Walmart grocery sections are gross,
understocked and dirty, and the company knows it. Steven Greenhouse and Hiroko Tabuchi report that a recent "highly sensitive" "urgent agenda" memo:
... tells Walmart marketing managers to make sure that the company’s 4,965 United States stores discount aging meat and baked goods to maximize the chance that those items will sell before their expiration dates. The memo — leaked for public use by a Walmart manager unhappy about understaffing — also tells stores to be sure to “rotate” dairy products and eggs, which means removing expired items and adding new stock at the bottom and back of display cases.
In discussing produce, the memo tells managers to “validate that stores are fully executing on ‘Would I Buy It?’ ” — a plea to make sure that every store removes moldy or rotting fruits and vegetables.
But the memo also warns managers to get all this extra work done without exceeding the skimpy labor budgets that have done a lot to create the problem to begin with. Seriously, "do a lot of extra work, without paying people to do a lot of extra work." This is an established Walmart policy:
“Labor hours have been cut so thin, that they don’t have the people to do many activities,” said Burt P. Flickinger III, a retail consultant. “The fact that they don’t do some of these things every day, every shift, shows what a complete breakdown Walmart has in staffing and training.”
In an investment analysts’ report last month, Wolfe Research said “if its employees’ growth had kept up with square footage growth in the U.S. over a number of years,” Walmart would have 200,000 more employees. Walmart has 1.3 million American workers.
In other words, Walmart is demanding that its managers work magic ... or commit wage theft by forcing hourly workers to work off the clock, or push lower-level salaried managers who aren't eligible for overtime to work longer hours. Meanwhile, customers face dirty and understocked shelves and long lines. Walmart is notorious for how badly it treats its workers, but it looks like it's now expanding that to a commitment to treating customers badly as well.