The other day I stopped in Target to pick up a couple of things. I don’t usually shop Target, but I’d checked Walmart and they didn’t have the specific item I needed.
I asked the Target employee for the item I needed, as it wasn’t in the location another employee had sent me to. He pulled out his/an iPhone, scanned the empty shelf’s barcode...and said..”We don’t have any of those in stock, right now”. I was pretty impressed with that.
I’m not sure where Walmart has their database. I know when Bentonville does something at night we can’t scan the barcode and get the inventory info. Normally any Walmart employee can use a Telxon and tell you if something is in the back room. That doesn’t mean it can be accessed immediately due to the height of the pallet racks. If it’s on a lower one, there should be no reason they couldn’t get it.
If a customer comes within ten feet of a Walmart associate the associate is supposed to ask them if they need assistance and help them with what they need.
“but I’d checked Walmart and they didn’t have the specific item I needed.”
Empty Walmart shelves is epidemic in my part of the Colorado Front Range. I pretty much quit going to Walmart for much of anything. The major grocery chains in my area (mainly Safeway and Kroger’s Colordo King Soopers) long ago figured out how to match Walmart grocery prices. Not to mention way better service, way better employees, and way better quality.
Walmart’s pharmacies do however still beat the pants off of Walgreen’s around here in every possible way.