Walmart — Local services in Warwick

Because it is within walking distance, the obvious reason I shop there is convenience. Having said that, my take on this Walmart is it's the portal to hell. This morning's experience set me off over the phone at 7:45. Went like this...not something like this, mind you...exactly like this:

Ordered an item online yesterday afternoon. When notified I could pick it up....off I went only to find a line longer than I cared to stand in and decided to pick it up first thing this morning.

Called to be sure the pick-up department was open that early...ring x 8 and no answer. Dialed an "associate" to verify time pick-up opened. "Good morning", I said...nothing from her end. I told her that I was checking to see if pick-up was open. "We open at 7, so they should be back there." Explained I had just called but nobody answered. "Somebody should be back there." Then explained about the online purchase that I was to pick up this morning. She asked if I was told it would be here in one day. Told her they did, etc. "They should be there."

Realizing I was about to go into a full-blown phone rage rant, I said thank you....and she hung up.

Portal to freaking hell.

FINALE:

Got to the pick-up area around 8:45-ish. Within seconds three associates appeared...one kept walking, one went back to get us some help, and one peeked out, saw us standing there and came right to the counter. She was lively, friendly, and a delight to deal with and, thankfully talked me down from the ledge. Go, pick-up department person!

Product in hand, we began our ritual Walmart browse when we heard the announcement for the daily (I assume) pep talk to all available associates. Hip, hip hooray, go Walmart...and all that.

The meeting broke up, and one of the attendees came back to where we were poking around for batteries and data storage items. We both asked him a question. He was knowledgeable, courteous and friendly...in other words, his customer service skills were exemplary. Go, Zach!

At that point I was sure we had stepped into an alternate universe.

Heading towards the exit, I saw that the door to the manager's office was open...time to make my stand. The manager invited me in. Several other people were there, but I didn't care.

In my most animated persona I told my story...the bad, the good, and the fact that I had already posted a crappy review. He was laughing by that time...we were all laughing. Apparently, my original phone call was taken by someone who had been spoken to a variety of times for the same L.O.U.S.Y. attitude. I asked that both of the helpful associates be acknowledged...

I am pretty sure that Miss Bah Humbug was standing outside his office...arms folded, face sour and waiting for her "come uppance"...as we left the office.

The manager needs accolades, too. His name is...

I am a Rhode Islander so I refer to this store as My Walmart! I am there 2-3 times a week, so it pains me to write this review! Yesterday I stood in line 30 minutes because I wanted to use cash! It is July, not December! The problem was all the self check outs are now charge cards only ( every single self check out!) Two days ago there were 3 self check outs that were cash, and the man was nice enough to inform me of this! Yesterday I decided to search someone out and ask them (Because there were no signs indicating this new change) only to be informed that if I was going to pay cash I would have to go to a teller. OK! Not the problem! Problem is at that point there was only one teller available! The bigger problem was that while I was in line I watched a closed cashier stating to a customer he was closed and the customers in front of him stated he was with them, when he clearly wasn't and the poor cashier felt guilted into ringing them up! When I finally get to the register, after 30 minutes in line, I find out that the cashier, who was a sweet girl who I have gone to in the past, had been there since 7 AM with only one break! It was 7PM! She had to stay past her shift (which should have ended at 4) because cashiers had not shone up! This girl needed a break! I watched as your cashiers had no manager on the floor to help them and they were incredibly short staffed. I felt awful to see the people who truly work hard for you being treated so poorly. Take care of your employees!

Suggestions- Maybe take the employee that was shelving things and told me that it was no problem that someone had left a cart of melting ice cream on the shelf with paper goods and put her ringing out! I will not be buying ice cream at Walmart anymore because I am not so naive that I think that ice cream was thrown out, and not put back into a freezer for someone to buy! Of course the most obvious suggestion is when you do not have enough tellers make some of the self check outs cash...

Been coming to this Walmart just about every Friday for about five years now and fairly regularly since it opened as it's the closest. If you're looking for a warm, fuzzy neighborhood shopping experience, where ya'd think at least one or two staff would give a conciliatory nod to folks who frequent the place and shell out $$, wrong establishment... this Walmart fits the WM stereotype. Although, there is one friendly lady who regularly says hello to customers who arrive and leave, and like one other older lady who is helpful and nice when something goes wrong at self checkout. Otherwise, I swear the other two are surreptitiously watching me at self checkout which is fine, I guess. I get it, scumbags steal, but they never come in every single payday and feed in bills to a machine on a regular and if I was skipping scanning items, at this point, loss prevention would've acted on it no doubt. On the sales floor, if you do need assistance, which 95 percent of the time is simply asking about location of something, finding associate is spotty. Last time I tried getting help in jewelry, I couldn't get a sales person, despite both a page and a female sales associate in neighboring shoes, who was both texting and talking to co-worker as I stood about 20 feet away in front of her, purposefully not talking to see if I'd get a glance: I didn't. But it was good, I would've bought something I didn't need, so it actually worked out. In fairness, in past had couple nice jewelry sales associates there. But good staff are hard to come by these days and it's not about the pay really, it's about instilling good work ethic and encouraging workers to treat others as they'd wish to treated. One last thing, on positive note, service desk is good, efficient, mostly friendly staff, services provided at desk are...