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...expanded its 10% employee discount on nonfoods to include produce. Long-term employees asked for an extra week's pay instead of an extra week's vacation. (They got it.) Workers with less experience asked for quarterly, not annual, bonuses if their store met targets. (They got it.) Wal-Mart, in turn, wanted help available at peak demand in the stores, meaning nights and weekends. (Of course it got it.) The company has also instituted some wage caps...
...Wal-Mart wants to tailor about 10% of each store's merchandise to the neighborhood--a long-unrealized goal. Given the company's appetite for goods, its buyers' primary focuses have been price and logistics: How do you get millions of 20-lb. (8 kg) bags of dog food delivered to 3,500 stores efficiently? They're good at that. They're not so good at figuring out what to do when shoppers in Dallas don't buy the giant bags of dog food that they've become so expert at supplying. What if doggie apparel is just as sellable...
...food/dog-sweater example frames Wal-Mart's tactical quandary. The company's cultlike focus on supply-chain logistics grinds away at costs but doesn't allow it to know the neighbors. The new strategy tries to make that connection--editing for the area, offering a point of distinction. "It's going to tell the customer that we understand what they need," says Castro-Wright. "We not only understand what you need, we respect your point of view. We want to be your store of choice because we understand you better than anyone else in the marketplace...
...trying to relate better to shoppers, Wal-Mart has bumped up training to improve what it calls customer engagement. In its redesigned consumer-electronics section, for instance, the company has discovered that it can sell pricier merchandise like flat-panel televisions and GPS equipment, but customers need a little hand-holding before laying down $1,500 for a set. It's happening just as consumer-electronics giant Circuit City has laid off 9% of its sales force and replaced it with less experienced, less expensive hires. Wal-Mart says same-store sales were up 4.6% in electronics in the past...
...retraining is part of Wal-Mart's response to critics who accuse the company of being a repository of faceless, low-paying work. Now it's threatening to get squishy, rolling out an idea called Associates Out in Front, known as active listening in the HR trade. Store managers must meet with 10 associates each week and hear them...