked at the Marion, NC Walmart for almost 17 years. Almost every time I've visited the store, I've heard his voice saying "hey y'all" with the biggest smile on his face. https://www.wyff4.com/article/thousands-petition-for-walmart-greeter-with-cerebral-palsy-after-job-is-eliminated-in-western-north-carolina/26518805 https://www.wyff4.com/article/thousands-petition-for-walmart... The town has stepped up with petitions, calls, etc. He's offered to work for Walmart for free. I read that the local Lowe's has offered him a position. Just wanted to share his story.

Pristina 8y ago
If you love him so much you can pay for him. walmart doesn't think he's worth it and your personal story with this guy isn't going to be worth 20k a year.
- Gibbon1 8y ago
  Don't be too sure you're worth even close to what you are paid because truthfully most people aren't.

ilamont 8y ago

NPR has also learned of several complaints against Walmart with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as well as a lawsuit — all by greeters with disabilities who previously lost their jobs after demands changed. The threat of court action or penalties is one of the few things that will cause giant corporations to rethink discriminatory policies such as this. And it's not greeters that's Walmart's problem. It's Amazon. Walmart needs to be out-Amazoning Amazon in several key areas, and so far it's basically been a game of catch-up.

chairmanwow 8y ago

Things like this are always tough to see on the micro, because individuals that didn’t do anything wrong are losing their jobs. On the macro, it’s tough to blame the business for doing the right thing for themselves. The market places immense pressure on incumbent businesses to innovate to cut costs, reduce inconsistency, and provide fresh experiences. These are the basics of capitalism and any individual agent is _required_ to adjust their personal work policy to maintain their position of employability. Employability is always transient. Any personal skill, specific job category, or asset has a limited period of time that it will be useful to the market. Some obvious examples of this happening: * Walmart has been piloting robots that can take inventory and clean [1] * Short distance Autonomous food delivery robots [2] [3] * Autonomous vehicle delivery of humans and goods [5] * Haidilao (huge Chinese hotpot chain) has been piloting robots that deliver food to your table [4] [1] https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/12/07/business/walmart-robot-janitors-dotcom-store/index.html https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/12/07/busi... [2] https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/22/starship-deploys-autonomous-delivery-bots-on-a-college-campus/amp/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/22/starship-deploys-autonomou... [3] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2019/1/23/18194566/amazon-scout-autonomous-six-wheeled-delivery-robot https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2... [4] https://shanghai.ist/2018/10/29/haidilao-robots/ https://shanghai.ist/2018/10/29/haidilao-robots/ [5] https://www.frysfood.com/f/grocery-delivery-nuro-self-driving-vehicles https://www.frysfood.com/f/grocery-delivery-nuro-self-drivin...

raincom 8y ago
>These are the basics of capitalism and any individual agent is _required_ to adjust their personal work policy to maintain their position of employability. The same capitalism doesn't work when it comes to housing, healthcare, etc. That's why ordinary people get pissed off.