Hopefully this abomination dissappears soon.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Part of their problem is that the strategy of skimping on labor costs is starting to catch up to them. Every time I go into a Walmart, I see pallets of product still shrink-wrapped sitting in the middle of aisles. I see empty shelves or misplaced items. That's what happens when you run a massive store on a skeleton crew. There are literally not enough people to get their merchandise on the shelves to be sold. Their sales decline as a result; they cut back on workforce more; and they get stuck in a feedback loop.

Self check-out registers don't seem to be helping. Usually they're concerned about "loss prevention" and you just have a person watching you check yourself out to make sure you ring everything up instead of just checking you out themselves.

There really isn't any room in the marketplace anymore for brick-and-mortar stores that offer such a mediocre customer environment. People who want to pay as little as possible will buy things online; they won't stand in line for 20 minutes, scour empty shelves and deal with underpaid, undertrained staff. If they're buying something they don't want to wait 3-5 days to get in the mail, like soap or toothpaste or groceries, they'll go to a drugstore or a supermarket. If they're buying something that's too big to get online, like a TV or a washing machine, they'll go to Home Depot.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

It takes time for the older stores to sink into decrepitude of poor service.

I hope that doesn't happen.  It really is the best shopping experience around.

I like a lot about Wal-Mart but "best shopping experience" isn't one of them. They have a wide variety of stuff at cheap prices. That's about it. If you want a good shopping experience, go to Target or a frou frou grocery like Whole Foods or Fresh Market. You won't leave with the indellible stench of failure.

I meant in that middle of nowhere town not the entire planet.  There is no Whole Foods in BFE.

And Walmarts out in the middle of nowhere aren't just filled with the poors.  A lot of middle and some upper class people shop there because they have all the basics in one place at a reasonable price.  It is a very different dynamic than some urban Walmart's I've been in.

As a middle-classer who shops there, it is pretty much one stop shopping.   Even their produce and meats are continually improving in quality.  The only thing I don't buy there is fresh fish......but everything else there is good stuff....and I save a bundle.

Not sure I'd agree with you there. In fact, in Texas, part of the reason Wal-Mart's grocery sales have lagged is because Hispanics often won't shop there because the fresh produce isn't up to their standards (the product at Fiesta, Aldi and Mas Club is better).