Walmart, last night.

I was in Walmart last night. I have pretty much boycotted Walmart and learned a new way of shopping. There is not the everything in one place convenience but, hey, it's fun to shop at a variety of other places where the staff are friendly and happy. At Walmart no employee seems happy.

I was walking by the back where the employees come out. I was just casually walking down the back aisle when this employee comes out and steps right in front of me. She did not even acknowledge my existence. She reminded me of a Zombie. I had to stop short to keep from colliding. She worked her way slowly down the middle of the aisle in front of me. I finally decided to stop and just wait because it was hard to walk that slow. :)  Now I don't blame the employee, nor should one really blame Zombies in general. Someone caused their condition.

Because this was so spectacularly unlike any other store I had been in, I started remembering the articles I had read about Walmart staff problems. It was wild that the lady did not even acknowledge a customer's existence, especially when she had just stepped into my personal space. I am used to being invisible by everyone EXCEPT employees. I'm an old guy. But employees tend to treat me the same as I used to be treated by everyone when I was younger.

Following this incident, I decided to take a closer look at Walmart. I have heard that staffing has been a major problem to inventory control. And indeed, empty spaces for items were everywhere. Sometimes an entire brand was gone. When was the last time in your supermarket that you came across vast amounts of empty freezer space. Freezer space is probably the most expensive space in the store. One shelf had no prices on the edge, completely empty. Nothing was even scheduled for this shelf.

On top of the lack of products was a terrifyingly awful shelving of the products. I am relating things that were throughout the store. items were mixed together on the shelfs and variations of items were hidden behind other variations. Almost 50 percent of items were not fronted (that is placing the item at the front of the shelf) and on top shelfs this was almost a given.  The top shelf is actually the most important place to have fronted. Shorter people cannot see what item is on the shelf because the shelf itself is blocking their view.  But the top shelf takes an extra effort to put straight. There were no extra efforts here. When we finally got to checkout, nothing was better. Here was the only place I had seen employees doing nothing.

I have only one word for our local Walmart, pathetic.

Oh, and when did "Ready to Cook" become the opposite of "Cooked?"  What things, that are uncooked, are not "Ready to Cook?"