Our local Wal-Mart is a typical big box store with a grocery and pharmacy. It has 12 checkouts, plus 3 full-size self-checkouts, plus a section with about 10 mini-checkouts for people who are buying a couple of items. The self-checkouts usually have an employee assisting and the mini-checkout section has another employee. There is always an employee at the entrance.
Since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, I have shopped early on Thursday morning when the store is usually pretty empty. The staff is usually thin until 9 AM when the main staff shows up. But even early, one regular checkout and both the self-checkout sections are staffed.
Today, I did a full-size shopping was ready to check out at 9 AM. NONE of the regular checkouts or the full-size self-checkouts were open. The area with the mini-checkouts had ONE employee. I asked her to open one of the full-size checkouts but she refused. She had to monitor her area and she couldn’t open the other area since she couldn’t watch it.
I said, “Where is everyone? It’s 9 AM and the shift usually starts now.” She answered, “Everyone called in saying they weren’t working. I’m the only one here. I’ve been here since 6 AM.” The poor woman was busier than a one-armed paper hanger and the crowds that usually arrive in later morning weren’t even there yet.
It took me 15 minutes to check myself out.
It’s mind-boggling that a store that size is operating with one woman at the checkouts and one woman at the door. Maybe I should have gone into the office to see if there was a manager to operate the checkouts.
Any reliable worker who needs a job could get one there in a heartbeat.
I don’t understand what’s happening. There isn’t a lot of Covid in Sequim.
Any reliable worker who needs a job could get one there in a heartbeat.
I don’t understand what’s happening. There isn’t a lot of Covid in Sequim.
If you’re not offering a “work from home” position, you need to be paying a premium wage. It will take a while for the poverty wage “job creators” to figure that out, but eventually they’ll get there or close their doors.
You seem surprised by this… WalMart has NEVER had a reasonably staffed front-end at any of the stores in my area, and it’s one of the reasons I take great pains to avoid them.
Any reliable worker who needs a job could get one there in a heartbeat.
If the wage were sufficient. Walmart doesn’t have a good reputation on that front.
I don’t understand what’s happening. There isn’t a lot of Covid in Sequim.
I can make a couple of educated guesses.
Walmart isn’t paying enough. There are other low skill jobs in the area. Lots of hotels that need staff. Ports that need workers. Costco and Home Depot are across the street. (Yes, I can use google maps!)
Fewer people want to work. I’m sure some part of the labor pool in Clallam County is retired folks looking for a part time job to keep busy. With the pandemic, a bunch of these folks decided that keeping busy by risking Covid wasn’t worth it. They’d prefer to be bored and safe over busy and sick. With fewer people in the local work force, reliable workers are getting the pick of jobs they want rather than settling for the job they can get. Again, Walmart isn’t known for treating their employees well. But Costco is. How’s the staffing looking there? (As a random guess, Costco has all they employees they need, Home Depot is doing OK but has some openings, and Walmart is visibly short staffed.)
It’s just a random day where a few people called in sick. It happens.
I don’t understand what’s happening. There isn’t a lot of Covid in Sequim.
As with the Wendy’s in my neighborhood, in a tight labor market, the place deemed the worst place to work in the area will be the first with no staff.
There was a piece on the news last year about, iirc, a Burger King that was closed midday. The sign said that everyone quit.
I shop WalMart rarely, because Meijer has much better selection of groceries, and is closer, but, when I am in the WalMart, mid-afternoon, staffing seems roughly equal to Meijer.
… in a tight labor market, the place deemed the worst place to work in the area will be the first with no staff.
That is an important point.
Those owners and managers are also be the ones complaining the loudest that no one wants to work anymore. Maybe it is just that no one wants to work for them anymore.
… in a tight labor market, the place deemed the worst place to work in the area will be the first with no staff.
That is an important point.
Those owners and managers are also be the ones complaining the loudest that no one wants to work anymore. Maybe it is just that no one wants to work for them anymore.
Saw an ad this morning for a local manufacturer who is advertising why they are such a great place to work. 4 days on and 4 days off, providing life-work balance. I thought it was a great way to grab a bigger piece of the small employable pie.
That’s OK a few more months of high inflation and the millennials will put down their video games and be forced into a second job. We have 10 years of pain ahead of us to combat this world wide inflation that America has created. As the world reserve currency when you print money and give it to everybody those third world countries that everything they purchase is denominated in Dollars suffer greatly. This tends to lead into third world further decline, war, famine, death. Modern Monetary Policy does not work. You cannot keep printing money without there being a consequence.