Went to WalMart on Monday, planning to get a month's worth of groceries and a few other miscellaneous items. Well, DH's handicapped since his accident in 2000, so he needs an electric cart most of the time when we go to WalMart - it's soooo darn big, and we never need just a couple things right in this one area, nooooo. We always need something at this end and something else wayyyyyyy at the other end... And now that I'm my age/weight, I can't always make all that's walk either. So of course, there were no carts in the cart bay. Sent the DGS down to the other end of the store to look but there were no carts there either. So we sat on a bench to wait. Finally one showed up, but it had no charge anymore, and finally another one showed up, but it was burnt out too. Asked a guy how many carts ARE there in this store? He said three, but we only ever saw two. We left without buying any groceries at all. Yesterday I came to the library and got on the computer, and emailed Corporate to explain the situation, especially the part about how we couldn't buy a month's worth of groceries! After school, we went about the same distance in the other direction to another WalMart. In the parking lot, some woman was sitting on a cart, talking to a WalMart employee. Right inside the door, there was a cart charging. But when we checked it, it was so dead it wouldn't turn on. Found another one, and it appeared to be fully charged, so off I went. DH chose to hang around in the grocery dept, near the door, with a regular push-cart, waiting for the one out in the parking lot to be brought in. I made a short pass by the pharmacy and then to housewares, when I saw one sitting abandoned in the aisle. Checked it, and it appeared to be charged. Called DH to let him know there was one over here! But sure enough, here he comes, riding the one the employee had finally brought in from outside. About that time, mine had two bars showing and was beeping at me. :evil: So I changed to the one I had found, but it turned out to be dead too! :twisted: So I walked for awhile, then DH decided he could walk a bit and said it was my turn. Those were the only 3 electric carts we saw at that WalMart, but at least we got some groceries! Stores that size should have at least 6 operational carts at all times, so that if some are charging, some can be running. And 2 extras, in case one of the 6 breaks down. I've told Corporate that Sam Walton is probably spinning in his grave over the way the stores treat customers these days. Grrr!
It's a problem here too. My mom has had to use them for the last couple of years, and Sam's and Walmart both it's rare to find one unless you go in the morning during the week. (even then sometimes they are all being used or dead) She does most of her shopping at a much smaller store and never a week's worth of groceries at a time. She just can't handle it.
Had to go back to that Walmart again today. They must have had six carts out, and at least 5 of them were working!
As some suggested there are probably better times for cart availability hopefully you will not encounter this every time. Yikes. Some times stores get swamped and it is hard to keep these things charged. My DH worked at a grocery store for years and he was very competent about keeping them plugged in during the day so they could stay charged. The teens that worked at night not so much. They were often dead in the morning and he had to plug them in. and if people started needing them early in the day, it would be a problem all day long. If you keep a watch out, sometimes those hovaround type of things come up at moving sales and estate sales. Also watch the hospice thrift shops and maybe you can pick one up cheap.
Not carts, but.... We have a fairly new Walmart near our house. I was in there not too long ago and just happened by the material section (which, I'm sure you know, is VERY limited!). And this cotton material caught my eye, because I'm working on a quilt for Phillip and it was PERFECT for it. So later I went back to get a yard. I WAITED FOR A FULL HALF-HOUR (!!!) FOR SOMEONE TO CUT IT!!! There's a doorbell-type thing to press to "summon" help. Yes, it worked! And yes, everyone just ignored it (and I could hear it each time I pressed it). A worker came by, and I said something to her. She was very nice, but says you need to be specially trained to use whatever. But she did say she'd try to get someone and went off. And I waited...and waited...and waited.... Obviously, she wasn't able to find someone, because she DID make a PA announcement for someone to go the sewing desk. Which was again ignored! (Hey, she tried!) Finally someone else came by cleaning and heard me complaining to another woman who was ALSO waiting to have something cut. This lady was able to find someone (maybe the announcement had informed someone that they ought to mosey over that way, and they were on their meandering way at that point...?) Eventually, he had the lady cleaning were working together to figure it out when the guy who was suppose to be there all along showed up. As did the gal who made the PA announcement, to see if anyone followed through. (And my first thought was, "How many Walmart employees does it take to cut material?", lol!) I did say something to a manager. And his response? "Yeah, that's a bit much. I'm sorry!" Personally, I think I should have gotten it free!
For what the employees get paid and how they get treated, I'm not sure I'd care much about the job either. And that translates to not caring so much about the customer. I know there ARE caring and attentive WalMart employees, but they're becoming fewer and farther between.
You have to take into consideration that these employees are simply not empowered to do the job. They do not feel empowered to just get it done. They never know when the idiot they report to will chew them out for being in that other department doing that other thing. Is there a log to be filled out, a clip board that needs signed, is there a special training class for people who are going to use something as dangerous as scissors? This is just the world we live in and its going to get worse, until the economy get bad enough to scare some common sense in to everyone.
When I first started reading your post, my initial reaction was, "It sounds as if she's talking about the public school system!" Actually, the issue wasn't scissors. There is a special gadget where you have scan the cost, put in how much material is bought, and some other stuff like that. But you're right. Nowadays you need special training just to say hello and smile!
My daughter went to Walmart to get an oil change a few days ago. They took her car in right away and had the oil changed in no time at all. She had to wait nearly an hour to pay for the oil change beacuase the person that was left in the auto department didn't know how to use the register....She was SOOOOO MAD!
