Wal-Mart

So, crazy thing happened last night. I went grocery shopping at this Wally world and got my groceries out to my car with a cart! Hey Wally world at Dufferin-​TAKE NOTE. Most shoppers would like to be able to load their products into their cars after they purchase them.
Actually, Dufferin wally world, take note of this ENTIRE store, because you are doing it WRONG.
/​fin

This Walmart location has a really run-​down customer service. Almost every weekend, there’s a homeless at the door. Garbage is everywhere in front of the store. Often there are no shopping carts in the lobby and you have to go downstairs, on the broken cart-​escalator (one lane is operational), and get your shopping cart back upstairs.
For weeks now, they alternate the broken cart-​escalator, one week travels up and another week down. Still one-​side remains out of service. I’ve watched people, do my mistake, and attempt to take the shopping-​cart down while the cart-​escalator is off, and the cart gets stuck and wont move (the way its designed). They don’t even have a sign warning people, or letting them know there’s an elevator on other end, that sometimes works.
Employees are clearly not coached nor correctly trained, and they exhibit every sign of being over-​worked and underpaid. None of them want to be there. It’s their BILLS that force them to work there. It’s now common to hear a Walmart employee talks negatively about Walmart and the products they sell. Last week I mentioned to one employee that a product on the shelf was broken, «What do you expect? Walmart sells broken stuff and people buy buy buy!» she said back to me!
You just can not expect much from someone being paid $ 10.77 an hour. However, what Walmart is EXPECTING and clearly GETTING is being able to count on shoppers to continue to shop there, even with the terrible service, because they can continue to buy products at lower prices.
I intend to do my best to stop shopping at this Walmart.
All Walmart locations, period.

While I rarely get honest smiles from the cashiers they are always nice when when I speak to them and even when I need to do two separate receipts, one for items I’m buying for work and one for my personal things, I never get any attitude or complaints.
Customer service seems to have improved here over the past 6 months but the store does seem a bit short staffed, management is likely trying to cut some corners.
All in all… its a walmart. They are the dictionary definition of cheap stores with decent products. Maintaining low staff levels and minimum wage employees is the norm and you get what you pay for. My experiences here are always just fine.

Worst Walmart in this neighborhood. Especially if you plan to buy meat avoid this place. I usually go to dufferin walmart but just want to give it a try in this location end up throwing out all meat I bought here. temperature in meat section is a joke.

I like shopping at this Walmarts more than some of the other ones in Toronto. Newly renovated, and in a good neighbourhood.
It’s a one stop shop of grocery, clothing, bath stuff, makeup, house stuff and anything else you could dream of.
I would say that in general (from studying flyers the past few months) the same items you’d buy at Shoppers, are almost guaranteed to be cheaper at Walmarts.
But I can’t say the same for anything else. There are some good deals here, but it’s hit or miss, and everything is thrown out the door when it comes to Black Friday or Boxing Day.
There is a furniture section too that is limited, and doesn’t change much, but you might find your next cabinet or coffee table here.
There is a portrait studio which we’ve used. We wanted to get our photos printed, and you must self-​serve on old Kodak kiosks that may or may not work. It was annoying to re-​do your order due a faulty machine. The folks that work here don’t seem very knowledgeable either and just print the photos your order off the machine. They do it within an hour. and it’s super cheap.
The quality was decent, but the paper very thin. Perhaps I haven’t printed photos in a long time.
There is underground parking which seems like no one knows about.

Ok, so for those of you who have never been in or heard of Wal Mart, this review will help you, as well as many who shop there regularly understand things better.
1. First of all, Wal Mart is not Holt Renfrew, nor is it the local produce stand. Customer service costs a lot at those places. Wal Mart is in the business of cutting costs, as well as perhaps cutting the throat of the produce stand guy. Service is a cost. Really good service is a higher cost.
2. Managing a large number of employees is a challenge at any business, especially a large retailer, which hires young (cheap) managers where most employees fall into the following categories…
A. I would rather be siting at home right now, doing nothing.
B. this is only a temporary job for me. even though I hate it, I will go back to school, find something else, or move on soon.
C. I am still saying item B things, but it has been over a year here and am still here. I Hate my life.
D. I sort of like people and my job, but being only ¼ of an understaffed equation, what can I do?
With these two points in mind, here are the core issues…
1. All three stars are for price. While the place has some issues, price drives my return visits. You will sometimes do better elsewhere (for example, the mums brought in recently at Wal Mart were slightly cheaper and much prettier at Home Depot), but mostly not.
2. The overflowing trash cans and loose trash in the parking lot are a discredit to the store and people who shop there.
3. Even with low prices, Wal Mart will often struggle with selling fresh items. A good price means nothing when you have herbs that are dried out, stale bread, or plants that haven’t been watered. I have encountered all these things from a recent visit.
4. The place is never very clean, nor dirty. The brown floors probably help hide the grime, but they may also give the impression that the floors are not clean when they are.
5. Customer service is bad, though slightly better than terrible. see the intro.
If this Wal Mart could improve its customer service, manage its fresh items better, and show some respect for the community by keeping its parking lot and exterior clean, it would have more business from me and others who are driven to shop on price more often than not.

Recentlly this Wal-​mart has gone seriously downhill. Did they have a change of management. The bathrooms are typically filthy and disgusting. They have a sign on the wall to talk with management of the bathrooms are filthy but if you do all the staff do is laugh. They don’t want to deal with it either. They have one of those charts on the wall for cleanings. If you look at it you might find the place hasn’t been cleaned in days. They have terrible service but lots of staff. Staff everywhere but what the staff love to do is stand around in cliques or even at the cashiers and chat with each other. It’s hard to get a word in edgewise. Tonight one cashier had another friend stop by on her break and all they did was talk. I rescued some of my greeting cards from landing on the floor as she didn’t care where my purchases landed. She never spoke to me but she did chat up a storm with the other employee. Cases of everything everywhere. Good luck getting down the aisles. Stuff is not displayed it’s in giant shrink wrapped skids. Frankly I am looking forward to Target’s arrival for some competition. Just a new clean store would be an improvement. It’s too bad because this used to be a really nice place to shop.

This is one of the newer Walmarts so it is spacious and includes a Vision Centre, portrait studio, pharmacy, garden centre and Mcdonald’s.
They have a grocery section too (which I always thought was weird until I understood post-​baby why one-​stop shopping is such a catchy phrase). But they don’t have produce, just dry goods and refridgerated stuff.
Not depressing like the Dufferin Mall location.