Another Walmart blast

The reason is that WalMart is a large company and can buy items in massively large bulk amounts. A small business cannot come even close to that. However, there is nothing wrong with a company bargaining for price.....our small store (not a department store) does that as well. If I can get the same product for cheaper somewhere else, why would I pay you? I'll order from the other guy! Suppliers do NOT want you to do that.
That is not just WalMart, though. I have worked for over 20 years in retail, for large department stores, well before WalMart was an option. ALL department stores place their products according to how much the supplier will pay for their "location" within the store. Many suppliers vie for the "prime spots". This goes for items on ends, at checkouts, and sometimes even where they are on the shelf (ie, eye level or on the bottom shelf).
Technically, though, that "USA-made" product could have been made in a factory OWNED by a Chinese company, though. So it could have Chinese parts, and be made in a Chinese-owned company....but have a USA sticker on it as it was "made" in the USA. Sneaky, but it's done all the time. Yes, it may employ American workers, but it does seem a little underhanded all the same. I bet the amount of "real" home-based products is very small, no matter where you shop.
I agree. A longer wait is likely this: larger department store=more customers=longer waiting. The last time I went to a regular pharmacy, there were a total of 3 customers in the entire store, only one ahead of me waiting for an order, so yeah, a shorter wait.
Most large department stores expect their cashiers to be quick about it---slow cashiers mean less sales per hour, as less customers rung through per hour. And no cashier wants to deal with a cranky customer who has been waiting. There is a fine line between having too many cashiers (that are paid standing to be standing around, which could translate into losses) or having too few (unexpected customer flow, buses pulling up, or sudden employee illnesses).

Having customers lined up at customer service wanting their receipt corrected is another waste of their resources, and costs money. But cashiers are human, right, so yes, mistakes happen.

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"The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese in the trap."

Thanks for proving my point. I have always used drive through at other places. I can even call and be able to pick it up when I get there at the drive through. Takes maybe five minutes. Wal Mart on the other hand. I have to find a parking spot thats five minutes, walk into the store,about five minutes, walk across the store 5 minutes, wait in line five minutes(on a good day) walk back out of the store 5 minutes back to the car five minutes. So about half an hour.

Also when we used to use them we could call it in and we always had to wait anyway.

Well at Walmart you can get scripts refilled ON LINE so you just go in and Pick Up!!! Same thing now isn't it? No Waiting time~!
http://www.ehow.com/how_4531952_rene...almartcom.html

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One word; complain! Not long after we moved into this area I went to the local wally world and the lines were outrageous. IIRC, it was a Friday evening and they had 2 or 3 checkout lines open. I called wal mart (1-800-WAL-MART) from the line. I got a call from the store manager telling me he was sorry about what happened (and a small sob story). I have never been back into that store and seen lines like that again.

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Remember, when seconds count. . .
the police are just MINUTES away!

Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. . .Davy Crockett

Hey Elsbet, you beat my 3 hours employment at W/Mart! I went home in tears and learned that not everyone is cut out for retail work. I think some, not all by any means, of retail employees should realize that. The W/Marts near here seem to have mostly good employees but there is always that one that every store, not just W/Mart.

I just don't go to W/Mart very often because it is too big and hard for me to get around in. I'd rather go to a smaller store than have to walk a half mile to get a jug of milk. I do shop at W/Mart but usually only once a month or less to get things that they carry that are a lot cheaper than other stores. That way, I get the best of all the stores, big ones and small ones.

BTW, I am still mad that W/Mart stopped carrying fabric, the department always seemed busy and there was usually a line for fabric to be cut!

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Ok I had to post after what happened tonight!!!! We got oneof those blow up extra deep mattresses for MILs visit. We got it a few weeks ago. We took it out of the box today, blew it up and it quickly unblew itself. Seems that one of the seams didnt seal completely and it doesnt hold air at all.
So we took it back tonight. We had smoshed it back into its sack and we had all the paperwork.
Walmart said we could only exchange it for the exact same one. That it was company policy on any type of bedding once it was out of the box. Now it isnt like anyone else can use it, and we never used it, just blew it up the one time. After all how are you to know if it leaks or not if you dont take it out of the box???
Well our store is so mixed up you cant find anything. I did find a couple of blow up mattresses but they were a different size. I was willing to take a store credit or even buy the other size. But nope, could only do something if it were the exact same one.
So they gave it back to us. Said sorry.......now I would normally go to the manager and raise a stink, but there wasnt a manager on duty and I didnt think it was worth it. We will go in tomorrow before MIL gets here and I will take care of it!! LOL Watch out Walmart!!!!

Alice in Virginia

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There is nothing any worse than an angry little old lady, they've had a lifetime to learn all the dirty tricks and people get upset if you hit them!

working in a photo lab, i can say that what happened to the original poster shouldn't have happened, but it is an easy mistake to make. generally, a sticker is placed on a film prior to it being developed. normally two films are attached to a card that transports them through the processor. if it is a busy day or if the rolls of film accumulate up before being processed, films from more than one person may be run together. if the stickers (twins...one for the film and one for the envelope) are placed on the wrong envelope or film, the order is bungled. it's a very easy mistake to make and i have made it myself. luckily, when i have done it, there were more than one roll of film per order and i was able to recognize that the pictures in one order didn't belong. i was able to correct the order before it was given back to the customer. it's no different than adding a pickle to a burger when it doesn't belong or a host of other simple mistakes a person can make. unfortunately, if you never see your pictures again, that is a loss you will never be able to recoup as memories are priceless. the sad thing is that the way pictures are processed these days means that your pictures probably stayed in a computer system for a few days and could have been retrieved if you had any idea at all what was on them. maybe the appropriate search would have been the time of submission. that would have enabled the technician to view all orders in that time frame and hopefully find your pictures.

one sure method of satisfaction is to check your prints before you pay for them. there will be no trip to customer service for your money back and you will know if your prints are yours and if they are satisfactory.

times are changing for the photo industry. i hear that walmarts everywhere are going to switch to a dry lab system. this will mean no in-store film processing. customers will then be at the mercy of send-out services. these remote labs process film a bit differently than places that do in-store work. when the negatives get scanned, they are automatically submitted to the printer without the interaction of a technician. underexposed and overexposed photos are printed as are the totally blank underexposed prints at the beginning or end of every roll. 99% of the time you patronize a sendout service, you will get at least one or two blank pictures and will be paying for them (until you gripe and stand in line at the customer service desk waiting for a $.22 refund). when you patronize a business that does in-store processing, a technician will normally scan the prints manually and will adjust exposure if possible and reject blank photos. you get much better service from in-store processing.

you may wish to think twice about refusing to patronize a store that processes in-store as the sooner the business drops off, the sooner the dry labs will come and remote processing will be the only choice left.

mistakes and accidents happen from time to time. film breaks in the processor. machine drive motors die and drive chains and belts break ruining film. it is unfortunate, but it happens from time to time. i once ruined a persons APS film by trying to scan it before it was processed. i exposed the film in the scanner thinking the person wanted reprints of film that was already processed (as he stated on the envelope "reprints"). i should have noticed the APS cartridge indicator indicated the cartridge needed to be developed. his pictures were lost. i felt bad and i apologized, but such is life. no one is perfect.

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this message has probably been edited to correct typos, spelling errors and to improve grammar...

"All that is gold does not glitter..."

Well I guess I should post what happened when we went to Walmart today.....
We decided to look at the grills and wouldn't you know, they were on clearance and the one that DH has been looking at was $250 less than regular price! Cool deal, and the employee helped put it on the cart, waited until we checked out, walked out to the curb and helped DH put it in our vehicle.
There are good employees and not so good employees at every business. This is not an isolated situation at this Walmart there are plenty of nice employees.

DixyDoodle, let me be a bit more clear, we are not talking about "bargaining for a price" but having Walmart TELL us what they will sell the product for. There is a major trend away from supporting the local supplier - SKU reductions are a sign of that, along with the proliferation of store brands. I'd be asking myself it its worth spending my $$$ at a company that will underbid the local supplier for a few cents, since those are JOBS they are taking away.

Its the old mantra of buy cheap, sell cheap, had a job? no job. If Walmart were the only game in my town (and TG they are not in area) I'd want them supporting the local suppliers, since that is where you are getting the money from to buy the product and make them a profit.

There's also issues that we have with them taking credits on perfectly good products - chargebacks. We fight that all the time. And yes, the bigger retailers all do this but does it make it right because its going to mean cheaper goods for YOU? What about your neighbor who has lost his job due to the impact of these price cuts? I happens more than you think.

There should be some corporate ethics, somewhere. Its sad to me that most of America has sold its soul for a cheap loaf of bread or a bag of chips.

This past spring I scratched my eye and had to go to the eye doc at Walmart. Eye doc prescribed me an antibiotic eye drop and told me to go over to the Walmart script counter and get it filled for 4.00. So I went over and was told I would have to wait 2 hours to get the script filled. Now I had a patch over one eye and couldn't see very well to drive, but I went back to work and that afternoon drove back to Walmart across town to pick up the script.

Two hours to put a tiny bottle in a bag...there was nothing to count, nothing to mix, the eyedrops were in their own little bottle from the manufacturer - all the pharmacy tech had to do was enter the presc. in the computer, drop the bottle in the bag and hand it over to me and take my four dollars.

I have never been back to that pharmacy again. I use CVS who has never had me wait over 10 minutes and that was when they were packed.

I am sure there are good and bad Walmarts all over, just thought waiting 2 hours for something that actually took less than ten minutes to do was a bit much. BTW - the script was still not filled when I went back, that is how I know how long it took to fill it. Five minutes of computer input, a couple of minutes to walk to the shelf, get the drops and put in bag and a couple of minutes to take my money and give me a receipt.

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So let's say it takes 10 mins to fill a script that means to have a 2 hour wait just 12 people would have had to dropped off their scripts off before you dropped yours. Now add in the scripts called in by doctor's offices, refills called in to be picked up and the like its amazing they can usually have a 30 min or less pick up time.

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Remember, when seconds count. . .
the police are just MINUTES away!

Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. . .Davy Crockett

customers are not the only people that have problems with W-M. i was a driver for a local wm distrubution center, a lot of times when i was at a store to deliver i would have to wait 30- 45 min or more for a manager to come to the back door to unlock it and let me in and then maybe i might be unloaded in another 30 min (sometimes for only 4 or5 pallets) that would happen around 90% of the time.
the other 10% the manager would fall over him or herself to get me back on the road very quickly (like within 10 min).
so yes Wally World really stinks like .... well you know!!!

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