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Observations about the nearest Wal-Mart: 1) All the employees look sad, all he time. 2) They've obviously carefully tuned their check out staffing so that the

Observations about the nearest Wal-Mart: 1) All the employees look sad, all he time. 2) They've obviously carefully tuned their check out staffing so that the lines are always long. This is such a constant that it has to be intentional, and they're doing a good job of it. 3) Sometimes they attempt to check receipts at exit. I don't get that at any other non-membership store. 4) All the shoppers look sad. 5) It's the only place I know where I am 100% guaranteed to smell both strong cigarette odor and way too-strong perfume application multiple times per visit. 6) The shoppers are uniquely talentless when it comes to existing in space without being in others' way. I don't see this anywhere else. It always feels 3x as busy as it is both because they cram the aisles full of crap, and because no-one knows how to walk or stand without being in the way. It's bizarre. 7) The most prominently-placed thing on entering the building is a row of gambling machines. I shit you not. They're directly ahead, and you have to veer right to enter the actual shopping area. That definitely sets a tone. Most of these are true at any other Wal-Mart I visit. I avoid them most of the time, despite their having much lower prices than, say, target. The visits take longer and are miserable. Their weird interior color choices (WTF is up with that dirty-looking orangey-yellow?!) and something they do with the lighting (can't put my finger on it, it's just drab and dingy) make it even worse. I'm about 90% sure that Wal-Mart didn't used to be this gross and unpleasant.

emodendroket 5y ago
I gotta say that either your Walmart is worse than any I’ve ever been to or you’re in your own head a bit.
throwaway0a5e 5y ago
Varies by store. The Walmart near me isn't like this. Only #2 is true. Walmart is probably the #1 big box store where I live. Everyone shops there, rich and poor alike. It's clean, the people are fine and the staff are as happy as any other big box store staff. The Walmarts in the adjacent towns are similar. Most Walmarts I've seen are about like this. The tire center will have a Festiva in one bay and a Tesla in the nest The Walmart near my work is very different. Way more dismal in all the ways you've described. I dunno about the gambling thing, that may vary by state and I've never seen it anywhere. But where I work has enough wealthy people to support other stores so the Walmart clientele is much poorer on average. I've been in probably a dozen Walmarts over the years and it's by far the worst.
Red_Leaves_Flyy 5y ago
The staff are miserable because the pay is shit, and they’re likely collecting or eligible for welfare. The customers treat them like shit. The shit that happens in and around Walmart’s is soul destroying. If Walmart started treating their staff like Costco we’d see a lot happier staff, and pay less taxes on entitlements.
- handrous 5y ago
  Yeah, I didn't intend that as a slight against the employees. It's just another thing that makes shopping there unpleasant. I don't expect that employees at a store like that put on a bunch of fake-happiness for my sake, but Wal-Mart's give off strong "I hate this shit" vibes that I don't get other places. I don't blame them (the employees) for it, though.
  - Red_Leaves_Flyy 5y ago
    I agree, but would Walmart paying their staff like Costco to help them have some happiness in their life be enough to get customers like us in their stores? There’s still the whole, all very poor people shop there dynamic that isn’t going away unless someone can undercut Walmart significantly.
  - nitrogen 5y ago
    strong "I hate this shit" vibes that I don't get other places I got that at Safeway on Market/Church in SF. But in other places I've seen Walmart and other stores' staff have been much happier and nicer. Even though these chains try to have consistent experiences across locations, there is a pretty large variability from city to city.
- partiallypro 5y ago
  The Walmarts around me pay ~$15/hr which isn't much less than Costco.
  - yumraj 5y ago
    One thing I've noted in general is Costco employees are much younger on average than Walmart employees. I almost never find an old employee at Costco, while at Walmart most of them are old or middle aged.
mike_d 5y ago
Longer lines and things like the occasional light bulb burned out psychologically made people think they were getting a better deal. The store is just like a Vegas casino, every last thing has been thought out and everything is A/B tested down to a regional and sometimes city basis.
- nine_k 5y ago
  I suppose that the long lines go next to aisles with some last-minute stuff like candy, chewing gum, small toys, etc, which the bored people in the line have to see and may feel a craving to grab. If not them, then their children who experience boredom more acutely.
- crznp 5y ago
  I believe it, but what were they trying to optimize? If all of their changes are focused on near-term bottom line, is it really surprising if that comes at the expense of customer/employee satisfaction and brand reputation?
  - mike_d 5y ago
    Walmart ultimately measures everything against lifetime customer value. They don't really care about maximizing revenue on a specific trip because most people come in to the store with a fixed budget of what they can spend anyway - but they sure as heck want you to return. Fixed income customers see things like an ultra clean speed and efficient store as 1) intimidating and 2) overhead that makes prices go up and "wastes" their money.
    - emodendroket 5y ago
      I’ve seen Walmarts churning through shoppers with really impressive speed so I guess some of them didn’t get the memo.
- idiotsecant 5y ago
  no, it's just a burned out lightbulb.
pengaru 5y ago
Most of what you're observing is simply a reflection of the area demographics. It's similar to visiting a small town DMV. Your description of gambling machines reminds me of my last visit back home in IL, after they legalized gambling. It's very jarring to walk past locals glued to video slot machines at 9AM in a gas station. It's depressing as hell, I'm sure the walmarts have cashed in on the action too but I didn't visit one while there.
- emodendroket 5y ago
  That was my impression in Vegas. It at least seems kind of glamorous in the casinos, but seeing someone gambling in a gas station doesn’t put you in a good mood.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  I don't know why this is downvoted and I don't know why I didn't think of this comparison. I've lived in five different states and been to Walmarts and flipped cars and the variance is EXACTLY like variance in DMVs in both QoS, clientele/employee demographics.
  - pengaru 5y ago
    Right, the DMV has a monopoly on a service most adults require. There are competitors for simple services like registration renewal @ AAA, but that's less available in smaller communities. So when you go to a DMV somewhere there's only one DMV serving the region, it's a pretty good cross-section of local society. Another interesting window in this vein is the local courthouse. The smaller towns don't separate out traffic violations from everything else, it's all on display handled in one room. You can get a sense of what's going on and the type of people in a given small town rather quickly this way. When there's just one grocer serving a given area, it's effectively the same situation. But when competition eventually arrives, I think they tend to quickly divide along class boundaries. Around here there's only one grocery store in my local town, and as a result it's actually pretty decent. The exact same chain has a very similar store in a significantly larger town ~25 miles away, where there's a competing upper-class grocer in the adjacent lot. The effect is devastating on the mediocre chain. Customers are treated poorly, the place is a filthy mess, cashiers aren't even trusted enough to manually enter prices when a barcode won't scan. The contrast is shocking, just next door in the higher end grocer none of these problems are experienced, but the prices are slightly higher.
edgyquant 5y ago
#3 really irks me, because they don’t check everyone’s receipts. I was stopped and asked for a receipt two days ago for a gallon of milk I had in the cart because it “wasn’t in a bag” while other people walked past. I can understand e.g. when I buy a TV, but a gallon of milk is ridiculous and profiling.
- georgeecollins 5y ago
  I think this is a sign of a regional monopoly, like when the cable company gives you a six hour window for a service call. It probably isn't worth the small amount of theft you stop to alienate customers (otherwise grocers in Los Angeles would do it) by checking receipts. But if you are the only affordable store in town you don't really have to worry about alienating customers.
- late2part 5y ago
  In most states in the US (all?) you are not obligated to stop and show your receipt. It may be polite, and you may do it, but you are not required to do so. For membership stores, it may be a condition of membership, but it still may not be legally required. Any employee that stops you might be guilty of kidnapping. https://www.lawyers.com/legal-info/consumer-protection/protections-for-consumer-purchases/receipt-checks-at-stores-are-they-worth-the-hassle.html https://www.lawyers.com/legal-info/consumer-protection/prote...
  - khuey 5y ago
    Yep, just keep walking.
- adrr 5y ago
  Just say no. They won’t/can’t stop you. Costco has it in their membership agreement but stores that aren’t memberships; you didn’t agree to it and you have no obligation to show it. Worst case you get banned.
  - thekyle 5y ago
    > Worst case you get banned. I would much rather stop for 30 seconds than be banned from my local grocery store.
ineedasername 5y ago
Regarding nearly all of these points, if you're on tight fixed-income budget, these don't matter, you don't have much choice. Similarly, you don't have much choice when Walmart is the only option around without a fair bit more travel, unless you pay very large markups at local convenience stores. #7 is a separate issue though. That is a predatory practice and I'm glad I live in a state where it isn't allowed.
jcims 5y ago
Broke people need to shop too.
- protomyth 5y ago
  GP probably should avoid shopping on the 1st in the US too. Be a shame to run into those EBT people. They hold up the line with coupons also. I'm still debating the merits of growing up on a Rez versus how I see my fellow humans.
  - handrous 5y ago
    Only three of my seven observations are about the shoppers. Only one of those three isn't a choice: seeming sad, at a much higher rate than at other stores—shit, even Dollar General shoppers don't look as down as Wal-Mart shoppers, though, given the rest of my list, maybe they just look sad because they're at Wal-Mart. Dollar General's fun (for me, dunno about anyone else who's there). Wal-Mart is... exhausting. Only time I see that much concentrated sadness in a store, that consistently, is when I find myself in a dying-rural-town grocery store that looks like it time-travelled from 1990. I don't remember whether those were sad places when I was growing up, mostly in those same sorts of dying rural towns. Wal-Mart wasn't, and their store function, service, cleanliness, and design all improved constantly through about '05, then abruptly reversed course and haven't stopped going downhill. Dunno what happened. Maybe Amazon happened, though that doesn't explain some of their oddly ill-looking paint color choices from the last couple re-designs.
jejones3141 5y ago
Here in far west West Des Moines, they have LOTS of checkout lines, which once had a fair number of people behind the registers. Now, you're lucky if two of them have people. I think they are really nudging you to go through the self-checkout or to order via the web and either pick it up or have it delivered. The number of aisles occupied by people either stocking or shopping for online orders also seriously encourages you to go away and order online.
bobthepanda 5y ago
Also, it doesn’t quite help that their color palette is fluorescent white and blue, which is something that evokes, say, a dreary clinical setting, and not necessarily somewhere you want to shop.
- loonster 5y ago
  With the low cri fluorescent lights.
- JohnJamesRambo 5y ago
  Always ™
xwdv 5y ago
I guarantee that if Amazon was a physical retail location it would look exactly the same.
- cbozeman 5y ago
  It would look worse. I'm currently working on robotics deployment for several new Amazon warehouses and I hate having to visit the already operating ones - everyone looks like they would jump out of the window like the people at Foxconn, except they don't because they know the fall wouldn't kill them. Amazon is truly staffed with geniuses at the upper echelons... keep the peasants who make the whole operation work away from the customers, that way the customers can always feel good about buying from Amazon. Walmart doesn't have that luxury, what with it's enormous physical presence and all.
- Scoundreller 5y ago
  Probably worse. Paint is such a frill. As is lighting when you’re not in an aisle. And when you are, why not light upward from below? Cheaper to change the bulbs then.
deleted 5y ago
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syedkarim 5y ago
Are the prices at Walmart really that much lower than Target? On the limited amount of stuff I buy, it’s not been the case.
- kube-system 5y ago
  For an equivalent item, Target is usually not much more expensive, if any. But, Walmart carries cheaper alternatives and a wider selection than Target.
- AuryGlenz 5y ago
  I haven’t noticed a difference in most things. Some things are cheaper at Walmart, but they also often have companies make worse versions of products for them just so they can sell them cheaper.
  - handrous 5y ago
    Clothes are notorious for this. "Wow, [mid-tier jeans brand] is only $16/pair at Wal-Mart, and they're $40 when you find them on sale on [jeans brand]'s web site. What a bargain!" ... but then it turns out they're not the same thing, even if they're made to look very much like they are even down to the labelling, and in fact the manufacturer produces a separate low-end- and outlet-stores version that's much worse than their standard product.
    - mc32 5y ago
      A different phenomenon but somewhat related is when good brands have an unusual sale item (not a close out). It seems to be where the MFG had a bad run and they’re noticing a higher rate of returns so they put them on sale. It’s not worth it, get the full price version and avoid the defects (like seal quality, adhesive quality, material quality, etc.)
mgkimsal 5y ago
The one nearer me has a great self-checkout area. I usually prefer self-checkout, and my wait is rarely longer than 1 minute. I don't shop there often - perhaps 2x per month for some specific items, but long checkout is never an issue. That said, it used to be, before the self-checkout area. And, when traveling, I end up popping in to Walmarts in various parts of the country now and then, and the checkout times are always a gamble. re: #6 - I wonder if it has something to do with the aisles being there more for the convenience of the packers and movement of goods in the store, vs the convenience of shoppers. I understand your point, and do notice it sometimes, and have tried to compare it to other shops. However, in the last few years, I found myself going to shops less and less overall, so it's harder for me to remember and compare against competitors fairly.
samstave 5y ago
>2) They've obviously carefully tuned their check out staffing so that the lines are always long. This is such a constant that it has to be intentional, and they're doing a good job of it. --- This is actually an anti-pattern in their org; They have FAILED to properly train to and address this problem, thus it persists. Its not intentional - it is through lack of taking a focus on this aspect of their business, or looking at it - and determining they prefer/dont mind it...
MiddleEndian 5y ago
>They've obviously carefully tuned their check out staffing so that the lines are always long. This is such a constant that it has to be intentional, and they're doing a good job of it. Macy's has a similarly annoying policy. They deliberately keeping their cash registers unmanned, which they apparently tell their employees is to "avoid intimidating customers" so you have to stand around waiting or seek out an employee manually. I thought my local Macy's was simply understaffed, but since learning they do it on purpose I've decided never to go there again.
- leesalminen 5y ago
  Once, as a child, I grabbed the phone behind the counter, hit the PA button, and requested a cashier at our section. It worked! Probably wouldn’t go over so well as an adult, though.
  - grogenaut 5y ago
    I've done this as an adult. They got mad but I just ignored it and said "are you going to check me out" and they did. Tangentially related. In college or football team would go to old country buffet. Which has a microphone in the wall to order more from the kitchen for the staff. One of our smart ass players went up and said "we need more fried chicken". The manager caught him and scolded him. Then looked at the buffet and said "make that two orders of fried chicken" in the mic.
  - MiddleEndian 5y ago
    Honestly if I'm ever dragged there by someone else I'll try it and report back.
- Scoundreller 5y ago
  I think that’s their public justification. The reality is there’s a camera pointed at each one and a couple of pool cashiers that run to any as needed.
  - MiddleEndian 5y ago
toast0 5y ago
> 2) They've obviously carefully tuned their check out staffing so that the lines are always long. This is such a constant that it has to be intentional, and they're doing a good job of it. They're also the only store I know of that shuts down their checkouts at closing time; if you were already in line, too bad, they'll check you out tomorrow. (Of course, a lot of their stores are 24x7)
- tacocataco 5y ago
  This would piss me off enough to never come back.
jxramos 5y ago
There's something to #6. I agree it's pronounced at Walmarts. I've observed the same lack of sensitivity when going to a Costco in a poor side of town vs a more well to do, I've used that repeated experience as an Apples to Apples comparison. The shoppers in the poorer part demonstrate poor personal spatial habits and being oblivious to blocking others or other actions that demonstrate blinders and indifference to being in the presence of other people and general shopping etiquette. Blocking products, aisles, not yielding enough space, not making eye contact when you're about to intersect paths. It's nothing super egregious and extreme but it's noticeable, and I'm sure probably measurable too if one had a body cam and documented situation A vs B over a several trips and itemized all the strange encounters. If I'm at a Whole Foods, the sensitivity is way at the other extreme of politeness. I wonder if anyone's ever went deep on an analysis of this sort of phenomenon.
- Tarsul 5y ago
  It's a true point albeit a delicate one. I have a colleague who is not the brightest (not a developer ;)) and what I've noticed with him is that there's something of a misunderstanding of social contexts in that he interpretes things others do as in bad faith when they're anything but and which is why in such social contexts he's constantly agitated. So he's simply missing the empathy or emotional intelligence to see things from the viewpoint of another person. He'd be one of the people being annoyed that others don't make room for him but also in the same vein he'd be one of those persons not watching out for others simply because he'd have his head full of thinking about himself and what he wants to buy, he simply wouldn't have the mental capability to think about other shoppers in that moment.
  - tacocataco 5y ago
    Your friend sounds like he has PTSD from some sort of mistreatment.
refurb 5y ago
It’s funny seeing many posts on HN rallying against capitalism, decrying the cycle of poverty and food deserts and then see someone complain about seeing poor people at Walmart. Sorry you have to mix with the “rabble”!
- mc32 5y ago
  I think you lost the context. Wal*Mart is threatened by other retailers. Why might they be losing foot traffic/customers/sales? People want to shop with others of similar taste/preferences. They presently cater to the one of the lowest common denominators (Dollar stores could be lower, I guess), so how could they appeal to other shoppers? That’s the crux of the question. The current stores appeal to one audience but not another. Whole Foods has the same problem, except from the other direction. Working class folks will sneer at Whole Foods. It’s not their bag. Amazon would have to open something that caters to price conscious shoppers if they wanted to expand groceries to working class shoppers...
- cbozeman 5y ago
  Jesus, tell me about it.. the entitlement in this post is un-fucking-believable. Furthermore, I'm wondering what shitholes these people live in or near where they actually experience this sort of thing. The Walmarts around Keller, Texas are nothing like what's being described here... although granted, this is an upper middle class area of Texas, and unlike California, we don't allow people to steal shit out of our pharmacies with impunity, nor do we allow people to shit on our streets.
cbozeman 5y ago
Then you live in, or near, a shithole. Nothing about your list describes Walmarts in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, except perhaps the poorest parts of Dallas, which I have not personally visited. Grapevine, Flower Mound, Roanoke, Rome, Keller, Preston Hollow Walmarts are all immaculately maintained and clean.
gftttgggfffddd 5y ago
Uniquely talentless when it comes to existing in space Brilliant turn of phrase!
vegetablepotpie 5y ago
> They've obviously carefully tuned their check out staffing so that the lines are always long. I’ve noticed this at Walmart. However, I’ve noticed it’s worse at Target, (an arguably higher end store) where I’ve observed the queue reaching from one end of the store to the next. Interestingly, I’ve also noticed this effect on grocery chains in my area. Fry’s (Kroger) seems to have many queues open, which go quickly, whereas the higher end Safeway will have 1-2 queues open and zero open after hours. All stores are bad with lines, until you get to really high end (like Whole Foods or Natural Grocers), but Paradoxically the more expensive stores (mid range, like Target and Safeway) are the worst offenders out of everyone. I don’t know why this is. Maybe they don’t have enough customers and not enough profit to justify more staff, or maybe they found that if the lines are long, customers will make another trip around the store and buy more stuff.

emodendroket 5y ago

I gotta say that either your Walmart is worse than any I’ve ever been to or you’re in your own head a bit.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago

Varies by store. The Walmart near me isn't like this. Only #2 is true. Walmart is probably the #1 big box store where I live. Everyone shops there, rich and poor alike. It's clean, the people are fine and the staff are as happy as any other big box store staff. The Walmarts in the adjacent towns are similar. Most Walmarts I've seen are about like this. The tire center will have a Festiva in one bay and a Tesla in the nest The Walmart near my work is very different. Way more dismal in all the ways you've described. I dunno about the gambling thing, that may vary by state and I've never seen it anywhere. But where I work has enough wealthy people to support other stores so the Walmart clientele is much poorer on average. I've been in probably a dozen Walmarts over the years and it's by far the worst.

Red_Leaves_Flyy 5y ago

The staff are miserable because the pay is shit, and they’re likely collecting or eligible for welfare. The customers treat them like shit. The shit that happens in and around Walmart’s is soul destroying. If Walmart started treating their staff like Costco we’d see a lot happier staff, and pay less taxes on entitlements.

handrous 5y ago
Yeah, I didn't intend that as a slight against the employees. It's just another thing that makes shopping there unpleasant. I don't expect that employees at a store like that put on a bunch of fake-happiness for my sake, but Wal-Mart's give off strong "I hate this shit" vibes that I don't get other places. I don't blame them (the employees) for it, though.
- Red_Leaves_Flyy 5y ago
  I agree, but would Walmart paying their staff like Costco to help them have some happiness in their life be enough to get customers like us in their stores? There’s still the whole, all very poor people shop there dynamic that isn’t going away unless someone can undercut Walmart significantly.
- nitrogen 5y ago
  strong "I hate this shit" vibes that I don't get other places I got that at Safeway on Market/Church in SF. But in other places I've seen Walmart and other stores' staff have been much happier and nicer. Even though these chains try to have consistent experiences across locations, there is a pretty large variability from city to city.
partiallypro 5y ago
The Walmarts around me pay ~$15/hr which isn't much less than Costco.
- yumraj 5y ago
  One thing I've noted in general is Costco employees are much younger on average than Walmart employees. I almost never find an old employee at Costco, while at Walmart most of them are old or middle aged.

mike_d 5y ago

Longer lines and things like the occasional light bulb burned out psychologically made people think they were getting a better deal. The store is just like a Vegas casino, every last thing has been thought out and everything is A/B tested down to a regional and sometimes city basis.

nine_k 5y ago
I suppose that the long lines go next to aisles with some last-minute stuff like candy, chewing gum, small toys, etc, which the bored people in the line have to see and may feel a craving to grab. If not them, then their children who experience boredom more acutely.
crznp 5y ago
I believe it, but what were they trying to optimize? If all of their changes are focused on near-term bottom line, is it really surprising if that comes at the expense of customer/employee satisfaction and brand reputation?
- mike_d 5y ago
  Walmart ultimately measures everything against lifetime customer value. They don't really care about maximizing revenue on a specific trip because most people come in to the store with a fixed budget of what they can spend anyway - but they sure as heck want you to return. Fixed income customers see things like an ultra clean speed and efficient store as 1) intimidating and 2) overhead that makes prices go up and "wastes" their money.
  - emodendroket 5y ago
    I’ve seen Walmarts churning through shoppers with really impressive speed so I guess some of them didn’t get the memo.
idiotsecant 5y ago
no, it's just a burned out lightbulb.

pengaru 5y ago

Most of what you're observing is simply a reflection of the area demographics. It's similar to visiting a small town DMV. Your description of gambling machines reminds me of my last visit back home in IL, after they legalized gambling. It's very jarring to walk past locals glued to video slot machines at 9AM in a gas station. It's depressing as hell, I'm sure the walmarts have cashed in on the action too but I didn't visit one while there.

emodendroket 5y ago
That was my impression in Vegas. It at least seems kind of glamorous in the casinos, but seeing someone gambling in a gas station doesn’t put you in a good mood.
throwaway0a5e 5y ago
I don't know why this is downvoted and I don't know why I didn't think of this comparison. I've lived in five different states and been to Walmarts and flipped cars and the variance is EXACTLY like variance in DMVs in both QoS, clientele/employee demographics.
- pengaru 5y ago
  Right, the DMV has a monopoly on a service most adults require. There are competitors for simple services like registration renewal @ AAA, but that's less available in smaller communities. So when you go to a DMV somewhere there's only one DMV serving the region, it's a pretty good cross-section of local society. Another interesting window in this vein is the local courthouse. The smaller towns don't separate out traffic violations from everything else, it's all on display handled in one room. You can get a sense of what's going on and the type of people in a given small town rather quickly this way. When there's just one grocer serving a given area, it's effectively the same situation. But when competition eventually arrives, I think they tend to quickly divide along class boundaries. Around here there's only one grocery store in my local town, and as a result it's actually pretty decent. The exact same chain has a very similar store in a significantly larger town ~25 miles away, where there's a competing upper-class grocer in the adjacent lot. The effect is devastating on the mediocre chain. Customers are treated poorly, the place is a filthy mess, cashiers aren't even trusted enough to manually enter prices when a barcode won't scan. The contrast is shocking, just next door in the higher end grocer none of these problems are experienced, but the prices are slightly higher.

edgyquant 5y ago

#3 really irks me, because they don’t check everyone’s receipts. I was stopped and asked for a receipt two days ago for a gallon of milk I had in the cart because it “wasn’t in a bag” while other people walked past. I can understand e.g. when I buy a TV, but a gallon of milk is ridiculous and profiling.

georgeecollins 5y ago
I think this is a sign of a regional monopoly, like when the cable company gives you a six hour window for a service call. It probably isn't worth the small amount of theft you stop to alienate customers (otherwise grocers in Los Angeles would do it) by checking receipts. But if you are the only affordable store in town you don't really have to worry about alienating customers.
late2part 5y ago
In most states in the US (all?) you are not obligated to stop and show your receipt. It may be polite, and you may do it, but you are not required to do so. For membership stores, it may be a condition of membership, but it still may not be legally required. Any employee that stops you might be guilty of kidnapping. https://www.lawyers.com/legal-info/consumer-protection/protections-for-consumer-purchases/receipt-checks-at-stores-are-they-worth-the-hassle.html https://www.lawyers.com/legal-info/consumer-protection/prote...
- khuey 5y ago
  Yep, just keep walking.
adrr 5y ago
Just say no. They won’t/can’t stop you. Costco has it in their membership agreement but stores that aren’t memberships; you didn’t agree to it and you have no obligation to show it. Worst case you get banned.
- thekyle 5y ago
  > Worst case you get banned. I would much rather stop for 30 seconds than be banned from my local grocery store.

ineedasername 5y ago

Regarding nearly all of these points, if you're on tight fixed-income budget, these don't matter, you don't have much choice. Similarly, you don't have much choice when Walmart is the only option around without a fair bit more travel, unless you pay very large markups at local convenience stores. #7 is a separate issue though. That is a predatory practice and I'm glad I live in a state where it isn't allowed.

jcims 5y ago

Broke people need to shop too.

protomyth 5y ago
GP probably should avoid shopping on the 1st in the US too. Be a shame to run into those EBT people. They hold up the line with coupons also. I'm still debating the merits of growing up on a Rez versus how I see my fellow humans.
- handrous 5y ago
  Only three of my seven observations are about the shoppers. Only one of those three isn't a choice: seeming sad, at a much higher rate than at other stores—shit, even Dollar General shoppers don't look as down as Wal-Mart shoppers, though, given the rest of my list, maybe they just look sad because they're at Wal-Mart. Dollar General's fun (for me, dunno about anyone else who's there). Wal-Mart is... exhausting. Only time I see that much concentrated sadness in a store, that consistently, is when I find myself in a dying-rural-town grocery store that looks like it time-travelled from 1990. I don't remember whether those were sad places when I was growing up, mostly in those same sorts of dying rural towns. Wal-Mart wasn't, and their store function, service, cleanliness, and design all improved constantly through about '05, then abruptly reversed course and haven't stopped going downhill. Dunno what happened. Maybe Amazon happened, though that doesn't explain some of their oddly ill-looking paint color choices from the last couple re-designs.

jejones3141 5y ago

Here in far west West Des Moines, they have LOTS of checkout lines, which once had a fair number of people behind the registers. Now, you're lucky if two of them have people. I think they are really nudging you to go through the self-checkout or to order via the web and either pick it up or have it delivered. The number of aisles occupied by people either stocking or shopping for online orders also seriously encourages you to go away and order online.

bobthepanda 5y ago

Also, it doesn’t quite help that their color palette is fluorescent white and blue, which is something that evokes, say, a dreary clinical setting, and not necessarily somewhere you want to shop.

loonster 5y ago
With the low cri fluorescent lights.
JohnJamesRambo 5y ago
Always ™

xwdv 5y ago

I guarantee that if Amazon was a physical retail location it would look exactly the same.

cbozeman 5y ago
It would look worse. I'm currently working on robotics deployment for several new Amazon warehouses and I hate having to visit the already operating ones - everyone looks like they would jump out of the window like the people at Foxconn, except they don't because they know the fall wouldn't kill them. Amazon is truly staffed with geniuses at the upper echelons... keep the peasants who make the whole operation work away from the customers, that way the customers can always feel good about buying from Amazon. Walmart doesn't have that luxury, what with it's enormous physical presence and all.
Scoundreller 5y ago
Probably worse. Paint is such a frill. As is lighting when you’re not in an aisle. And when you are, why not light upward from below? Cheaper to change the bulbs then.

deleted 5y ago

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syedkarim 5y ago

Are the prices at Walmart really that much lower than Target? On the limited amount of stuff I buy, it’s not been the case.

kube-system 5y ago
For an equivalent item, Target is usually not much more expensive, if any. But, Walmart carries cheaper alternatives and a wider selection than Target.
AuryGlenz 5y ago
I haven’t noticed a difference in most things. Some things are cheaper at Walmart, but they also often have companies make worse versions of products for them just so they can sell them cheaper.
- handrous 5y ago
  Clothes are notorious for this. "Wow, [mid-tier jeans brand] is only $16/pair at Wal-Mart, and they're $40 when you find them on sale on [jeans brand]'s web site. What a bargain!" ... but then it turns out they're not the same thing, even if they're made to look very much like they are even down to the labelling, and in fact the manufacturer produces a separate low-end- and outlet-stores version that's much worse than their standard product.
  - mc32 5y ago
    A different phenomenon but somewhat related is when good brands have an unusual sale item (not a close out). It seems to be where the MFG had a bad run and they’re noticing a higher rate of returns so they put them on sale. It’s not worth it, get the full price version and avoid the defects (like seal quality, adhesive quality, material quality, etc.)

mgkimsal 5y ago

The one nearer me has a great self-checkout area. I usually prefer self-checkout, and my wait is rarely longer than 1 minute. I don't shop there often - perhaps 2x per month for some specific items, but long checkout is never an issue. That said, it used to be, before the self-checkout area. And, when traveling, I end up popping in to Walmarts in various parts of the country now and then, and the checkout times are always a gamble. re: #6 - I wonder if it has something to do with the aisles being there more for the convenience of the packers and movement of goods in the store, vs the convenience of shoppers. I understand your point, and do notice it sometimes, and have tried to compare it to other shops. However, in the last few years, I found myself going to shops less and less overall, so it's harder for me to remember and compare against competitors fairly.

samstave 5y ago

>2) They've obviously carefully tuned their check out staffing so that the lines are always long. This is such a constant that it has to be intentional, and they're doing a good job of it. --- This is actually an anti-pattern in their org; They have FAILED to properly train to and address this problem, thus it persists. Its not intentional - it is through lack of taking a focus on this aspect of their business, or looking at it - and determining they prefer/dont mind it...

MiddleEndian 5y ago

>They've obviously carefully tuned their check out staffing so that the lines are always long. This is such a constant that it has to be intentional, and they're doing a good job of it. Macy's has a similarly annoying policy. They deliberately keeping their cash registers unmanned, which they apparently tell their employees is to "avoid intimidating customers" so you have to stand around waiting or seek out an employee manually. I thought my local Macy's was simply understaffed, but since learning they do it on purpose I've decided never to go there again.

leesalminen 5y ago
Once, as a child, I grabbed the phone behind the counter, hit the PA button, and requested a cashier at our section. It worked! Probably wouldn’t go over so well as an adult, though.
- grogenaut 5y ago
  I've done this as an adult. They got mad but I just ignored it and said "are you going to check me out" and they did. Tangentially related. In college or football team would go to old country buffet. Which has a microphone in the wall to order more from the kitchen for the staff. One of our smart ass players went up and said "we need more fried chicken". The manager caught him and scolded him. Then looked at the buffet and said "make that two orders of fried chicken" in the mic.
- MiddleEndian 5y ago
  Honestly if I'm ever dragged there by someone else I'll try it and report back.
Scoundreller 5y ago
I think that’s their public justification. The reality is there’s a camera pointed at each one and a couple of pool cashiers that run to any as needed.
- MiddleEndian 5y ago

toast0 5y ago

> 2) They've obviously carefully tuned their check out staffing so that the lines are always long. This is such a constant that it has to be intentional, and they're doing a good job of it. They're also the only store I know of that shuts down their checkouts at closing time; if you were already in line, too bad, they'll check you out tomorrow. (Of course, a lot of their stores are 24x7)

tacocataco 5y ago
This would piss me off enough to never come back.

jxramos 5y ago

There's something to #6. I agree it's pronounced at Walmarts. I've observed the same lack of sensitivity when going to a Costco in a poor side of town vs a more well to do, I've used that repeated experience as an Apples to Apples comparison. The shoppers in the poorer part demonstrate poor personal spatial habits and being oblivious to blocking others or other actions that demonstrate blinders and indifference to being in the presence of other people and general shopping etiquette. Blocking products, aisles, not yielding enough space, not making eye contact when you're about to intersect paths. It's nothing super egregious and extreme but it's noticeable, and I'm sure probably measurable too if one had a body cam and documented situation A vs B over a several trips and itemized all the strange encounters. If I'm at a Whole Foods, the sensitivity is way at the other extreme of politeness. I wonder if anyone's ever went deep on an analysis of this sort of phenomenon.

Tarsul 5y ago
It's a true point albeit a delicate one. I have a colleague who is not the brightest (not a developer ;)) and what I've noticed with him is that there's something of a misunderstanding of social contexts in that he interpretes things others do as in bad faith when they're anything but and which is why in such social contexts he's constantly agitated. So he's simply missing the empathy or emotional intelligence to see things from the viewpoint of another person. He'd be one of the people being annoyed that others don't make room for him but also in the same vein he'd be one of those persons not watching out for others simply because he'd have his head full of thinking about himself and what he wants to buy, he simply wouldn't have the mental capability to think about other shoppers in that moment.
- tacocataco 5y ago
  Your friend sounds like he has PTSD from some sort of mistreatment.

refurb 5y ago

It’s funny seeing many posts on HN rallying against capitalism, decrying the cycle of poverty and food deserts and then see someone complain about seeing poor people at Walmart. Sorry you have to mix with the “rabble”!

mc32 5y ago
I think you lost the context. Wal*Mart is threatened by other retailers. Why might they be losing foot traffic/customers/sales? People want to shop with others of similar taste/preferences. They presently cater to the one of the lowest common denominators (Dollar stores could be lower, I guess), so how could they appeal to other shoppers? That’s the crux of the question. The current stores appeal to one audience but not another. Whole Foods has the same problem, except from the other direction. Working class folks will sneer at Whole Foods. It’s not their bag. Amazon would have to open something that caters to price conscious shoppers if they wanted to expand groceries to working class shoppers...
cbozeman 5y ago
Jesus, tell me about it.. the entitlement in this post is un-fucking-believable. Furthermore, I'm wondering what shitholes these people live in or near where they actually experience this sort of thing. The Walmarts around Keller, Texas are nothing like what's being described here... although granted, this is an upper middle class area of Texas, and unlike California, we don't allow people to steal shit out of our pharmacies with impunity, nor do we allow people to shit on our streets.

cbozeman 5y ago

Then you live in, or near, a shithole. Nothing about your list describes Walmarts in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, except perhaps the poorest parts of Dallas, which I have not personally visited. Grapevine, Flower Mound, Roanoke, Rome, Keller, Preston Hollow Walmarts are all immaculately maintained and clean.

gftttgggfffddd 5y ago

Uniquely talentless when it comes to existing in space Brilliant turn of phrase!

vegetablepotpie 5y ago

> They've obviously carefully tuned their check out staffing so that the lines are always long. I’ve noticed this at Walmart. However, I’ve noticed it’s worse at Target, (an arguably higher end store) where I’ve observed the queue reaching from one end of the store to the next. Interestingly, I’ve also noticed this effect on grocery chains in my area. Fry’s (Kroger) seems to have many queues open, which go quickly, whereas the higher end Safeway will have 1-2 queues open and zero open after hours. All stores are bad with lines, until you get to really high end (like Whole Foods or Natural Grocers), but Paradoxically the more expensive stores (mid range, like Target and Safeway) are the worst offenders out of everyone. I don’t know why this is. Maybe they don’t have enough customers and not enough profit to justify more staff, or maybe they found that if the lines are long, customers will make another trip around the store and buy more stuff.