What It's like to Work in Walmart Retail

Walmart is the big boy of so-called discount shopping, their new logo is "Save money, live better." Millions of people across the globe are employed for the company, some at the corporate level and most in retail stores. So exactly what is the hiring process like when you apply to work for Walmart? You hear stories about it from different people, and some of the stories border on horrific. When talking to anyone who hasn't ever worked in such a store, you will get the impression that they believe anyone employed there is set up with a nice cushy well-paying position. However, if you talk to any past or present employees, you will find that they have a different opinion about what Walmart is all about. How fair and positive the work environment is, along with the skills and training you must acquire, as well as the stress and pay attribute to how good a job is and how worth it the job will be in the long run to your goals and desired lifestyle. I have worked for a Walmart on the southside in Paducah, KY, and I can tell you first-hand what it is like to be hired for a retail position at one of their stores.

Firstly, you will have to apply online or in the store at one of their hiring terminals. You will be asked for the basic information such as name, address, social security number, etc. Once that is over with, you select the positions that you would like to apply for and at which locations. Then the evaluation begins, this is a series of questions that border on totally idiotic. They inquire as to whether you think it is alright to steal or accept "free" merchandise, or get angry and yell at people easily, among other nonsense. Most people who aren't just totally undesirable in any way to the job market will be called in for an interview immediately, since Walmart has a high turnover due to the working conditions at many of the stores. You'll hear several stories from the company bragging about associates who have worked for them for 20 years and more, but these are usually the ones that are in daytime positions as managers of some kind or office workers. Floor associates who work as cashiers, cart-pushers, unloaders, and stockers come and go in Walmart often. Much of the reason for this is the very low pay and heavy work load. Once you hire in, you'll find out as an associate how little the job is really worth. In your interview, the manager will ask you information that verifies your identity, evaluate you for what they think will be the best position for you, and ask you a summarized set of questions like the evaluation you had done on the terminal.

Once you're hired, you'll go through training in the store. When I did my training at the Paducah, KY store, it took about a week and a half. It was class room work, going over your information on forms, and a lot of computer work. The computer training is called CBLs, which stands for computer based learning. The CBLs pertain to training you have to take according to state law and the position for which you will go into. It sounds like a lot of work, it is, and it doesn't make the pay worth it. After finishing all of the classroom work, you'll be thrown out onto the salesfloor after maybe one or two days of working on the floor during the day. I was hired in as an overnight stocker for cosmetics, which is part of the general merchandise area. It really doesn't matter what position you are hired in for, however, you will be pulled and thrown into all kinds of different departments and jobs all over the store on the general merchandise or grocery side. The manager over the night crew on either side will pull you to any area at any given time, whether you are trained there or not.

Another bad thing about working overnights is that if you have an ignorant manager, then you will have to put up with him or her no matter what they do. Complaints, even from a whole crew are ignored by store management until it goes into sexual harassment or something of that nature, racism and sexism where rampant in the store in which I worked. Not only are you thrown into a job with little actual training, but you will often have to do several different areas in one night and be constantly harassed about hurrying up and getting all of it done. At my old job, I had to do the cosmetics and health and beauty areas by myself on the busiest nights of the week, which would be weekends. Only when I kept complaining did I get help on Friday nights, then Saturdays and Sundays I still had several pallets of freight to stock without help. Even when I was pregnant, they still expected me to climb tall ladders, pull items from bins that scaled the receiving area walls, stack pallets ten or more high, pull empty and full pallets, and pick up heavy cases of freight. I have heard stories of women losing their babies, because the managers would not ease up on them and still wanted them to do heavy lifting or else be threatened with job loss. There are tools that make heavy jobs easier for anyone who is pregnant or has back problems in the stores, they will tell you that accommodations will be made if you need, but in reality, it's only on a pick and choose basis.

Therefor, if you think that working for Walmart and not having to do much is the norm, you are wrong, Associates have to dispose of their cardboard in a bale machine located in the receiving area, and clean up their departments. They have to clean up spills and messes people make in their areas as well, which includes taking broken, spilled, or stolen merchandise to a claims area of the store. Usually, I had to put up four or more tall pallets of freight by myself, clean my area, and pull any pallets to the back before going home, stock any displays off of the pallets or from the back receiving area, and set up displays on any of the weekends, including any extra work that the manager came up with that he did not want to do. I worked from 10 pm to 7am or 6:30 am if I took a 30 minute lunch. It's not a laid back job, or even a position in which you can maintain a steady pace. The managers are encouraged to rush you no matter how much you have to do, or how fast you are already going. Walmart also wants to use as few workers as possible to get as much as they can done for less pay, which equals a bonus for them. For example, I was told by a manager while I was six months pregnant that I wasn't rushing enough because I wasn't sweating, he wanted me to do seven pallets by myself. He would not put anyone else in my department to help me either, until the night was almost over and I had done much of it alone. In hindsight, it wasn't worth the near five years working there only to make up to about $9.40 an hour and still be told that I didn't deserve a higher raise than the standard $0.40, because I only did what my job entailed and nothing else, supposedly. You're lucky if you get a $0.60 raise, if you're not buddying up to a manager or raising hell to get it, especially if you're female, a minority, or homosexual.

Walmart isn't a great place to work, from what I have experienced and seen go on at the former workplace. I wouldn't recommend anyone work there unless they can handle the abuse and low pay. When you hear all of the horror stories about this giant retailer, don't always think it's someone looking for a payday or that it doesn't happen in small towns. There's a reason that Walmart is always being sued and often in the news for less than stellar moves. Just as in nature, there is a food-chain type of operation in this business, the upper level big-wigs pocketing all of the cash and the lowly associates barely making ends meet while having to use public assistance to make it from one pay check to the next. There's also the matter of how smaller family-oriented businesses are always run out when a Walmart moves into town. Prices start out low to gain a dedicated customer base, then they begin to jack them up since they will have no other competition as they have run them all out of town. Before considering a job with the company, especially at retail level, you may want to talk to former employees. Don't be surprised if you hear many of the same complaints and horror stories. It seems that the Walmart way, is more like a dictatorship than a retail chain.