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The Story Behind Walmart’s Bare Shelves
American Interest ^

Posted on 03/28/2013 6:29:04 AM PDT by Perdogg

Walmart is starting to look like a Soviet-era retailer. The prices are still low, but shelves are going empty for months while products sit unwrapped in storage, lines are interminable, and no one is around to help.

Bloomberg reports that in-store service problems for the world’s third-largest corporation are so bad that people are willing to pony up the extra cash to shop at stores like Target and Walgreens. Walmart’s problem, says MIT retail researcher Zeynep Ton, is a shortage of cheap labor:

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.the-american-interest.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: minimumwage; obamacare; retail; walmart; workforce
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To: Graybeard58

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81 posted on 03/28/2013 8:55:54 AM PDT by Bobalu (It is not obama we are fighting, it is the media.)
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To: fuente

...and BATFE can revoke all the store FFLs.


82 posted on 03/28/2013 9:00:26 AM PDT by Oberon (Big Brutha Be Watchin'.)
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To: Gaffer

Not here either, and Virginia is purple


83 posted on 03/28/2013 9:04:02 AM PDT by stuartcr ("I have habits that are older than the people telling me they're bad for me.")
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To: shelterguy

Best price anywhere around here for long guns.


84 posted on 03/28/2013 9:05:38 AM PDT by stuartcr ("I have habits that are older than the people telling me they're bad for me.")
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To: Free Market Will Fix It
Perhaps if businesses didn’t pay such abysmal wages that living off of welfare was an actual viable alternative...

Yeah. If they had a union they'd be paid $30 per hour. Of course Walmart would be bankrupt but we don't care do we brother.

85 posted on 03/28/2013 9:09:12 AM PDT by McGruff (You are either with us or you are with the RINOs.)
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To: ladyjane

Women get way more scrutiny because for what ever reason most shoplifters are female. Armed robbery is a male thing, shoplifting is a female thing.

Ever notice that absolutely no one cares what men take into the fitting rooms at a store... there are never even any attendants near the men’s fitting rooms.


86 posted on 03/28/2013 9:10:38 AM PDT by Bobalu (It is not obama we are fighting, it is the media.)
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To: pabianice

The only ammunition our WalMarts have is shotgun and weird rifle calibers.


87 posted on 03/28/2013 9:12:05 AM PDT by stuartcr ("I have habits that are older than the people telling me they're bad for me.")
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To: Free Market Will Fix It
Perhaps if businesses didn’t pay such abysmal wages that living off of welfare was an actual viable alternative...

No, that just makes too much sense. The invisible hand of the free market will fix it. Right?

68 posted on Thursday, March 28, 2013 10:27:38 AM by Free Market Will Fix It Sign up 3/28/13

Anyone else smell trolls? They let anyone sign up here... Maybe if they charged $1.00 to sign up for an account at FR, the Free Market would fix it?

88 posted on 03/28/2013 9:12:10 AM PDT by listenhillary (Courts, law enforcement, roads and national defense should be the extent of government)
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To: listenhillary

Shhhh. Don’t scare him away. We’re hoping he’ll come back and “engage in dialogue.”


89 posted on 03/28/2013 9:16:54 AM PDT by Pan_Yan (I love it when spell check selects every single word in my post.)
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To: jjotto

We have family moving to Iowa. I will miss them dearly. Seems like a nice place to raise a family, though.


90 posted on 03/28/2013 9:38:38 AM PDT by Pining_4_TX (All those who were appointed to eternal life believed. Acts 13:48)
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To: latina4dubya

Wonder what places are having such problems? Curious.


91 posted on 03/28/2013 9:39:36 AM PDT by Pining_4_TX (All those who were appointed to eternal life believed. Acts 13:48)
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To: NEPA

I used “Sevin” by the bags full for years but the last two years, it didn’t seem to have much effect.

I live in Illinois and the state gov has probably banned any useful ingredient in it by now.


92 posted on 03/28/2013 9:40:07 AM PDT by Graybeard58 (_.. ._. .. _. _._ __ ___ ._. . ___ ..._ ._ ._.. _ .. _. .)
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To: Bobalu

At my local WalMart here in Maine, there is a woman sitting on a stool in front of a desk near the fitting rooms in the men’s clothing department.

She counts how many pairs of pants I bring in there.

Then again, women also use those same fitting rooms.


93 posted on 03/28/2013 10:00:47 AM PDT by july4thfreedomfoundation (November 6, 2012.....A day that will live in infamy!)
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To: Free Market Will Fix It

Yes, Mr. ZOT-bait, the free market *will* fix it.

If Wal-Mart cannot get good employees at the price they want to pay, they will either 1) decide to pay more, or 2) go out of business (or shrink, at least), and other businesses will succeed.


94 posted on 03/28/2013 10:02:28 AM PDT by B Knotts (Just another Tenther)
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To: Gaffer

Nor I in Arizona.


95 posted on 03/28/2013 10:06:09 AM PDT by SandRat (Duty - Honor - Country! What else needs said?)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Head-fake to make you think a carbon tax is a good idea.

You're right. Very disappointing from this guy.

A carbon tax would reduce employment in manufacturing and retail. Hardly a solution, but to many the term "revenue-neutral" means "no-harm-done".

96 posted on 03/28/2013 10:13:58 AM PDT by BfloGuy (The economy is not a pie, but a bakery.)
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To: Free Market Will Fix It

Actually it will. The places that are keeping their shelves stocked pay more than Wally. If the problem continues at Wally, and the shoppers continue to go elsewhere, Wally shrinks, their competitors grow, hiring more people at higher wages, etc etc. Eventually Wally is gone and one of the other companies (probably Target) owns the discount retailer market. No business is more than a few bad decisions from going away, Wally seized control of the discount retail market from K-Mart, and somebody can and eventually will seize it from them.


97 posted on 03/28/2013 10:20:44 AM PDT by discostu (Not just another moon faced assassin of joy.)
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To: woodbutcher1963

Ours here are nice and clean, stocked well, and usually the service is good.

The other night I was in line for a good 45 minutes. At first, I thought customers just had a large amount of items but after all that time, the reason for the wait became apparent. The cashier had no sense of speed, picking up one object, slowly moving it to the scanner, after it scans, pause, then SLOWLY move that item to the bag. Pause. SLOWLY reach for the next one, all one-handed, all in this slo-mo repetition... After a few minutes of this, I had all I could do not to yell at her to get the lead outta her asset and move faster. (And, no, she was not handicapped, not slow mentally... There was no reason for it.)


98 posted on 03/28/2013 10:25:43 AM PDT by Ladysmith (Every time another lib loses its job, an angel gets its wings.)
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To: Ladysmith

That is why I hate Walmart. I shop for the groceries more often than my wife because she works out of the home.
I refuse to go to Walmart because that has happened to me more than once. They will have 36 checkout lanes and only 8 staffed with one person. Typically there are 3-4 people waiting in each line. Also, Walmart is more expensive than my local grocery store chain Market Basket.

I have the same issue with Home Depot. Although there I am usually only buying a few items and I go to the self checkout. They tyically will only have one or two checkouts with an actual person.


99 posted on 03/28/2013 10:39:52 AM PDT by woodbutcher1963
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To: ladyjane

I mean made us stop and show our receipt.


100 posted on 03/28/2013 10:45:27 AM PDT by rwfromkansas ("Carve your name on hearts, not marble." - C.H. Spurgeon)
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