WALMART has promised a probe after a shopper called them out for the “worst experience” ever at one of their stores.
The incident saw them having to wait 20 minutes for two items because they were locked up in cabinets.
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Social media became the forum for an enraged rant on Tuesday, as the customer unleashed her fury.
The post said: “I’m sorry but shopping in the San Leandro target/walmart is the worst experience ever.
“I’ve waited 10 minutes for them to open the tanning cabinet and another 10 for toothpaste.
“If they’re gonna lock everything up they should have the headcount to accommodate.”
This complaint targets the safety measure that lots of major retailers use to prevent theft and other illegal behavior.
Walmart is not the only company to put their products behind a locked cabinet.
But this customer is complaining that it took a long time to get the products from the cabinet.
This could have been for a number of reasons, such as not having enough employees on the store floor.
Walmart responded to the post: “Let’s look into what happened here.
“Can you DM us with more details?”
It is unlikely that Walmart would change their cabinet policy, but it is unknown if and how this complaint was addressed.
It is also unclear if it ever was.
LONG LINES
The US Sun recently reported on another Walmart customer complaint that hit social media.
The shopper moaned that the checkout policy isn’t up to scratch, forcing people to either wait in lines or use a tricky app to checkout instead.
The post from Ivan on Thursday said: “@Walmart please explain to my store #5671 forces customers to not use the express checkout but to use the scan and go in the app?
“You’re forcing non Walmart+ customers to wait on long lines even if they have just a few items as a punishment for not having the membership.
KEY INSIGHTS: Locked Up Items
In Novmber 2023, WSL Strategic Retail surveyed shoppers about the use of theft-proof cabinets for its How America Shops report.
Here are the key findings:
- 70% of shoppers had faced locked-up goods when hoping to purchase an item.
- 78% of these shoppers said they got help from an employee and waited to buy a product though this number dropped for customers under the age of 26.
- 12% of shoppers said they refused to buy the product and many went online or to another store instead.
- Meanwhile, 10% said they bought a similar product that was readily available in the same store. Again, among Gen Z customers there was a difference with 19% of them saying they did this.
Why did 22% of customers not wait for assistance?
- The majority wanted to avoid the additional hassle.
- Many were unable to find a store associate and those that did said the employee had trouble opening the cabinet.
- One-third were angry about the fact the products were locked up
- One quarter said they did not have the time to wait for assistance.
Source: WSL Strategic Retail
“On top of that, the process of scanning via the phone is so much more tedious than self scanning at the express checkout machine.
“It makes the overall experience horrible and tedious versus convenient.
“Please advise your store to allow express checkout to function as normal.
“I literally watched a woman with 3 children get turned away and sent to the long cashier lines and she had 5 or 6 items.
“Not very customer friendly or efficient.
“It shouldn’t be that way.
“Now we must have a membership to actually have a worst experience.”
Walmart responded to the post: “Ivan, can you please send us a DM with details about these long lines? We want to check into this.”
According to this social media user, it feels like Walmart is imposing a “punishment” on those who do not pay for the membership.
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