Walmart

Mike Duke, CEO
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
702 SW 8th St
Bentonville, AR 72716

6/9/13

Dear Mr. Duke,


It is with incredulity that I write to you about my recent visit to your store at 2351 Century Dr in West Mifflin, PA. I am typically a big fan of shopping at Walmart stores, but every now and then I am completely baffled by the bizarre way they are managed. I went to this Walmart store on a Thursday night at 11:00 p.m. to pick up a few things. At this time there were two cash registered being manned. One cashier was completely occupied by a woman running some kind of extreme couponing scam who had enough stuff in her cart to stock a bunker for the end times. The other line was populated by Everyone Else. After standing in the Armageddon line for about ten minutes, I figured out that I wasn't going anywhere. Either the cashier was taking her good old time, or was just flat out baffled by how to process all of these coupons.

I took a glance at the other line, where the last (and probably 15th) person in line had a full cart of groceries. As much as I wanted hand soap and dish washing liquid for a very affordable price, I decided I wasn't willing to spend 45 minutes in line to get it, and I left my items on an end cap display. I went over to CVS where I purchased the same thing in about two or three minutes, though for several more dollars.

Now, the ridiculousness of this scenario is accentuated by the fact that there were about a hundred employees in the store stocking shelves, some making jokes and dawdling around, while 15 people stand idling in line waiting to give you money. In general, though I like the convenience of Walmart stores, when I picture them I imagine boxes and abandoned items strewn all over the place. Maybe this is part of the reason why.

Incidentally, this is not the first time I have had to abandon my items and go elsewhere, as I have done so several times at the North Versailles Walmart. This West Mifflin store is usually better, but I hope you agree that one shopper with a large quantity of items shouldn't be enough to blow out the capacity of a store to function, even if it is at an odd hour of the night.

Sincerely,