In the last week, we've lost five people from the 3-11:30 shift. Two of them were seasoned lift drivers. The last three nights we've had to go with 4 people or less and that includes the team lead. Our inventory is October 27 and they only just started prepping so that's less than 3 weeks to get everything in the steel and whatever comes in, pre-counted and tagged. There are over 60 pallets of clothing sitting on the dock, 75% of which have never made it out to the floor and that's been literally accumulating for months. Freight hasn't been CIM'd into the steel for several months as well and there are now several hundred ghost pallets. We have numerous sections of steel that can't be used because the uprights need to be changed out. Entire DCs, paper, water, coke, pepsi, beer, wine, frozen & dairy, are run to the steel or to the coolers during the day while there are members trying to shop, blocking off aisles and tying up associates for spotting, lifts don't get watered regularly and start to malfunction, or no one puts them on the chargers because freight piles up on the dock and you have to spend all this additional time to clear a simple path, managers and leads don't communicate with one another or disregard each other's instructions for associates leaving many people confused as to what the actual directive is, there's holes everywhere throughout the store often waiting for product that's actually in the steel and not getting dropped so they can be shopped. The list of things that are falling apart since June is seemingly endless and it just gets worse. And what of the members who are having their shopping experience affected by all this? Anyone care to estimate how many are just going to go next door to Costco, who's parking lot always seems to be full while ours is looking rather sparse? The GM seems to have become a hologram; a guy on a portrait inside the entrance but never physically present anywhere on the property. I talk to people from many other clubs and hear many of the same things and worse in some cases.
It's clear that clubs are severely understaffed and barely able to function. I'm curious if there's anyone out there reading the discussion on this site, who has the spine to address this stuff and give their opinion on what they think is going on. We're talking about the next round of layoffs and it seems like they need everyone they can get. Is that the present and future strategy? Is this how a company stays competitive? Lowering the overall quality of the majority of the clubs targets value and convenience? Seriously? If you're goal is to drive members away, the things that are going on right now are driving your rate of success through the roof toward achieving that.
One thing I can tell you is that the grass roots survey was fun. I had a chance to unload quite a number of things the other night. I'd urge everyone else to do the same. Not that it makes any difference. No one will end up reading that stuff anyway. It's just a neat little thing that gives one the impression that their input is important for about 5 minutes before the feeling disappears.
F— Walmart.