What's Going on with Wal-Mart?

Those of you who have read Free Money Finance for any amount of time know that I'm a fairly big fan of Wal-mart -- from a pricing standpoint (I stay out of their employee-practices disputes.) They have decent selection at good prices every day and their Equate brand is a very, very good value. In addition, I've been a Wal-mart stock holder for quite some time -- having purchased a few hundred shares some years ago. And, of course, many of my index funds (Index 500, Total Market Index) have Wal-mart as a portion of their holdings. I have a lot vested in Wally World (as my mom calls it) -- both as a shopper and as an investor.

That said, I've really been disappointed in Wal-mart lately. Here's why:

• It seems like they are letting their older, non-supercenter stores (which is what we have -- two of them in our area in fact) go to pot. They are looking dirtier and less kept up as the days go by. I was in the one closest to our house the other night and it was a disaster. It looked like an old small-town dime store after a weekend sale. And I'm not one to notice things like that. So if I'm feeling this way, imagine what others are thinking about it.

• They are out of stock on items regularly. Wal-mart is supposed to be the king of low-cost, efficient distribution and they used to NEVER be out of stock on anything. Now I run into 2 or 3 out-of-stocks every time I visit a Wal-mart. This is out of a list that may be 10-15 items long at most. That's a pretty bad hit rate.

• The help is simply getting too much to bear. My cashier the other night was from some country in Eastern Europe and had never seen a coupon before (or so it seemed.) I had to walk her through the process of matching the coupon to the product to save my $1 -- while trying to communicate in a foreign tongue. Sheesh! Good thing only 10 people were behind me in line. Which brings me to the next point...

• The store is packed, people are waiting to pay for their items and one person is running one register. Insane! They were literally 10 people behind me in line -- no other registers were open. Thank God I got there early and had to only wait for two people to pay or I would have hit the roof!

If this doesn't get any better, I won't be a Wal-mart shopper for much longer. Sure, it's nice to save a dollar or two, but there's a cost in time, effort and frustration too and if Wal-mart doesn't get its act together, those costs are going to offset any price savings I might get from shopping at Wally World.

For more thoughts on Wal-mart, see these posts:

• Health and Beauty Aids: Walmart versus Costco, Kirkland Brand versus Equate Brand -- Which is the Best Deal?

• Costco versus Walmart, Round 2

• Save Big Money by Using Generic/Store Brands -- Even I Didn't Know the Savings Were This Big!!!

Comments

[Chris]

You're quite patient. Walmart lost me a long time ago. Their stores conditions are unacceptable, the staff is unhelpful (borderline rude at times) and the checkout lanes are always long.

They are putting in some self checkout lanes, which helps, but likely they will go the way of home depot. Instead of adding the self lanes to cut down on checkout wait time, home depot added the lanes and then eliminated most of their cashier staff. Walk into a home depot during a non-peak hour and you'll see people lined up in the self checkouts with one cashier supervising the mess. Great for home depot, but no improvement for the customer.

Another big problem with Walmart is often their shelves are a complete mess, making it impossible to know the price of many products (if its properly labeled at all).

What's up with Walmart? I think they just took everything too far. They cut costs everywhere, leaving customers fending for themselves in huge, disorganized, unfriendly stores. I'm not surprised your Walmart cashier didn't know how to use a coupon, most of the cashiers I've dealt with there can't even be bothered to say hello.

When I go to a big box discount store, it's Target. Walmart will eventually realize that people want more than just cheap prices.

[Joey]

I think Wal-Mart has an unwritten policy that the minimum wait to checkout must be greater than 5 minutes. It seems like the minimum wait has no correlation to the number of customers. "If customers are getting through the checkouts too quickly, time to close some lanes!".

Have you ever been in a Wal Mart Supercenter when all the lanes are open? I'm always wondering why they built 50 lanes if they are only going to open 10 at a time.?

Their Neighborhood Market grocery stores are much better (and cleaner) than their supercenters, but still have the "out of stock" problem.

[Jonathan]

I've been getting "claustrophobia" walking down the Wal-mart aisles lately. Feels like the stuffed animals and plastic kitchin-ware is going to fall down on my head. Even some of the supercenters. I can barely push the cart around, and if I accidentally turn into oncoming aisle traffic, then its a race to the bottleneck.

But you got to hand it to them, supposedly lowering average consumer-product prices by ~10% nationwide over the past 15 years.

[Tyler]

The Wal-Mart's near me are in great condition. The one we shop at is a brand new supercenter - the aisles are clean, things are stocked quite well, and we don't have to wait in line that long (sometimes there's no wait). It must be your management. Complain to them over and over. Creating a simple letter and emailing it to the store manager is time well spent to get those super savings you are desiring.

[Easy E]

I haven't been to Wal-Mart in about a month. I do my grocery shopping at Wegmans but other stuff I get at Wal-Mart. Its almost time for me to make a trip to get some things. I don't even know where else I would go to get stuff, except Target, but I don't like Target, the lighting and color makes me feel like I'm in a hospital.

I almost forogt my favorite Wal-Mart story. I went to our new Supercenter to have my watch battery replaced. The lady in Jewelry asked what brand watch it was, and I told her it was Eddie Bauer. She said they can only change batteries in brands of watches they sell. Since they don't sell Eddie Bauer, she couldn't replace it. Since I couldn't change it myself, I left without buying the battery or anything else.

A friend of mine is a regional manager with Wal Mart (in Jewelry) and he said that is absolutely not company policy and the store should not have done that. I guess this adds credence to the argument that conditions vary from store-to-store, though a 'great' company like Wal Mart should not have the problems described here.

[formul8]

Dump WALMART stock. They posted a 3.4% loss, which for them is gigantic.

I hate WALMART for many reasons. I'll pay a few cents more and shop at Target.

[Dy Phan]

I've been a anti-Walmart guy for a long time. Their stores have been dirty and is usually like an open market and zoo. Some of the new stores they're opening up around here have been VERY nice. I think they're going to be redoing many of their stores to look more like Super Targets and it's definitely more appealing to come to. The aisles are wider, the stores are cleaner and the selection and prices are still lower. The stock are reasonably priced. I may jump on it soon.

[Chris]

The new Walmart stores may look nice, but what they look like at the grand opening doesn't impress me. I'd like to see them keep it clean and organized 5 years later, which they have not done in their current stores.

Remodeling their existing stores instead of leaving the empty building and lot as a neighborhood eyesore and building a shiny new one down the street would do much more for their image than creating newly designed supercenters.

[Target market]

Go to Target, plain and simple.

I even buy my clothes there, and I'm a fashionable 20-something woman.

(Yet frugal, but not patient enough to shop at a Wal-Mart).

Plus, who wants to own stock in such a miserable company as Wal-Mart anyway. I'd rather not have to ignore THAT elephant in the room.

[Terry]

We (well my wife) only goes to Wal-Mart to shop for groceries since it saves us a considerable amount. She has certain strategic times when she knows the full-time-I-need-a-job people are working and not the teen-age-I-dont-care-if-I-loose-my-job folks are there.

We generally go to Target as they have generally made it "fun" to go shopping. I absolutely dread going to Wal-Mart and will not do anything I can to avoid doing so - even if it means paying more.

I was actually yelled at by the front end manager when I got onto her for not having the 'always open' registers open. I actually think she just finally lost it.

Oh - and one more thing - who hates being accosted for a receipt like a criminal when you leave the store? I generally refuse and keep walking it makes me so mad.

[Lin]

Easy E ... either we shop at the same store, or this really is a policy because I was told the same thing when I tried to get a watch battery. There's even a sign at the counter.
I've noticed that some of the Equate brands have disappeared. Used to be able to Equate's equivalent of Ibuprofin (Advil) liquid-gels and shaving cream. Not any more.

[segfault]

I gave up on Wal-Mart a long time ago for some of the reasons stated above. Yes, their prices are low, but the checkout lines are long, they're overcrowded, and the stores tend to be dirty.

I pay more to go to Target and Kroger. I'm frugal in some respects, but I'm also willing to pay for convenience.

[Mar]

The WalMart that is closest to my home has been a mess for YEARS! Some of the staff is actually beligerent if you ask them anything and I was told by a manager that waiting 10 minutes in the 10 items or less aisle was not outlandish. He must have ended up putting my stuff away because I left it on the belt and walked away. He tried to tell me that I needed to return it to the shelves if I didn't want it. I looked at him and laughed. Other WalMarts in this area are better, but I still do my shopping at Target, Wegman's and Aldi's.

[plonkee]

Does this general lack of joy in the Wal-mart shopping experience mean that its not a good idea to hold on to Wal-mart stock?

[Jeff Hunsaker]

You're spot-on, FMF. I just hadn't put my finger on this. I live within about 15 miles of 3 WalMarts, which for various reasons, are on my way occasionally.

Two of these stores are old, crummy, and staffed with total boneheads. The third is a Superstore, fairly new, and enjoyable. I only hit one of the old stores during obscure, light-traffic times.

The pull of Equate is too strong for my commodity purchases. If it helps my family save money, I'll continue to leverage WalMart.

Jeff...

[Sam Walton]

Good article except for the xenophobic Eastern European comment.

[JadedTLC]

You must watch WALMART: the High Cost of Low Prices. After watching that not only will you sell all of your stocks but you will never walk into a store again. Ever. Not even if it meant skinning your own animals for leather.

What Walmart does is absolutely repulsive. AND it isn't Just about employee relations. Everything they sell comes from China and from Walmart Chinese employees who MAKE very low money and work 18 hour days. Walmart also abuses the environment - in fact, every commercial they create is actually the opposite of their practices ACROSS THE COUNTRY.

They purposely take money from cities and then leave after a year, just outside the city so the city sees no tax money and YET small businesses don't get these nice stipends to create sewers and streets and a warehouse.

Did you know there are more EMPTY Walmarts in the United States than open ones. That's because they waste the lumber and other supplies by their very greedy and immoral practices. Watch the documentary! It's all true.

[Adam Baldwin]

My wife and I shop only if we have to at Walmart for pretty much all the same reasons listed above. The last time we were there, I had to laugh. Nearly 40 checkouts, and only 11 were open at 5:00 on a weeknight. We spent more time waiting in line than getting the three items we needed (all of which were in the back of the store so it wasn't just in and out). Someone made the comment about Home Depot with self checkouts (hence why I don't shop there) and I could totally see Walmart going down the same road. Yes Walmart is cheaper than most stores, but I'd much rather pay more for good customer service than to wait in a long line only to have cashiers who are just downright rude.

[MonkeyMonk]

I also made the switch to Target a couple of years ago and have rarely stepped foot in a Walmart again. I had to get something specifically there a few months ago and it was a horrible experience. No more Walmart for me. I'd rather pay a little more and have a much better selection and shopping experience.