I am a CAP2 associate at the Portage MI Walmart and we had a short meeting about this last night. The past week has been absolute hell and the store and backroom are complete disasters. The daily GM truck which averages 2300-2400 cases, has been increased to 3000-3300 cases for the past week. As a result, there are about 100 pallets of product in the back which have not been stocked.
The change of hours is an attempt to restock and clean the store quicker. Also, all associates will be offered as much overtime that they want and the minors are now authorized to work 40 hours per week since all Michigan schools are closed. There simply aren’t enough employees at the store to keep up with the demand and this will help to rectify the situation.
Most importantly though and Walmart will never admit this publicly, is that many customers are complete a-holes. Some of them waste so much of the associates’ time that they can’t restock the shelves in a timely manner. Stocking and cleaning the store while it is closed can increase efficiency by a good 25%.
In 1993, I was employed at a Walmart in Connecticut. I loved it, but the 10% of customers will morons. If they didn’t like something after they had it in their cart, they drop it wherever they are. The Walmart didn’t have a grocery area, but I seen bikes in the electronics, dresses in the boys department, auto batteries in sporting goods... Amazed at some people...
Thank you for your insight. I appreciate the hard work you and your co-workers are doing.
The evidence for that abounds.