Sunday, January 15, 2012

Saturday's Walmart



Dear Reader, does your Walmart have four doors at each front entrance. And do shoppers leaving the Walmart, exit through the left door instead of the right door? And do shoppers entering the Walmart, enter through the left door instead of the right door, as well? Or does this only happen at the Keeaumoku Street Walmart in Honolulu?

7 comments:

blournalist said...

I find this happens everywhere. In a double-door situation, someone opens the left door and everyone behind just follows. Are they assuming the other door is locked? I'm always the guy who opens the other door. At the very least, we'll all get out of there twice as fast now.

The Wal-Mart in my area is too much of a pain to get to, and too much of a pain to be at, so I can at least tell you the problem wasn't created by Sam Walton.

p.s. Did you know that Wal-Mart's big angle is that they prominently display some products at deep discount while many other products are actually more expensive than you would find elsewhere? The idea is that when we see something so heavily discounted, we assume that everything in the store must be marked that way. Point is, they don't do it all by volume sales alone.

RONW said...

blournalist- the Honolulu Wal-Mart is one of the few branches nationwide that is located in the middle of town. During an earlier recession a giant lot of prime city land sat empty for a while and Wal-Mart came in and scooped it up for a dime. Usually, Wal-marts are built on cheaper land. Even worked on the ground floor of this particular Wal-mart but got into an argument with another worker and unfortunately the Wal-Mart building overseerer happened to be in earshot of where we were working and well had to find another union job.

Wal-mart wrote the book on how to trick customers with pricing. I dunno if they still do it, but Wal-Mart buy's products from their vendors twice a year. But they don't accept shipment until 6 months later, and then charges the vendors reverse interest for paying 6 months early. I'm sure the vendors wouldn't have a problem shipping their products the day after signing the contract.

blournalist said...

Holy smokes! Mussa been some argument!

Wal-Mart apparently has done a similar thing with produce. They insist on using their own trucks to pick up the produce from the farm, except the truck sometimes doesn't show up until days after the agreed upon date.

When the truck does show up (often after hours, forcing the farm to pay workers overtime) the produce is driven to another location where it will often sit for a day again.

By the time the produce sees final inspection, it can be a 25% yield for the farmer.

Kay said...

My sister-in-law works for Walmart and they have $#!#! her over a couple of times.

As for the entrance and exit... ummm... depends on which way you're facing. As you enter the building, we go in through the right and when we're leaving we also leave on the right while we're facing the doors.

RONW said...

blournalist- well, Wal-Mart vendors put up with the rigamarole becuz they sign a high volume sale, and nobody matches Wal-Mart in that department or other chains may have just as unsavory practices. House of Medici, they are.

Kay- shoulda clarified that 'right' means the narrator's 'right' similar to driving on the highway. I suppose Wal-Mart does indeed pull the cheap on its non-unionized employees any time they feel up to it becuz what's the recourse for the worker, file a grievance, like to whom, and one way or another eventually get the booth.

RONW said...

blournalist- oh, about the argument during the Wal-Mart foundation phase .... we usually pair up 2 workers and I've known the other worker for 20 years from when he started out in the trades as a laborer. But he was trying to pull leadman. 2 workers and a 'leadman'?! A previous laborer to boot. After a while it came to a head on how much is too much long to cut 20 lengths of metal strapping tape and remember we're working under the hot sun. I finally blurted out a foot longer don't matter an iota as long as it's long enough, the strapping tape is only temporarily there to hold the plywood form together. After we pour the form we gonna cut the metal strapping tape and toss the strapping tape away. It's not a finish job just something that'll get buried in a pit and a slab poured over it. The foreman asked me if I'd like to partner up with someone else. 'But' I remarked "nah, I work with anybody," much to my later chagrin. Lost something like $20,000 in the non-employed interim between the next job sitting on the bench.

blournalist said...

Was that guy my brother-in-law?