I am in the U.S., and had to study Walmarts lack of ethics in our public schools 15 years ago. It isn't as it used to be, but there is still an intense social stigma working at Walmart. Amazon has this reputation more now in some respects, but Walmart has decades of PR baggage for good reasons.
Living things like this down will take a long time, probably for my generation or older to stop being their target audience. https://www.chron.com/business/article/Wal-Mart-sues-insurer...
When I worked there, the job felt pointless. It's a neverending pile of meaningless work that you can never make progress on. You're disrespected by customers, paid little, and know you're really just a cog in the machine. I didn't show up for work for a week before I quit. Nobody noticed I was gone and they were as surprised when I quit as I was that I wasn't fired. Every time I clocked in, I was hit with the feeling of purgatory. The useless drag of another day-- all for the benefit of -- ?
For what it's worth, in my area (a midsize Deep South city; the customary environment for Walmart), I don't see this. But it is also a city experiencing some amount of growth with a viable future. Starting pay at my local Walmarts are the same as starting pay at a McDonald's or any other entry-level retail job.
I'm curious, where were the Walmarts you visited? I've been to "sad" Walmarts like that, and in my experience it correlates most strongly with the general sadness of the town -- places ravaged by the opioid epidemic, with few jobs and no hope in the residents' hearts.
every time, yup.
>demotivated, sad or emotionless looking, slurping slowly through the shop.. like employees super abused or completely lost and aimless. Nowhere else, even in cheap fast foods or similar I got that, why?
Wal mart tends to attract some of the worst folk, and they aren't only there for 5 minutes to pick up a burger. That plus a dead end minimum wage part time job with zero hopes of progression dont make for happy employees
Different topic: As a foreigner, really every visit to a Wallmart left me with a very strange feeling, because almost every employee had a zombie like appearance one or the other way, demotivated, sad or emotionless looking, slurping slowly through the shop.. like employees super abused or completely lost and aimless. Nowhere else, even in cheap fast foods or similar I got that, why?