Tom R
Active Member
Just got home from my 1st ever attempt at shopping on "Green Friday". Went to Wal-mart because they had some awesome deals on some electronics items I wanted to buy for Christmas. Didn't turn out that way though. I thought I was prepared well enough by getting there at 3:00am for the sale that began at 5:00am, I was wrong. I guess it's off to Best Buy, Circuit City, Super K-Mart or maybe even just go back to bed.
Anyways, here is a comment I just sent to Wal-Marts corporate offices, bet I get an automated response and never hear from them again!..........
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11/25/2005 7:30am
I just left my local Wal-Mart after standing in line from about 3:00am until after 6:00am for the HP Laptop and other items advertised in your sale paper. I am extremely disappointed in the service at the store.
Wal-Mart is supposed to be the Pro's at selling... but they weren't today. The real problem was lack of organization from the employees on knowing what was going on with regards to lines formed for sale items. They didn't have a clue how to "stage" or manage the different areas for selling items with ease to the customer, lines formed and circled around aisles and doubled back and crossed within themselves causing chaos with those in line and the employees were no help trying to maintain any kind of order to help make things proceed smoothly. I spoke with the Store Manager just before I walked out, his response was "we are dealing with about 3,000 people and are doing the best we can". I disagree, there was no way there were that many people in the store, the parking lot would of been overflowing and it wasn't even half full, the store only had 55 laptops and there were over 100 people left in that line when they said no more were left. Those of us in line just wasted alot of time for no reason other than lack of foresight on the management and corporate team of Wal-Mart.
You guys have been in this business a long time and should be able to come up with an easier way to do business with your customers. For instance, consider your high ticket, high demand products like the Laptop, the Gameboy, Camera's and other items that people waited in line for and didn't get one because they sold out, now think about the consumers time your company wasted by being so disorganized. The over three hours I stood in line for the Laptop was wasted, not only for myself, but for your company too, that wasted time could have been spent by me shopping for other items in your store, but it wasn't.
To make matters even worse, I specifically went to Wal-Mart for 3 items, The Laptop, Digital Camera and Gameboy, all advertised in your circular, but, when I get to Wal-Mart, they have 3 separate lines for these items to wait in. The employees as well as the customers hardly knew what line was for what item. That just cost your company some money by the wasted time, but it cost your company far worse than that, your image just took a blow over the way everything was handled and how disorganized everything was.
It's never good to point out a problem without providing a solution, so here goes my solution...
Your staff could of had tickets or "pull tags" like they do for high security items that say, "To purchase, take to a cashier", now, the staff should of had an area in the electronics department for the high demand items and those customers that wanted an item could of gotten a ticket for it, when the tickets were all gone, they are considered sold out. You would have only had one line to wait in for items that were kept in the back stockroom for security reasons like the electronic stuff. When it was your turn in line, you tell the cashier/attendant which items you wanted, if they still had a ticket for that particular item(s), you get the ticket(s) and when you checkout, you pay for and get the item(s) you wanted. After you get you
Anyways, here is a comment I just sent to Wal-Marts corporate offices, bet I get an automated response and never hear from them again!..........
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
11/25/2005 7:30am
I just left my local Wal-Mart after standing in line from about 3:00am until after 6:00am for the HP Laptop and other items advertised in your sale paper. I am extremely disappointed in the service at the store.
Wal-Mart is supposed to be the Pro's at selling... but they weren't today. The real problem was lack of organization from the employees on knowing what was going on with regards to lines formed for sale items. They didn't have a clue how to "stage" or manage the different areas for selling items with ease to the customer, lines formed and circled around aisles and doubled back and crossed within themselves causing chaos with those in line and the employees were no help trying to maintain any kind of order to help make things proceed smoothly. I spoke with the Store Manager just before I walked out, his response was "we are dealing with about 3,000 people and are doing the best we can". I disagree, there was no way there were that many people in the store, the parking lot would of been overflowing and it wasn't even half full, the store only had 55 laptops and there were over 100 people left in that line when they said no more were left. Those of us in line just wasted alot of time for no reason other than lack of foresight on the management and corporate team of Wal-Mart.
You guys have been in this business a long time and should be able to come up with an easier way to do business with your customers. For instance, consider your high ticket, high demand products like the Laptop, the Gameboy, Camera's and other items that people waited in line for and didn't get one because they sold out, now think about the consumers time your company wasted by being so disorganized. The over three hours I stood in line for the Laptop was wasted, not only for myself, but for your company too, that wasted time could have been spent by me shopping for other items in your store, but it wasn't.
To make matters even worse, I specifically went to Wal-Mart for 3 items, The Laptop, Digital Camera and Gameboy, all advertised in your circular, but, when I get to Wal-Mart, they have 3 separate lines for these items to wait in. The employees as well as the customers hardly knew what line was for what item. That just cost your company some money by the wasted time, but it cost your company far worse than that, your image just took a blow over the way everything was handled and how disorganized everything was.
It's never good to point out a problem without providing a solution, so here goes my solution...
Your staff could of had tickets or "pull tags" like they do for high security items that say, "To purchase, take to a cashier", now, the staff should of had an area in the electronics department for the high demand items and those customers that wanted an item could of gotten a ticket for it, when the tickets were all gone, they are considered sold out. You would have only had one line to wait in for items that were kept in the back stockroom for security reasons like the electronic stuff. When it was your turn in line, you tell the cashier/attendant which items you wanted, if they still had a ticket for that particular item(s), you get the ticket(s) and when you checkout, you pay for and get the item(s) you wanted. After you get you
