It’s not one of those "angst at their humongous success" screeds, I’m just trying to figure out why it takes so damn long to get out of that place. So this is more about fundamentals of business. Because the retail giant, that’s how the media refers to them, has in fact added much needed efficiencies to the global distributions system. No argument there. They provide discounted items to hundreds of millions annually, making creature comforts and necessary every-day products attainable to a wider swath of the population than anyone. (And more efficiently than the Democrats beloved federal government, I might add.) And they employ an army larger than most armies–wage and benefit arguments aside–because when you have staggering, persistent, inflation and unemployment as we do in the Obama economy, still having a job to wake up to is like getting a raise every-single- day. Even if the government is making it worth less and less, every-single-day.
So what’s my beef (about Wal-Mart)?
I work in Amherst, New Hampshire and the Wal-Mart Super Store there is, if nothing else, convenient. It is convenient to get to, but not convenient to get out of, and there lies my "operational" complaint. No matter what time of day I am in there, 6am, lunchtime, afternoon, evening,…there are never, EVER, enough cashiers. Did I say never?
The average time spent standing in the check-out line at Wal-Mart is most certainly a reflection of their desire to charge less for some items, but can we possibly try to keep it under fifteen minutes? It takes me twice as long to get out as it does to do the actual shopping, most of which is spent walking from the entrance to whatever zip code the milk cooler is in and back. This is a problem.
Long check out lines. High average check. Cashier bagging everything….hope you are not in a hurry.
So what about the self-checkout? Great idea. I love it. Except that so does everyone else because the other lines are so damn long.
The latest trend at self-checkout, OK it is not the latest I’m just being timely, seems to be that people with fifty items or more also feel compelled to use it, as if this will actually take less time than standing in another line. These are of course the same people who have no idea how to use it, if that gives you some idea of where this is headed.
This is not like trying a new salad dressing at lunch, or a new look, or even a new vacation destination. This is serious. Other peoples lives are affected.
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