Seven
Quarters, and Counting
16
August 2014
Copyright
© 2014 – It’s Not Sam’s Walmart…..Anymore!
& RightTurnMedia2014
For the last seven quarters, or 1 ¾ years,
Walmart’s Same Store sales have either been flat or falling.
As one long time Walmart stock analyst put it,
“this company has a real serious management issue”, something It’s Not Sam’s
Walmart….Anymore!, has known and witnessed for the last twelve years.
Once upon a time, back when Mr. Sam was still
anything but a memory, you could judge our nation’s economy by Walmart’s Same
Store Sales. Sales going up quarter to
quarter equaled a good economy. But it
sales dropped quarter to quarter for two straight quarters, something that had
never happened before now, it was a sign that the economy was not in good
condition.
Mr. Sam would never have tolerated one quarter of
Same Store Sales being flat or falling, much alone two or more.
Why is this happening?
Simple, Walmart’s leadership is spending too much
time investing money to chase after Amazon.com, the online grocery purchase and
delivery business, and many other areas Walmart is not a leader in, instead of
investing in the core business, the stores!
Investments in the core Walmart business, the
stores, MUST be made! These investments
include, but are not limited to:
o LAYAWAY!!!! Probably
Walmart’s biggest blunder of the last decade was eliminating Layaway. As I have noted many a time, it is the only
reason K-Mart is clinging on to life. It
is beyond time to return full layaway to each and every store. This one move alone will increase Walmart’s
market share, and increase Walmart’s sales immediately!
o Full Store Renovations,
Not Touchups. Something K-Mart did til they went bankrupt. Walmart ceased full store renovations as an
effort to conserve working capital in favor of “touch up” renovations.
o Increased Staffing. Not just to include registers
to insure customers are not made to wait excessively to check out, especially
during the overnight hours where Walmart has lost an extensive amount of sales
to other retailers that converted to 24 hour operations.
o Increased Overnight
Staffing. To
insure replenishment of shelves is fully completed.
o Insuring
Distribution Centers Are Stocked. Walmart’s leadership, in an effort to conserve
working capital, cut stocking levels in the distribution centers many years
ago, this led to increased “outs” on store shelves, even in basic items. It is beyond time to reverse this decision to
insure each and every Distribution
Center has adequate stock
to provide to each and every store it serves.
o Reinstate Hourly
Department Managers In Each and Every Department. Changing to Zone Managers and
reducing the number of Department Managers has also contributed to the lack of
stock on shelves problems plaguing each and every store.
o Reduce the Management
Heavy Ranks In Each and Every Store. There are too many managers, and not enough
associates to provide exceptional Customer Service.
o Eliminate the Home
Office Store Scheduling System and Return Scheduling To The Store Level. This is essential to insure
each store’s success. Currently, stores
cannot add staff on for unusual events, such as bad weather, sporting events,
product releases, etc.
o Rollback the Availability
Rules. With the
elimination of scheduling of stores at the Home Office level, Availability
Rules must be rolled back to what they originally were. For example, a store may need an extra CSM
overnights for just half a shift, but that is not allowed under the existing
system. Walmart, like many other
companies that has implemented the so called “customer centered (NOT!)”
scheduling system have been plagued by decreased customer satisfaction and high
turnover.
o Bring Back Talented
Associates To Re-Energize The Company! A large number of tenured Walmart Associates,
the ones that were the best all around, were chased out the doors by the
current mis-management and mis-leadership.
o Remove Entrenched
or Underperforming Managers! There are numerous entrenched Managers at all levels of Walmart, as
well as underperforming ones. A good
example is the Market District Manager that has been leader of the same Market
District for well over 20 years. It has
lead to poor decisions on whom to place in Store Management positions, which in
turn leads to even poorer decisions in the stores. Example, a former Co-Manager who spent his
overnight shifts sleeping in the Manger’s Office, was promoted to Store Manager
in another District, when it was found the Store Manager was failing, he was
hired back as a Store Manager in his former District, where there have been
numerous problems and high turnover since his arrival.
o Dismantle the
Spark, and Change The Walmart Logo Back!
Walmart’s current logo and “the spark” are
trademarks of company’s leadership and management failures over the last 12 to
14 years. Roll it back!
While there are
plenty of other things that could be listed on the priorities sheet, those
above, if completed quickly, could start to right the sinking Walmart ship.
Each retailer
from the time of F.W. Woolworth, to Walmart, runs a certain life cycle, from
start up to success, to eventual failure.
Walmart’s leadership has navigated the Walmart ship into the beginning
of the failure stage. Unlike those other
retailers that have come and gone into the history books, the failure of
Walmart would be an economic disaster on levels of which we have never seen.
Knowledge
is power!
It’s
Not Sam’s Walmart…..Anymore! is here for
one reason, to return Sam Walton’s beliefs, values, and rock solid business
model , that stresses Customer Service and Value to Walmart!
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