Walmart Manager Confirms that Profits Means More Than Customer Satisfaction

With the notable exception of Paris Hilton who famous inquired whether the store was a place that the little people frequent to buy walls, almost every American has at least some vague idea of what a Wal-Mart store is like. Even those who have never actually had to enter this retail behemoth in the pursuit of food, video games, or beach towels have at the very least seen the store as advertised in its various television commercials. Although Wal-Mart and its founder Sam Walton were held up as ideals of American entrepreneurialship at its best in the 1980s, something starting going downhill for the All-America dream story starting in the 1990s. Today, Wal-Mart is probably second only to Microsoft in terms of negative publicity; it is seen as the very devil Himself by small business owners who have been put out of business, and even those consumers who benefit from its vaunted low prices are beginning to rebel in light of complaints over customer service. Among the biggest complaints about Wal-Mart that the average shopper has is the fact that even at the busiest times the store seems to open only a few of its banks of checkout registers. Ask almost any regular visitor to a Wal-Mart what their biggest beef is and you will get the same response: long lines.

I came across an article from 2005 that indicated that Wal-Mart was aware of the problem of people having to wait in line. According to the article, they were supposedly considering a technological approach called line rushing technology using a "mobile scanner that allows employees to check out merchandise while customers wait in line. Customers receive a print-out with a bar code, so cashiers only need to scan the paper and take payment".