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Walmart Eliminates Greeters – Who Cares?
Did you ever see the movie with Jim Carrey called “Fun with Dick and Jane”, where he loses his high profile job and is forced to become a greeter at a local store? It’s so funny, but what was on the news this evening was not so funny.
Our local news reported that Walmart is eliminating the greeters at the front entrance. The person in the segment that is losing the job in April is an elderly veteran. He said this job keeps him going. They showed him saluting the patrons as they entered the store, and they smile and salute back. The local news person interviewed many of the Walmart customers who said they would no longer shop there if he wasn’t present. Wow! They were adamant that they look forward to seeing him, talking to him and that it adds to their overall store satisfaction.
At our local Walmart, it has usually been a disabled person in a wheelchair. They greet you with a smile, and offer flyers on specials throughout the store. There have been times when I’ve had to wait with my cart at the entrance, while a group of people chatted with the greeter.
My sister said at her local Walmart Super Center, that they are not only eliminating greeters, but they are also eliminating cashiers. They have half the cashiers they had last year, and are encouraging more people to use self-checkout. I’ve used the self-checkout at several stores when I have a couple items, but if I have a full buggy, I not only appreciate a cashier, but someone to bag the stuff and even appreciate the chat. These people are our neighbors and community. The physical interaction is more than important. It is part of a human need to communicate and interact with a real person.
I have seen cashiers in Walmart with a black eye, and I refrain from asking why; she is still pleasant and engaging, there are those who limp and sigh while they ring up my order, and clearly they are there because they have to work, they need the income, the benefits and they are part of society who need that job. They may also need the interaction, the pleasantries, to feel like they are contributing, and obviously, according to the people interviewed today, they are. They are more than a welcome sight.
As more low income jobs become robotic, and eventually eliminated, what will the more fragile in our society do – the veteran, the disabled or mentally challenged, the older person with an ailment who may be struggling, divorced or widowed, that needs this job, and human interaction? Walmart is eliminating greeters – who cares? I do.
What do you think of this policy? Would it change your view of Walmart as a company? How will the elimination of low-income jobs change the quality of life for those that depend on them?
Published in General
There’s a little mirror above each self-checkout station at our Wal-Mart. I assume it hides a camera. I always smile and wave at it when I check out.
I’m from the cold Northeast but I spend plenty of time in the South. I love the friendliness and courtesy. I return the social grace as well.
I’m only annoyed by, let’s just say, people who are forced to say something and do it badly. I honestly can’t comprehend how this doesn’t get more agreement here.
I have always been amused how Wal-Mart seems to be the universal bogeyman for both the left and the right. Or, at least those with a healthy distrust of corporatism.
Here’s the thing. I cannot really think of any other big-box retailer of any sort that had so successfully institutionalized the “greeter” into its customer experience the way Wal-Mart has – a position that without question has offered opportunity to veterans, people with disabilities, and senior citizens. Seriously, who else has done that to the level Wal-Mart did? Whether that level of personal interaction is your cup of tea or not, it did set them apart. No, not every store does it “well” – people are human after all, and customers can be as much a pain in the rear as a disinterested employee.
Now, however, Wal-Mart is moving in a different direction, most likely for business purposes. That’s their right – and in their cost-benefit analysis, they have apparently decided to trade this part of their unique culture for something more cost “efficient” (reducing headcount and thus labor costs – by providing higher wages in part to public pressure, you knew cuts where going to have to come from somewhere). Really though, as I see it, what’s being lost is a set of opportunities they were providing that few others in retail offer at all.
Yes, it’s a shame. But no one seems to have criticized their competitors for NOT having so visible those opportunities for veterans, people with disabilities, and senior citizens. Wal-Mart as whipping boy simply seems to be the go-to option.
Without question, this is not (or will not be) a popular move – but nothing Wal-Mart does ever is. Hopefully, they will be diligent in trying to find ways to continue to provide such opportunities for people who need it. I’m simply suggesting that whatever heat they take, some might consider directing that heat toward other retail outfits who never even made the effort, at least at the scale that Wal-Mart tried.
Yah until their security bots get you.
If greeted I will be friendly, but I don’t care to be greeted. Who looks out for the introverts with social anxieties? What about us? Only Amazon gets me. One click shopping, not a human in sight… cold, sterile efficiency…
I used one the other day. The helper watched me very closely. Now I’m a free employee, and a suspect!
And they have cameras.
I’m not sure but I’ll find out – good question. I’ll tell you this – when Trump initiated the tax cuts, it did trickle down to these workers. I remember when it happened – the folks that work there are normally nice and helpful, but one day it was like they were walking on air – big smiles, all happy. I flat out asked someone stalking vegetables and he said yes, they all got a nice raise! It was in the news that due to the tax cuts, the 401K’s etc. were also getting a boost from different major companies.
I actually had to ask for help in the check out aisle – something wasn’t working right and they needed to help me anyway – the machine wasn’t scanning correctly.
I remember going into one grocery store at the beach. There was this one gal frantically running back and forth among all the self checkout lines, trying to keep an eye out for shoplifters. We coulda made a huge run on free beer that day . . .
According to ycharts.com:
If these numbers are accurate, one can imagine why Walmart might be concerned about reducing labour costs.
Dunno if that’s on a national level, but around here the food sampling has diminished greatly. It’s frequently spread out over the week and instead of every aisle sporting samples, there’s fewer there. I suspect someone finally wizened up and said, “Hey, this is creating giant clots of people at intersections.” Food thing is still there, though. I remember when the food station was a hot dog cart outside the store. Harumph.
This has been going on for some time. In fact, for almost a decade Wal-Mart and stores like it have been cutting down on personnel. For example, once at Wal-Mart my wife and I had to ask a grumpy shelf stocker if he could stock some milk because the shelves were out (and yes, we could see a palette full behind the glass doors). My lovely wife used to work for Wal-Mart, and she can go on how things have changed. Departmental control has vanished, and much is done from a top-down approach which goes counter to what Sam Walton started.
Now that the stocking personal is disappearing and they can’t keep things on the shelves, we’ve known for the past year removing front-end staff was next. Amanda occasionally chats with employees she used to work with, and they are consistently with a poor outlook on where the store is going. Much of this was already planned, as Wal-Mart is losing to various competitors and of course online services where things are far more likely to be “in stock” and you don’t have to speak with a grumpy shelf-stocker who will walk in the back and come back five minutes later to pretend they couldn’t find it.
There’s also been moves to push more experienced, and therefore more expensive staff, out the door. But with them goes the knowledge of the products in their department and shopping trends and the like. Many up top assume that anyone can do the job, which on the base level is true, but understanding the product, what people are looking for and what they will in general was something they used to value.
Amanda’s observation is that retail is getting rid of the one thing that online shopping can’t match as well: knowledgeable staff who can give immediate informed responses. The end result is that these businesses are top heavy and are going to eventually fall away because they are trying to copy online’s strengths and ignoring their own.
A few months ago I was checking out at a very service oriented grocery chain and my clerk started a rather loud conversation with other store personnel nearby about his righteous resignation. It seems that he personnel evaluation showed that he was slow in moving people through checkout and his courtesy needed work. Fed up with the notion that his behavior was subject to review and, and, and judgment!!! by Neandertalis managerus, he loudly bragged of how his manager looked like she was about to cry when he gave her the news.
As his tale of woe went on, at a cash register of a moderately busy store with customers all about, all I could wonder was whose kid this was that management put him at a cash register so he could fire himself in such extravagant fashion.
Courtesy is very much the norm on my little peninsula and I appreciate it, this weasel being an extreme outlier to the contrary.
I am very pleased to hear it, and amend my remarks to the degree they suggested otherwise.
For me, this is a First World problem thing. There are creatures who emerge from their comintern educations with little regard for anyone but themselves and anything that is shiny. Cruelly misnomered “social” apps and secularism have done little to mitigate the long standing problem. That places of employment like Walmart have taken up standards of courtesy for their bottom line means that there is a filter there doing the job of orienting people to the public square.
That the employees being socialized are not always quite housebroken seems as inevitable as with puppies and kittens.
Noodles is a dictatorship!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtonKfWw2JY
One of my first jobs out of college was working on medical software which small-scale local pharmacies used to keep track of prescriptions, monographs, and payments, etc. It worked rather well, but when the inevitable tech support call was needed, the owner of the company set it up so no one who called for support got an answering machine or was put on hold for more than a few moments at a time. The “personal touch” was high on his list, and I think it made happier customers who were willing to pay more for the software than comparable solutions.
We need to get back to that ideal. If nothing more than to return to human interaction. We have sadly lost it.
You are right about courtesy and customer service – courtesy as in respect, especially your elders – is that taught anymore? Then there’s customer service – anyone that’s been in a revolving, on hold phone scenario knows that’s a stretch.
Publix also has very good customer service where I live, but their prices are too high. I’ve noticed politeness and customer service is very good at Chick Fil-a. You can tell it’s a customer-oriented philosophy.
Wow. Detroit in a nutshell.
Will it ever occur to him that people who go to Noodles do so in some part because the Noodles brand guarantees them some standard in food and service quality representing many years of business experience. Not whatever his creativeness feels like throwing together today.
The real issue, of course, is authority. Churches mean authority, employers mean authority, schools mean authority, and authority is just mean, mean, mean.
I am one of those people who works for himself, and the way most of us make it work is by understanding the client is boss.
Ironically, I do have one other story about bad service here. At Noodles. I presented myself to give my order and the clerk ignored me while he did minor, not urgent tasks.
I gave him my order anyway, and he continued to ignore me. I asked him what the problem was and he demanded that I take my earbuds out. I asked, loudly, to see the manager and the fellow working orders at the other end of the counter came and took my order.
The problem clerk also showed the facial and verbal characteristics that often go along with some genetic mental disorders. I am not going to hold that against that restaurant or the chain because they are clearly making an effort to bring the guy along. I hope he improved, or found a more suitable situation.
I read Sam Walton’s book many years ago and he said the most prolonged fight he had with his management team was creating the greeter position. At that time he thought the big box stores were getting too big, the doors were too far away from the registers, and he thought the mere presence of a friendly person at the door would discourage shop-lifting. I guess he still had kind of a sweet small town mindset.
Walmart should broadcast that they will keep the greeters in the states that do not have a higher than national minimum wage or a minimum wage over a certain amount.
The problem is that big companies like Walmart like the minimum wage as it forces small companies to go out of business or to avoid entering certain markets. I think Walmart claims that they like the competition as it makes them better, but I am only willing to believe a small portion of that.
I talk to everyone. I have always been that way. Unless, I need to avoid someone for some reason. If there is a greeter, I do take the time to talk with them. They’re people, too. I hope that smiling or nodding to acknowledge them brightens their day.
Are you sure? Here’s an article in the Anchorage Daily News about how businesses are dealing with that. The emphasis is in the Anchorage area, but really this is all happening nationwide.
The Fred Meyer’s they are mentioning is a regional brand that is a part of the Kroger chain. It’s a box store very much like Walmart’s, and they have greeters too, off and on.
Did you really “laugh out loud” when you wrote this?
What is accelerating all this is higher minimum wages.
I read a piece once that most extroverts feelings towards introverts is a mixture of pity and contempt. Strangely, there’s not a similar reaction from us introverts towards extroverts. We just want to be left alone, or more accurately, have more control as to who we talk to, and how much we talk. And we don’t want to waste time with people who have a lot to say, but in the end, say nothing.
I suspect one of the main reasons greeters are being eliminated is because it has become meaningless ( for most people). When the idea was introduced, most people enjoyed it. It was novel, friendly and unexpected in a big box store. But that wears out. And if you’re cost cutting, it’s going to be the first thing to go.
Here in the oil patch of West Texas, they’ve simply flipped the greeters to be more like the exit door checkers Walmart’s had at their Sam’s Club stores. Instead of watching the people coming in and saying ‘hello’, they’re watching them going out and will do a check-off at times of their tab to make sure everything going out the door was paid for, especially in the current age of self-serve checkers. The honor system only goes so far.
The stores here starting putting the self-serve in back in 2011-12, mainly because due to the oil boom, they couldn’t hire enough check out people at the wages Walmart wanted to pay (and they still have problems today, even with $14-$16 starting salaries). In that case, the self-serve wasn’t a way of eliminating workers — it was a way to try and cut down on the long lines at the manned registers due to the lack of staff to run the registers, where in late evenings is wasn’t unusual to see lines of 20-25 people in a Supercenter with only 2-3 registers open.
The only “greeter” I get when I log onto Amazon is a request for a donation that I must click through to get off my screen. I used to own a brick and mortar business. I employed local human beings and I collected local sales taxes on most of my sales that helped support sewer and road and school bonds. I didn’t much like having to compete with tax free Amazon. That is changing some now, as I believe it should. A lot of things are changing, mostly for good, but not always. Job displacement can be really painful.
I will stand in line for an extended period to get a live cashier. Whenever I’ve used the self-checkout, the way it is set up messes up the order and requires a bunch of crap that makes me grind my teeth- for example, if you scan a 2 liter bottle of soda (“pop”- I’m from Minnesota. Or, in Tennessee, cocola, in the South, coke- whatever type or flavor, Pepsi, Dr Pepper, root beer, whatever, everything is a coke) and then put it in the cart instead of into a plastic bag that immediately rips out the bottom because of the weight, the scanner goers crazy and requires you to use a bag. The instructions were clearly written by an English-illiterate sadist. And the lines for self-checkout are as long as those at the registers.
This is to say nothing about what originally made Walmart a little bit unique, that is, the cheerful greeter at the door who could also check receipts on the way out. Walmart is not just the same as every other store, but with a lower class clientele. It is obvious that since Sam Walton died- eliminating the sense of people/customer serving- they have hired way too many merchandising MBAs who will soon take them the same route as Sears and K Mart (both destroyed themselves trying to get into higher margin fashions and neglected the basic strengths that had originally let them succeed).
I’m sure that Amazon and Aldi’s will be happy to pick up the slack.
Well said. It’s true.
For what it’s worth, our Aldi seems to have the happiest cashiers on the planet. It makes going there (and waiting in the long checkout lines) endurable. They are also remarkably speedy.