Behind the Scenes: Walmart Breakroom

 One of my catalysts to work hard and make it out of my environment growing up was not only thinking about what I could be, had I plentiful resources at my fingertips, but also deciding that I did not want to be like the majority of the people I was surrounded with growing up, who were lazy, overweight, aggressive & mean. I never thought I was better than anyone, I just did what I could do to move forward and I didn't personally identify with the behavior and habits I was surrounded by.

My first paid job, at age 16, was at Walmart in Putnam, CT and my first day was working Black Friday, with the flu! It was awful, but as I do with everything in life, I buckled down, learned the processes quickly and made it through.

Working in customer service in Walmart in the late 90s was definitely a memorable experience. It was where I learned the common foundational customer service skills of "the customer is always right", etc (even though, let's face it, sometimes they're not! haha!) Still, I did my best to welcome customers, listen to questions and provide excellent service. This is why, today, whether it's a teenager or older salesperson, when I get unfriendly, bad service (which happens about half the the time today - it's only, understandably, gotten worse in the US, like many things!), I bite my tongue.. because gosh, I'd never treat people the way customer service does today! But luckily in the customer's favor, we have many ways to critique business, including Yelp.com - which I recently returned to, mostly as a gratitude practice and also to connect with some old contacts. Made me laugh to read some of my first reviews and also those of friends I met back in San Francisco 16 years ago!

Going back to 1998... the Walmart break room always felt sad to me, but I always made friends and did own my thing. It's Walmart where I met Erica Gervais, a local Rhode Island resident, who introduced me to Bryant College (now: Bryant University) and subsequently, enrolled. Erica & I had many good times working in the electronics department together, often singing along to Shania Twain, while selling TVs and sometimes developing film for customers in the adjacent photo lab. It was always a bustle and I'm grateful for her connection, as it led me to my first positive college experience.

What is Walmart good for at this point? A laugh. Hahaha! Besides that, the oil changes are cheap and they do have excellent deals on Keurigs. 

Sadly, from what I've observed, even though some locations are more cleaned up than others, Walmart is still running stores into the ground, with subpar service, poor layouts and bad management. A true leadership overhaul is needed, don't you think?

May you have a great Monday,

Heidi