And that is why they are paid minimum wage!

http://www.adage.com

Quoted Text

Forget Going Upscale -- Wal-Mart Should Serve Needs of Poor, Seniors
Two Ideas to Help the Company Everyone Loves to Hate
By Rance Crain
Published: July 09, 2007

Two disparate events -- the subprime-mortgage debacle and the children's food showdown -- could provide welcome relief for beleaguered Wal-Mart.
Two recent scandals could provide opportunities for Wal-Mart to help seniors and the poor.

The company everyone (except its loyal customers) loves to jump on has a big opportunity to do good for a big swath of its shoppers while also doing good PR for itself.

Wal-Mart has been unsuccessful in doing many things of late, such as trying to put stores where the local populace doesn't want them and expanding into more upscale merchandise, so the giant retailer should concentrate on servicing its core constituency -- people who really need Wal-Mart to live a decent life.

The subprime-lending area cries out for Wal-Mart's help, yet it's been blocked from getting into banking services at its stores. Wal-Mart wanted to offer its consumers a full range of financial products, including deposits and withdrawals. Under opposition from banking and credit-union groups, Wal-Mart withdrew its application to open a bank and said it would instead introduce financial instruments through third-party partners.

Serving the poor is a big market, and providers like to say how proud they are to give credit and debt products to people who couldn't get them from traditional lenders. But the interest they have to pay for such services is astronomical, and many people are left holding the bag for thousands of dollars in interest or being unable to pay their mortgages, leading to the current subprime-lending mess.

Wal-Mart already offers a Discover credit card to its customers; now it plans to make a prepaid debit card available to low-income consumers and expand its money centers, which handle check cashing, money order and bill-paying services, to more than 1,000 from 225.

What a great idea: Help the poor avoid crushing interest payments by giving them the option of a debit card they can reload free by cashing a payroll check or having it directly deposited to the card. And Wal-Mart is also considering some sort of interest-bearing feature, maybe on the portion of the debit card that goes unused.

Many poor people don't understand the rudiments of financial transactions, including how interest payments of 20% and more can be assessed. So wouldn't it be terrific if Wal-Mart were to provide literature and hold seminars on how some credit-card companies jack up rates if users pay late or exceed their limits. By using a debit card, of course, consumers aren't subject to interest payments.

My good friend Dick Criswell has come up with an idea for Wal-Mart that will take attention away from the children's food issue and redirect it to another -- senior foods. Do you remember the horror stories of older people who were forced to eat dog food to survive? Dick's thinking is that people in this predicament need nutritious food that's easy to chew, has low cholesterol, sugar and salt, and is low-priced.

"Imagine that Wal-Mart picks up on this idea and launches a line of senior foods in very plain, simple packaging that carries only the big, smiling face (plus content and legal) and sells them in a special section of its food outlets under a name such as 'Smiling Seniors.' A lot to smile about -- quality and price you can only find at Wal-Mart."

Dick points out there already exists the majority of the products that would make up such a line. They're sold by a number of different food marketers in single or small-size packaging under labels such as Chef Boyardee, Campbell's, Swanson, Heinz, Hormel, Swift, Bush's and Kraft. But they're not specifically targeted to seniors, and therein lies the opportunity. Maybe some of the nutritional products they make for kids can be reconfigured for older people.

And what a great opportunity for Wal-Mart to be on the side of the angels. Forget about going upscale -- Wal-Mart has greater potential serving its core constituency, the less affluent people it helps lead better lives.

Ok MC1, I don't think I could get my husband to go and not only buy me a set of sheets, but than actually go back to return them.
You are a good man!

The first trip was a trip to purchase a few different things.  I didn't have to be totally honest, I mean, I picked up a few things for the garage that I really wasn't going to get  so it wasn't a wasted trip.  But I do start out volunteering, often she asks what I'm going to buy, she reads me like a book.  Guess if I lived on the west side of town I wouldn't offer as easily.  


Perhaps they'll start taking Verizon payments.  I think Hannaford is the only one left that does Verizon, but I saw a sign on the door last month that Verizon was starting to charge $150 to do it at the store.

I pay mine on line...right through my bank's website. No fuss..no muss....no charge!!!!

WOOPS  

That was supposed to be $1.50

Bumble, doesn't Verizon assess you a charge?

NOPE! It's a free 'bill pay' service through my bank and verizon also charges nothing. I have cingular/AT&T for my cell service, and pay that the same way also. The funds are just transfered electronically.OR they issue the check and send it. I haven't written and mailed a check for a bill in almost one year! When I do pay through 'bill pay' I print a copy for my records. So far...no problem'o'! Check with your bank/credit union and see if they offer it. I love it!

Well, I have Sprint for my cell.  You can go to any of their stores to make your payment, instead of mailing it in.  In the actual store (not the kiosk) that they have in Rotterdam Square, they even have a place that you can pay through an automated machine with either cash or your credit card.

Quoted Text

And what a great opportunity for Wal-Mart to be on the side of the angels. Forget about going upscale -- Wal-Mart has greater potential serving its core constituency, the less affluent people it helps lead better lives.

Yeah, just another leash holder at the end of the chain, attached to the nose ring of population.....things like this last only for a short while....then others get onto the 'bandstand' wanting to 'get recognized' and the whole thing becomes just one big mish-mash of making $$ under the guise of 'helping' those poor folks........

Not to mention their shoddy advertising to the poor seniors......you work all your life, going thru all kinds of experiences only to be insulted by 'the big guys'.......please dont treat me like a poor puppy when I am 75years old or older.......dont you dare try to make me think that you have come to 'save me', worry about me or any of the like....let's face it---you are the government or some corporation......dont you dare disregard my lifes experiences,,,,whether I went to college or not....whether I make a 6digit salary or not.....

You dont get to capitalize on my stereo-type..........find another trough to feed out of.......

Quoted Text

And what a great opportunity for Wal-Mart to be on the side of the angels. Forget about going upscale -- Wal-Mart has greater potential serving its core constituency, the less affluent people it helps lead better lives.

PAALLLLEEEEZZZZZ! I am all for benefiting the less 'upscale' and providing merchandise at a resonable cost. Heck, I like that idea for myself. We all look for bargins. My bit** here is how Walmart really and truly does not give a flying crap about these people. It's just good PR to roll in the bucks! They are basically using the backs of these less 'upscale' to increase their bottom line. I'd be pissed! And Walmart is clearly dividing the society into 'upscale' and the 'not so upscale'. SHAME ON THEM! They are trying to create a new culture onto itself!

http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

Big-box retailers trying to make stores less intimidating for 21-minute shoppers
BY KRIS HUDSON AND ANN ZIMMERMAN
The Wall Street Journal

   The average shopper at a Wal-Mart supercenter spends 21 minutes in the store but finds only seven of the 10 items on his or her shopping list.
   As Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, tries to boost flagging sales growth, one key is helping customers find and buy those eighth, ninth and 10th items before they rush off to their kid’s soccer game. So the chain is attempting to make its sprawling stores easier to navigate. Among the changes: better signs to help shoppers find merchandise, more convenient placement of hot-selling items and staffing changes to speed up checkout times.
   “We don’t decide how long the people are in the store,” Wal-Mart marketing chief Stephen Quinn explains. “What we decide is how easy it is for you within the 21 minutes you’ve allocated to get what you want.”
   Many of Wal-Mart’s big-box brethren, from Home Depot Inc. to Best Buy Co., are also pursuing the goal of making their premises less overwhelming for shoppers. Their tools range from brighter light bulbs for quicker comparison shopping, to personal assistants catering to customers’ whims. Like Wal-Mart, many are determined to eliminate lengthy checkouts, perhaps the biggest turnoff of all for harried customers.
   Focusing on convenience represents a turning point for discount retailers. For years, they kept building bigger and bigger boxes, figuring the combination of low prices and huge assortment trumped other considerations. The result is that shoppers all too often spend much of their time trudging from department to department to find elusive items on their shopping list, and some give up without finding them.
   Wal-Mart’s efforts last year to lure upscale customers by stocking fancy merchandise and clothing largely failed. Wal-Mart’s same-store sales, or those at stores open at least 12 months, rose a meager 2 percent last year, its smallest annual increase since it began tracking such sales in 1979. But Americans collectively make 127 million trips to Wal-Mart each week, and the retailer knows if it can sell each of them another item or two, it can keep its sales growing rapidly. Indeed, Wal-Mart officials say the chain’s customers are spending more during each visit this year, which is helping the retailer offset a decline in overall customer visits.
   At the same time, retailers with smaller-store formats are nipping at the heels of big-box retailers. Dollar stores have much less selection than a Wal-Mart or a Target, but their pricing is aggressive and customers can buy what they want in minutes. Tesco PLC, the British grocer, plans a splashy entry into the U.S. market over the next few months with 10,000-square-foot stores, a 20th the size of a typical Wal-Mart supercenter.
   Big-box retailers are using different tactics to make their boxes less intimidating. In a pilot program, electronics retailer Best Buy is employing “personal shopping assistants” in 60 stores who are knowledgeable about all merchandise in the store. They wear button-down dress shirts to set them apart from regular Best Buy salespeople clad in Navy blue polo shirts. Their job is to individually serve time-starved customers making complicated purchases such as home-theater systems. Best Buy won’t disclose the results of the pilot program, other than to say it has resulted in the retailer introducing more cross-department training in its 852 U.S. stores.
   Best Buy rival Circuit City Stores Inc. has outfitted salespeople in 20 of its stores with computer tablets hung from their shoulders like book bags. The salespeople use the tablets to call up product specifications for customers and help them compare features of various merchandise.
   Target Corp. and Wal-Mart have attempted to make shopping easier for new moms by clustering baby clothes, baby food, strollers, diapers and even maternity clothes in the same department. Target customers “have responded favorably and it has translated into positive financial results for Target,” says spokeswoman Lena Michaud, who declined to cite specific sales figures.
   Hardware chain Lowe’s Cos. frequently checks lighting levels at its stores to ensure bulbs haven’t dimmed with time. Lowe’s installed “Need Help” buttons where shoppers often need to summon assistance — key-cutting and shelving areas, for example. The average response time: Less than one minute. Rival Home Depot tested the call buttons this year and is now installing them in its roughly 1,900 U.S. stores.
   At Wal-Mart, catering to 21-minute shoppers enlists several disciplines. The retailer is striving to clear more of its aisles and widen them. It has installed a computer-modeling system to dictate cashier schedules at 1,000 of its U.S. stores. The goal: to have more cashiers available during each store’s peak shopping periods. Wal-Mart executives say that 85 percent of its stores using the scheduling system posted sales gains in March and April, twice that of those not using the system.
   Checkout is crucial because Americans aren’t patient shoppers. A 2006 survey by the Mystery Shopping Providers Association found average checkout-line wait times of four minutes, 27 seconds, at grocery stores; four minutes, 55 seconds, at apparel stores; and five minutes, 23 seconds, at department stores. Still, hurried customers bristle at the wait times and often perceive the delays as longer than they actually were.
   “Navigating jammed aisles and then waiting to check out for more than a few minutes isn’t worth the price savings on just a few items,” says Guilbert Brown, a college administrator, in Virginia. Brown says he favors Target above Wal-Mart due to the relative ease of navigating Target’s aisles and checkout process.
   Many retailers, such as warehouseclub chain Costco Wholesale Corp., have added technology that allows shoppers to swipe their credit cards before their entire purchase is rung up.
   In 2003, Costco opted to incur an extra $40 million in annual expense to augment the staffers who box merchandise at its registers and load it into customers’ carts.
   The result: In the past three years, Costco’s average hourly transactions per register increased to 45 from 37, according to the retailer.
   Some big-box retailers are embracing the most controversial of checkout-line evolutions: self-checkout areas, where up to four shoppers scan their own purchases under the supervision of one cashier. Home Depot has installed self-checkout in all of its U.S. stores, and Costco is experimenting with it in 30.
   But Target Chief Executive Bob Ulrich eschews self-checkout as clumsy and confusing for shoppers. Instead, Target fine-tunes the staffing at its registers. “Our staffing schedule is designed to cover maximum peak volume,” he says. “I am convinced that one professional checker is as fast as four self-checkout machines.”

Quoted Text

“Navigating jammed aisles and then waiting to check out for more than a few minutes isn’t worth the price savings on just a few items,” says Guilbert Brown, a college administrator, in Virginia. Brown says he favors Target above Wal-Mart due to the relative ease of navigating Target’s aisles and checkout process.

My time is worth more than they could ever offer......not to mention how many of us if just wandering around the store to 'find' those 'hidden' items of 'need', end up purchasing more than you wanted to........THIS IS WHAT THEY BANK ON (for bonuses,dividends, etc)the 'big guys' have now noticed, unlike the cashiers/stockers etc......increased gas/food/energy prices put a kabosh on that kind of 'free for all' spending......too bad.........


NOW WHERE IS MY DAMN FENCE.......'big educated guys'....YOU are insulting and too cheap and greedy.......

OK, I understand something now.  This is not an issue about the fence however.  I was off Friday cuz mother had doctor appointments.  I've always griped about the few cash registers open, something we all gripe about.  I think they have maybe 14.  I'm a working person, my shopping gets done after dinner, the 6 pm. 7 pm times.  Went in the store last Friday around noon.  There must have been seven or eight registers open, there might have been perhaps two shoppers (or groups of) at a few of them.  I also could have found many employees if I had questions.   Obviously, Walmart indeed does cater to the welfare crowd first, the unemployed.

In the evening, rarely more than three registers open, no one around to ask anything.  I would like to see a JC Penney's or a Boscovs open in Schenectady  

Rotterdam doesnt seem to think it has enough class for a high end store...I guess they dont feel they enough for anything...Tatoo school, thrift stores   we certainly are going in the right direction to turn this area into the getto....watch...