Report details shopper dismay

Cite reduced Wal-mart staff

Customers of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. complain the chain has been pressed to keep store shelves stocked in recent years, according to Bloomberg News research.

The Bentonville, Ark.based retailer’s workforce in the United States fell by about 120,000 employees between 2008 and Jan. 31 at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club warehouse chains, according to a securities filing on March 26.

The company now employs about 1.3 million U.S. workers. Over those five years, it has opened about 455 U.S. Wal-Mart stores, bringing the total to 4,005.

Officials at the retail chain say there is no restocking issue, but WalMart customers throughout the nation wrote Bloomberg News to express their frustration after a March 26 report said that there aren’t enough workers in the stores to keep shelves stocked, cash registers manned and also answer shoppers’ questions.

In response to the original Bloomberg article, Brooke Buchanan, a WalMart spokeswoman, said in part: “The premise of this story, which is based on the comments of a handful of people, is inaccurate and not representative of what is happening in our stores across the country.”

But the e-mails to Bloomberg began arriving shortly after the article was published and were still coming a week later. Most were from previously loyal Wal-Mart customers befuddled by what had happened to service.

Wal-Mart founder “Sam Walton must be rolling over in his grave to see what has become of his business,” said Tony Martin in Glen Carbon, Ill.

Wal-Mart’s restocking challenges stem from a thinly spread labor force struggling to keep up with all the work that needs to be done, said Colin McGranahan, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York.

McGranahan said he has talked to workers who say they’re being asked to do more than they can accomplish in a shift.

“Stuff gets backed up, and they’re forced to respond as best they can,” said McGranahan, who rates Wal-Mart market perform, the equivalent of a hold.

Wal-Mart said the customers complaining to Bloomberg aren’t a sufficient sample size and don’t represent shoppers’ impressions of its stores nationwide. The company surveys more than 500,000 customers a month, asking about checkout lines, cleanliness and helpfulness of workers, Wal-Mart’s Buchanan said.