Before I write my little diatribe below, let me say that I like Walmart. I shop at Walmart a few times each week. I use Walmart for my grocery shopping, for random clothing needs (socks, underwear, jeans to wear around the house, basketball shorts, etc.), for video game purchases, DVD purchases, celebration cards and gifts – you name it. In short, I’m a Walmart shopper.
But I’m not a fool. I know when a brand or a company doesn’t give a damn about its customers. And – after my brief experience in Walmart today – I know what many of my friends and I have thought about the Neptune Walmart for some time – this store does not give a damn about its customers.
The Walmart in Neptune Township, New Jersey does not care about its customers
I’m not going to go off on a rant because I don’t have the time or the inclination right now, but let me rundown the brief series of events that I just encountered. First, my intention in going to the Neptune Walmart was to get two money orders. That’s it – I didn’t need or want anything else.
When I walked in the front door, I noticed there were about ten people in the customer service line (typical at the Neptune Walmart – where they never have enough people working on the front end). Instead of waiting in that line, I figured why not go and buy some stuff that maybe I don’t need, but that I have to get at some point anyway. With that thought in mind, I make my way to the back of the store to the automotive section and after spending about ten minutes browsing around, I picked out two Rain-X windshield wipers (the ones that are $18 a piece – I was feeling good) and some Rain-X bug remover wiper fluid (I like Rain-X). All together I had about a $40 purchase in my hands.
Then I walked up to the front of the store and literally did a double take at the cashier lines. When I tell you that each line was 6 or 7 customers deep, that’s not an exaggeration. In fact, it’s probably an understatement because most of the lines were backed up into the clothing areas.
Some of you might ask, “What could make the lines so long on a Wednesday early evening?” And you’d be asking the right question – partly. One of the major disappointments about the Neptune Walmart is that they have around 25+ cash registers, but typically only have 7 or 8 open for business. They clearly need to have more cashiers operating at all times, so why aren’t they putting more people out there? Do they think that the few bucks they save in personnel costs is worth the aggravation of their customers? Talk about being shortsighted!
After realizing that I wasn’t getting back to the customer service counter without waiting 15 to 20 minutes in line to buy the Rain-X stuff (yes, when you shop at the Neptune Walmart, you typically spend more time in line than actually shopping), I decided to leave the stuff up at the front of the store and leave. As I was walking out the door, though, I noticed that the customer service area had no customers in it, so I redirected myself to get my money orders.
And when I asked the woman behind the counter for two money orders she very politely told me that the money order machines are down and they don’t know when they’d be back up. I looked at her for half a second, smiled, and thanked her as I walked out the door.
As if that wasn’t a big enough, epic failure of a trip to the miserable Neptune Walmart, don’t forget that it was raining today. And when it rains in New Jersey, no one remembers how to drive. Apparently, my neighbors in Tinton Falls and Neptune Township really forget how to drive when it rains because those folks couldn’t figure out how to get out of the parking lot without stopping short left and right, forgetting to use their blinkers, cutting people off, etc. It was misery.
But, believe it or not I’m not that mad at the whole experience because this was indicative of a typical trip to the Neptune Walmart. They just don’t give a damn about their customers. And you know what? That’s okay. That’s their prerogative. Just like it’s my prerogative to not shop there for the next month. That’s right, folks. After today’s abysmal experience at the Neptune Walmart, I’m not going back there for a month. I spend a lot of money at the Neptune Walmart each month and I hope that the good folks at the Ocean Wegmans and Neptune ShopRite enjoy my money because after today’s experience, the Neptune Walmart is on probation.
Unacceptable, Neptune Walmart. Unacceptable.
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