Walmart's new uniforms are dark blue vests. Their previous uniforms were blue polo shirts that were identical to the majority of school uniforms in Florida. So every time I went to Walmart with my kid, if she had her school uniform on, rude people would grab her arm and demand service. One nasty woman followed us around saying "Excuse me! Excuse me! Go get your manager now!" We also had an incident in the Site To Store section where a woman demanded that my daughter ring her up. I'm so freaking glad that Walmart uniforms don't look like Florida school uniforms anymore. I feel bad if this is how Walmart staff members are treated every day.
I had no idea about that. I haven't been to a Walmart in years because my town doesn't have one. Vests sound like a much nicer type of uniforms though. People don't feel good about themselves at work when they are wearing crummy uniforms. I know people are rude in those kind of stores all the time though. I did not know Florida had school uniforms, is that a new thing or does your daughter go to a private school?
I've noticed that too. I didn't realize that they changed their uniforms, I just thought they got vests for some reason. I am glad that it is easier to single out an employee. I have been asked questions too many times while I was shopping. It's like people assume a blue shirt automatically means you work for Walmart. I've been gripped by my arm and bitched at about products before. When I tell them that I don't work for Walmart they don't believe me. I'm almost at the point where I have to look down to see what I am wearing before I go shopping. I wore a red shirt to Target once and it was the same thing. People don't even pay attention and it gets old after awhile.
I never said that their previous uniforms were crummy or that they didn't feel good about themselves. I only said that their blue polo shirts are too similar to the school uniforms that are used at most public schools in Florida. They are also similar to the Best Buy uniforms. No my kid is not a rich private school kid. We're just 2 normal poor people shopping and people used to come up to my daughter and demand service. It's good that they have vests now because school children and Best Buy employees can now shop there in peace.
I don't feel strongly either way about the new Wal-Mart uniforms. I will say that they desperately need to improve the quality of their service, because at this point it is beyond terrible. That's why I don't usually shop at their stores. The employees seem like they couldn't care less about providing a good experience for the customer. I understand they are not being paid well but you might as well make the most out of a bad situation.
I'm not happy that they changed their uniforms as it is an needless expense for a group of people that are already underpaid and overworked. Big deal, somebody thinks you work at Walmart, don't wear blue in the store, just like you shouldn't wear red in Target if you don't want people thinking you work there. Their employees tried to explain to upper management how much of a hardship this would be on them, but they simply don't care. It's really a shame.
Working in retail is pretty rough. I worked retail for several years. I still get people who come up to me and ask for stuff. I must have retail clerk or associate stamped on my forehead. I really don't shop Walmart that much, but I thought all the employees wore blue vests. At least in the ones that I shopped at.
I see both sides of it. I understand that it's a needless expense for the underpaid employees, but it also sucks that I can't stop at the Walmart across from my daughter's school to pick up some groceries for dinner without people grabbing my kid's arm or barking orders at her. Even the people who work there shouldn't be getting manhandled. I know you have no way of knowing this, but there is a junior high school and a high school directly across from our local Walmart. They have uniforms. That is thousands of students in blue shirts and a LOT of parents who have to pick up a few things after school. Don't blame me because my kid wears blue, blame the shoppers who are too stupid to tell school children apart from adults.
Perhaps this is a regional thing, but I am fairly certain that in the Wal-Marts in my area just about every one of the employees not only wore vests, but they had badges hanging off of their necks to make them easily identifiable. Maybe because of the warmer weather down there in Florida they didn't do vests initially? Sorry to get a laugh at your expense, but that kind of cracks me up that some customers can be so dense that they cannot even be bothered to look and see if the person has a Wal-Mart on their shirt or a button or badge or anything. A few years ago a large group of people pranked a Best Buy by doing this. They all wore khaki's and blue polo shirts, then all came walking into Best Buy at the same time. The store employees started freaking out and of course the management had to swoop in and ask them all to leave. They filmed it all too, and the video should still be up on Youtube.
Woah, that's a trip. When you said "kid" I'm assuming you mean a teenager? Because I can't imagine someone expecting a true kid to be working at Walmart. Well, its a good thing that Walmart changed their uniforms so they don't resemble school uniforms.
There's a middle school and a high school across from the Walmart. So there are 13 and 14 year olds in blue shirts being grabbed by adults who want customer service. The last time someone grabbed my daughter's elbow to demand that she ring him up, I wanted to cut his hand off. Because of the uniform change, it is clear that the people in dark blue vests work there, and the short people in blue shirts are middle school kids in uniforms. Too bad shoppers weren't smart enough to tell the kids apart from the adults without a uniform change. You should never touch someone else's kid and it's not okay to touch the actual Walmart staff either.
I've noticed that in a lot of stores, unfortunately, not just Walmart...people feel like they're entitled to act rude to anyone in customer service and it's a shame :/. It shouldn't be an absolute dreadful job just because it happens to involve dealing with people but a lot of the time that's how it ends up. It's a shame your daughter had that bad experience, and at least the uniform change works out for her but it definitely makes you feel for the poor workers who don't get paid nearly enough to deal with nasty people .
