Apathetic Attitude

I walked into my department this morning and found it hadn't been closed last night. Not only that, but all of the cabinets that should have been locked overnight had been left unlocked all night long. And this is a 24 hour Wal-Mart. One of those cabinets has about $30,000.00 worth of cell phones in it.

Any dishonest customer strolling around the store in the middle of the night could have easily made a major score. I guess we dodged a bullet this time. But what about the next time?

Speaking of dishonest customers, the first thing that caught my eye this morning (after the discovery that the evening shift associate hadn't done his job), was a pre-paid cell phone package that had been torn open lying on the counter. Nothing was stolen, so I have to assume the perpetrator must have opened the package to see that the phone inside looked exactly like the picture on the front.

Just thinking about what must go through some people's mind just boggles my mind.

later, I discovered a cell phone car charger package that had been torn open. The charger that had been inside the package was gone and a different charger left in it's place. This had come to us from the returns department.

I speculated that the customer who had perpetrated this switch got a new cell phone but the old charger didn't fit the new one, and he had no further use for the old one, so he thought it would be a bright idea to just remove a new charger from it's package and replace it with his old one, thus saving himself the expense of buying a new charger.

I suppose you have to admire someone who's willing to risk jail to save fifteen bucks.

Of course, these incidents only scratch the surface of the wanton theft and vandalism that runs rampant in nearly every Wal-Mart store in the world.

And why is theft and vandalism so common at Wal-Mart as opposed to other retail stores?

I believe it is because of a prevailing apathetic attitude on the part of Wal-Mart management. They just don't seem to care that customers have such disrespect for their store.

A news story appeared in our local paper a few months ago. A Wal-Mart Customer Service Manager in Wichita, Kansas was actually fired for stopping a shoplifter from stealing a $600.00 computer. He carried the computer out of the store, and the alarm went off. She followed him outside and asked politely if she could see his receipt. At that point, the man dropped the computer, hit the young woman and ran away.

The next morning she was called into the management office and fired. Believe it or not, there is a strict Wal-Mart policy against preventing shoplifters.

And that apathetic attitude is carried over by the management in every store. The message is quite clear: Caring about your job or your store is an exercise in futility.

Wal-Mart doesn't care. Why should you?