This past Wednesday, my mother and I were at Walmart in Independence, Kansas. When we went to checkout, there were TWO checkers with several people in line, waiting. Of course almost all the folks in the line were senior citizens and some didn’t look like they could stand very long without becoming exhausted. The comments in the lines were as follows:
“I won’t use self-checkout. I don’t work here and they won’t give us a discount for checking ourselves out.”
“I don’t know how to use them.” said another.
“I don’t use a debit or credit card.” said another, unaware she could use cash.
“I don’t even have a smart phone, how could I ever figure out doing my own checkout?”
As a person who used to work in customer service, I found the long lines unacceptable and I yelled out, “We need some more checkers!” Everyone who had made comments smiled at me. We waited about five minutes and then my mother yelled out the same as I did. Pretty soon the intercom was alive with “Associates are needed at checkout.” When no one came, I waited a few minutes then called the store for the manager. When the operator asked what the call pertained to, I told her about the checker issue. She replied she had made two requests for help but no one came. I insisted on speaking with the manager.
One of the managers took my call and I told her the situation and tried to pander to me. I wasn’t having it. I told her there was no excuse. She said they didn’t have enough help, yet I had seen associates standing around chatting about nothing. I’ve even overheard comments from associates calling customers “lazy” for not using self-checkout. Wake up Walmart! Customers do not come to shop and checkout our own purchases! I’ve got fresh produce that doesn’t have a bar code!
I’ve visited with associates from other Walmarts and they have had to shut down self-checkouts after 10PM to cut down on theft as their highest thefts were occurring at night through self-check. HMMM Maybe that should open the eyes of Walmart but it doesn’t as they push to make all Walmarts self-checkout. If they won’t give a 10% discount for checking my own purchases out. When I have used self-check (which is rare), I always ask the associate where the 10% discount button is so I can credit myself for checking my own purchases.
For those who live with credit and debit cards and want to get out faster, self-check is the way to go but for those of us who grew up with grocery shopping as a social outing, the lack of communication during check out is impersonal and demeaning. We Seniors aren’t lazy, many of us just don’t want to get in trouble for messing up a machine or some of us may have trouble sacking our items in the bags. Some of us have trouble understanding what the computer is asking. IN other words, it is humiliating to try to figure out machines with others waiting their turn to check out. Besides that, what ever happened to customer service?
Several folks in those long lines over heard me telling my mom that we needed to start going to the grocery store instead of using Walmart any more. I told her we could order our dog food through Chewy.com since Walmart doesn’t always have the dog food we need. Others chimed in and agreed and they said they were shopping more and more with the local grocery store and just pop into Walmart for certain things the grocery store doesn’t have.
Walmart has pushed out the local grocery stores in many communities. They’ve also pushed out many small mom and pop shops that provided personalized services in their hardware, sewing, plumbing, and other specialty stores. It is sad that Walmart is now disenfranchising the Senior Citizens of this country by refusing them a no hassle checkout.
I see a time when Walmart loses when the People have had enough of lack of product on the shelf and limited purchases because of the New World Order game they are following. Local producers will be the winners and as people get tired of the Walmart Way of treating their customers poorly. I have already limited my needs from Walmart, now if I could just get Mom to agree. We can find another way to interact with People instead of going to Walmart. As soon as Walmart goes complete self-checkout, I see a huge drop in their sales, mainly from Senior Citizens.
Sorry, Not Sorry Walmart. Your customer service SUCKS!
Educated Cowpuncher 