Is Customer Service Dead?

I recently had the pleasure of shopping at  Walmart and the experience left me wondering how they manage to stay in business.   Understand that this is not the first time I have shopped at Walmart but I hope it will be my last.

We went in looking for a flatware tray and while we didn't find what we were looking for we noticed that they were putting out fresh bananas and selected the best 3 and went to check out.   This store has 24 check out lines and only 2 were staffed.  There were 30+ people waiting to check out and one of the staff closed the checkout line he was in leaving only a single checkout line in operation.

There were 4 self checkout positions and a single attendant overseeing them.  People in them were having difficulty.  One man couldn't figure out how to pay for an avocado, one couldn't get his credit card to work, one was trying to purchase a bottle of wine, and one was busy talking on her phone and wrestling with two kids.

The line wasn't moving.   The attendant had to visit every person at a station.  The poor lady purchasing a bottle of wine - the attendant had to come to her station three times and of course in between the three visits she had to try to assuage the other station.

And the man wanting to purchase a gift card stood there waiting for help for over 5 minutes just to be told he couldn't purchase a gift card at the self-checkout.  Of course there were no signs stating this or any other restrictions on the self-checkout stations.

Now this is a big Walmart and I know there was other staff that could have helped out but they were busy standing around at a kiosk chatting with each other.  Obviously this is more important than 'Customer Service'.

To be fair I need to say that shopping at a rural Walmart is very different than at a urban Walmart.  This tends to speak loudly about the 'quality' of the staff that are attracted to work at Walmart and the level of competence of local management at urban locations.  And this also points to the failure of the education system to install in their urban students any sense of 'customer service'.  Instead urban students are 'brain washed' with all of the 'me, me, me' pablum that is passing for 'education' in todays' schools.

What ever happened to 'Putting someone else before yourself' and I don't want to even talk about 'self-sacrifice'.  There are some that get it and they go beyond the expected to shine brightly in an otherwise dark world.  They deserve all of the praise and accolades they receive.

But when I go to a store to purchase product with my hard earned money I expect to be treated politely and courteously.  Is this asking too much?  Why can't the worlds largest retailer staff checkout lanes to adequately provide a quick checkout process?   This happens at grocery stores many times every day.

I can't say that I won't go back to Walmart but I can say that I will try to get what ever I need elsewhere as much as possible.  I hope you too will join me in trying to go elsewhere as much as possible.

We eventually found exactly what we wanted at 'Bed Bath and Beyond' so now this adventure has come to a successful conclusion. Yea!

Thanks!