Walmart Ups Customer ‘Care’ As Virus Shutdown Expands

Walmart — at least at my local one in Altavista VA — is exhibiting a way level of improved customer ‘care’, as in ‘we really care about you’, campaign as the coronavirus situation cuts into customer counts and poses more publicized threats to us all.

One of two doors is now labeled ‘emergency exit only’, and at the other, leading to the ‘market’ area of the store, a barricade of shopping carts has been erected to force entering shoppers to form a line. Two employees were at the door when I visited this afternoon. They allowed only one party to enter at a time. The party in front of me comprised three people, clinging so close together you could have imaged then in a sexual embrace.

I commented to the Associate, “Those people clearly don’t understand the concept of ‘keep six feet apart’. She nodded and laughed in agreement, suggesting she’d seen much of the same earlier in the day.

(How do some people manage to stay so out-out-touch??)

Inside the door, in the cart holding area, another associate was spraying and rubbing clean the handles of carts. Ordinarily, recently, the store has been providing paper towels and spray so customers can do that themselves.

Going Above and Beyond

Like the limiting of entrants at a time, this was a nice gesture fully in tune with the spirit of the times: We’re all in this together, and the retailers who are able to be open kind of owe it to shoppers to go the extra mile to earn their business — and Walmart is definitely doing that.

I had a single mission on this trip: To pick up a store-delivered order. I was served surprisingly fast at that counter, and the Associate offered to sign for me. I willingly agreed, then I headed back to the exit.

I left the store not having touched a single thing — except the bag my order was contained in.

Still, when I got home, I did a thorough hand-wash… thankful that, on this outing at least, my risk of picking something up was minimal at best.