Insite into Walmart Hiring and how it effects a TF buyer. - Cybertron.CA - Canadian Transformers News and Discussion

GDkitty · 10-05-2011, 03:45 PM

We all know how bad walmart can be.. but this is just a little insite into some info i just found out.

Backstory: Aurora walmart.. has not had pretty much ANY new toy PERIOD put out in the last 3-5 months.. shelves are pretty bare.. each section is a jumble, not been faced/organised in that long.
The last shipemnt they had out of transformers, was wave 1 of Dotm, and those are ones that were off a display.
I know that, again being walmart, its not perfect, but this was way overboard.
So... i sent an email to their customer support, and got a call from their GM a few days later.

Aurora's situation.. their FULL TIME and 2 PART TIME people from the toy department, quit (for whatever reasons).
Now.. a normal person would think. Well just hire new people to fill in those spots.
According to the GM.. head office initiates certain times of the year that there are hiring FREEZES, where they are not able to hire durring that time.

One would think... ok, you can not hire any MORE employee's over your regular ones.. that would make sence. But no.. this hiring freeze means they can not hire ANYONE, even to fill an empty department.

Truthfuly.. its one of the most assinine things i have ever heard. And, the store GM agree'd with me :P He said that if he walked into a store in that condition in an area.. he would not shop there.

When the GM is saying that.. you have to think how many people have walked away from that toy section and not bought anything, and drove 5 mins to the zellers instead? Even to hire a part timer durring that period.. costs walmart, what, 10/hr time X many hours a week? Im sure, with a department in decent condition, they make that much in one day to pay for that person, the rest of the week is gravey.

Personaly.. it this has driven my view of wallmart even futher down.... the only reason i have continued to go by there.. is that its convienent at both home and work (Vs going to toyrus, etc is more out of the way). It used to be my primary place to buy transformers... now..

/end rant

shabooya · 10-05-2011, 04:05 PM

This would never happen if Walmart were unionized...

Akroyer · 10-05-2011, 04:23 PM

There is no end to stupid things that go on with big companies or government.

I seen recently that the provincial government here is seeking a supplier for LCD Screens, batteries and keyboards for Dell Netbooks. When you can buy a whole new machine for $150.

That makes about as much sense as not being to hire to replace people that leave. I could understand no new hires, but not even to keep staffing levels.. no sense at all.

UltraMarknus · 10-05-2011, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shabooya

This would never happen if Walmart were unionized...

I believe some (or atleast one) are.

The excuse is still weak though. I'm sure they could move a couple employees to the toy dept to get some stock out/organized for a few days.

racerguy76 · 10-05-2011, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UltraMarknus

I believe some (or atleast one) are.

I think the staff at the North Battleford, Sask Walmart tried to organize a union and they were all fired. There was quite an uproar at the time, but Walmart held their ground. I think they even thought about closing the store before letting a union in. I saw a documentory on CBC about it.

Mike · 10-05-2011, 04:47 PM

I used to work at Peterborough Walmart, and I can tell ya their toy section is one of their least money makers (minus christmas time) in the store

If the department manager of toys quits, they are easily replaced by one of the other department managers, and if need be, just leave one of the departments with no manager at all (like sports, domestics, or one of those not so great money making departments) And they will almost always likely promote one of the non DM employees before hiring someone new, as you can get away with losing half a dozen stockers and back room associates for lengthy times.

The year I started walmart, we had 26 associates working at christmas time, and the year after that, we had 14, and then every few nights they'd get a few of the day staff to come in and work nights. We were always able to finish the same amount of work, so why bother hiring more, right?

Sucks for customers as a lot of products will not get stocked in certain departments, but the general manager has to keep the entire store in mind, and how to bring in the most money with what employees they have to work with.

In most cases, hiring an extra body, won't make much of a difference.

Also I will add in that DOTM deluxes is considered ONE stockable item. All the figures carry the same UPC, so if the store mod (pegs) holds 30 figures, and there are 10 figures per case, there "should" be 3 cases of toys in the store at all times. If more are ordered, they get binned (put in storage in the back room) till there is room on the shelf.

So say you got 21 bumblebee's sitting on the pegs, the stores not gonna get anymore untill at least 2 of those bumblebee's are gone from the system. Also everything in the store is ordered by a computer, if that gets screwed up, a human has to go fix it, and that takes months to never.

Alexander Quinn · 10-05-2011, 04:56 PM

Can't possibly move the senile/semi-retarded individual that glares at you when you enter the store (read as 'store-greeter') and put them in the toy department for a few hours each week to clean it up. Heavens no. They're needed to make sure someone grumbles "hello" to you when you come in.

Akroyer · 10-05-2011, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by racerguy76

I think the staff at the North Battleford, Sask Walmart tried to organize a union and they were all fired. There was quite an uproar at the time, but Walmart held their ground. I think they even thought about closing the store before letting a union in. I saw a documentory on CBC about it.

That sounds right, I seen that doc too awhile back.

jacobot · 10-05-2011, 05:46 PM

Interesting... Overnight employees are just finishing filling the toy shelves when I get to my favorite Wally store just after 7am opening every day

GDkitty · 10-06-2011, 08:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike

Also I will add in that DOTM deluxes is considered ONE stockable item. All the figures carry the same UPC, so if the store mod (pegs) holds 30 figures, and there are 10 figures per case, there "should" be 3 cases of toys in the store at all times. If more are ordered, they get binned (put in storage in the back room) till there is room on the shelf.

So say you got 21 bumblebee's sitting on the pegs, the stores not gonna get anymore untill at least 2 of those bumblebee's are gone from the system. Also everything in the store is ordered by a computer, if that gets screwed up, a human has to go fix it, and that takes months to never.

This i do know.. which does suck (which is why they should have seperate upc's, IMHO).
BUT at least in this case.. ther are are between 6-9 pegs avail for dotm deluxes (each peg holds.. 4-6?) And there is maybe a total of.. 6-7 figures out TOTAL.. like 1 per peg.. so they are not getting pulled from the back.

While it might not be their bigest profit maker.. any extra sale is extra $ in their pocket.. they will only loose MORE money in the long run, as time goes on, new stuff comes out.. all of the sudden all the stuff in the back will become discontinued, and discounted, and they will loose the little profit they were making on it.