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Wal-Mart changing the name of Blitz?


marshmallowpuff

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Has anyone heard this rumor, that Wal-Mart is changing the name of their 'Blitz' event to...

 

 

get this....

 

THE EVENT!

 

Yes, the event. I laugh every time I hear someone say it out loud. Funny. What do you all think of this?

Or perhaps the NON-EVENT if their BF ad is not very good!
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Hopefully the economy will force the kooks to stay home. It's a shame and a disgrace when people behave like children over saving a few dollars on things they don't really need. No wonder Amerocans have such a bad rep in the world. I've never seen anything in ANY ad that would make me push, shove, curse, trample or otherwise be rude to another human.
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I work at Wal-Mart. Yep, it's true. Internally it was called blitz day (I'm guessing because the stores get blitzed by customers) and now it's called "The Yearly Event." One of the managers at my store said he guessed the word "blitz" had a negative conotation. Anyway, if you really want to know the details (except for the ad. I have no idea what's going on sale) here they are:

I'm sure you're all familiar with the way Black Friday was at Wal-Mart. I know at all the stores I've been to, there were covered pallets of merchandise placed throughout the store and at a certain time they were uncovered and customers fought like hell to get those "hot" items. It was kind of a grab and go like a bunch of vulchers. Now, I live in Kentucky, and all of the stores I've been to have been pretty rural, so they've never locked the doors before the sale started, they just let people in as usual and when the time came they uncovered the pallets and the sale started. This year, for the stores that have their doors closed until the sale starts, there will be organized lines outside the store with associates and outside hired help guiding people into the store. Customers will be given a map and a set of instructions (and rules, believe it or not) of where things are located. Instead of pallets just being out in the store waiting to be uncovered, they will be located at the end of queue lines where customers will line up and be handed merchandise by an associate one customer at a time. There will be organized queue lines everywhere, including going to and from the registers and out the doors. You will also notice a lot more staffing and a heavier law enforcement and emergency personel presence. Also, large items like TVs will not be handed out directly. Customers will be given a tag and I'm guessing barcode that they will take to the register. After that, they will drive their car around to the back of the building and give the tag and show the reciept to an associate who will load the item into their car.

 

So, Black Friday is going to be a hell of a lot different, at least at Wal-Mart. They're friggin training us on rowd control, if you can believe that crap. I deserve a raise!

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I work at Wal-Mart. Yep, it's true. Internally it was called blitz day (I'm guessing because the stores get blitzed by customers) and now it's called "The Yearly Event." One of the managers at my store said he guessed the word "blitz" had a negative conotation. Anyway, if you really want to know the details (except for the ad. I have no idea what's going on sale) here they are:

I'm sure you're all familiar with the way Black Friday was at Wal-Mart. I know at all the stores I've been to, there were covered pallets of merchandise placed throughout the store and at a certain time they were uncovered and customers fought like hell to get those "hot" items. It was kind of a grab and go like a bunch of vulchers. Now, I live in Kentucky, and all of the stores I've been to have been pretty rural, so they've never locked the doors before the sale started, they just let people in as usual and when the time came they uncovered the pallets and the sale started. This year, for the stores that have their doors closed until the sale starts, there will be organized lines outside the store with associates and outside hired help guiding people into the store. Customers will be given a map and a set of instructions (and rules, believe it or not) of where things are located. Instead of pallets just being out in the store waiting to be uncovered, they will be located at the end of queue lines where customers will line up and be handed merchandise by an associate one customer at a time. There will be organized queue lines everywhere, including going to and from the registers and out the doors. You will also notice a lot more staffing and a heavier law enforcement and emergency personel presence. Also, large items like TVs will not be handed out directly. Customers will be given a tag and I'm guessing barcode that they will take to the register. After that, they will drive their car around to the back of the building and give the tag and show the reciept to an associate who will load the item into their car.

 

So, Black Friday is going to be a hell of a lot different, at least at Wal-Mart. They're friggin training us on rowd control, if you can believe that crap. I deserve a raise!

Our local Walmart have always passed out a map of the store showing where all the door buster items were located in the store. They also pass out tickets for the big electronic items. I can not see them sending customers around to back to the store to pick up electronic as our store is in a shopping center with other stores and that may cause issues. I have shopped at local walmart on BF for over 12 years and never experienced or seen the maddness that alot of other stores encountered. It will interestig to see if our store changes the way it does BF.

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So far my family member that works at Wal-Mart says there won't be any changes at our local Wal-Mart other than the name. I'm sure they would have started talking about it at least slightly if there were going to be big changes here. There is never a problem at our store though, very very very rural with only a slight crowd early and everyone is mainly cordial.
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I have a good friend that works at WM and she told me that they are not "opening" the pallets this yearutting a square out and an associate will have to hand out the items to people in line. She said this was going to be the new policy because of what happened last year. Also she said they will only let the number of people that they have items for line up for them (like 10 peope for 10 pcs) after that they wont even be allowed to line up.
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All the Wal-Marts around here have also always passed out maps. I just know what was in the training video that we had to sit through. I guess maybe our stores are a little less rural then some. Like I said, it will most likely depend on where the store is located and how many customers they expect to see in the store that morning as to how they will set things up. If your store has already been handing out items, then there probably won't be much change other than the line that they will form. All of the stores around here are independent from themselves, so "big item pickup" around the back of the store is possible. I'm not really happy about them making the associates hand out items. It just seems to me that it will allow customers to place blame on somebody because they didn't get the item they wanted, but I don't know. Of course, having an associate in the middle of a mob of people fighting to get into a pallet is probably less safe. There's usually always a fairly large crowd at all the stores here and some people do go crazy, but I'd say people stay fairly calm. I'm no lawer and I'm no "event coordinator" so I can't really say how it will work out. We'll see next month, I guess.
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My husband said at his store they actually tried handing the big ticket items out around the back of the store before. They had everything in a trailer and handed them to the people that had purchased them inside. He said it ran so smoothly and made life easier for the associates who didn't have to try to wheel out big tv and computer items through the crowds. They haven't done this in years, but maybe they will do it again this year?
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My husband said at his store they actually tried handing the big ticket items out around the back of the store before. They had everything in a trailer and handed them to the people that had purchased them inside. He said it ran so smoothly and made life easier for the associates who didn't have to try to wheel out big tv and computer items through the crowds. They haven't done this in years, but maybe they will do it again this year?

Ours have done this for the past several years. It runs very smoothly and is great for shoppers purchasing several items or those who would have a hard time loading or unloading the items. I wish they had done this when we got our trampoline.

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Those all sound like good changes to me. Of course, I'm not the employee standing in front of the pallet handing stuff out. I wonder if they have to draw straws for that job? I have never seen a map at any of the Walmarts I have been to. It has been total chaos - trying to get through an insanely over-crowed store, walking in circles because they decided to put dolls next to the food and movies near the garden center. It's such a busy day, it would be nice if they were organized so customers could get what they came for (or find the empty pallet) and go on their way.
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Ok everyone. Someone who wishes to remain anonymous sent me this info about WM Black Friday. Take it for what it is worth. This person will send me more info as they get it.

 

 

It's going to be a good year for walmart. They are going to have double the security (in uniform and without uniform) after what happened last year in Valley Stream Ny they said it will not get outter hand. There will be baricades and they are going to have lines formed to go into the store and maybe lines for particular items on the blitz items as well so instead of grabbing items you will be given the items.

 

The non 24 hrs are opening up at 5 am

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