Walmart’s Checkout Promise
A few days ago, I gave you an outline of all the amazing things Walmart is going to do this year to make your Holiday Shopping easier and cheaper. Today, we need to look at one of the coolest things on the list, Walmart’s Checkout Promise.
According to a Blog Post updated on October 31st, Walmart is pledging to have EVERY checkout lane in the store open during peak hours from Black Friday to Christmas. Unfortunately, they aren’t saying EXACTLY when “Peak Hours” are but I was able to track down my store manager and pick her brain a little.
When are “Peak Hours”?
According to her, the focus will be primarily on weekends from 12-8 with the hope that they will also be able keep all registers open on weekday nights from 6-9. They will also be focusing on Black Friday and the last few days before Christmas.
Is This Possible?
Personally, I can’t wait to see if they can implement this effectively in all locations but let’s do the math. Walmart operates 4,177 Nationwide with 3,275 of those being Super Centers as of Dec 31st of last year. Each store probably has an average of 20 checkout lanes, more if you figure in Pharmacy, Makeup and Jewelry, and Customer Service registers also. That’s at least 80,000 cashiers and probably closer to 100,000 every single weekend day and (possibly) evening of the week. That’s a huge amount of labor to keep a handle on.
Will It Go Smoothly?
Will it go off without a hitch? No possible way. But does this mean that the average wait time of a customer standing in line will be shorter? I think so and that’s a huge plus.
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