Wal Mart

[countertop]

I certainly don't want to start bashing wal mart (or start another wal mart bashing thread) but I've got to vent.

We are leaving in a few minutes for vacation and I needed to make short run out to the Dulles Town Center Wal Mart in Sterling, VA to pick up some last minute supplies. I didn't know where they were (I only shop at the gun counter and am not familiar with the rest of the store) so as I walked in I saw the Manager over by the checkout counters (at the little manager watcher desk they have there) and went up to her to ask where a couple of things were located.

She couldn't speak english. At all. Even worse, she couldn't speak spanish either. Nope, all she could do is talk in some Indian dialect to someone else there (and this is the woman with a "manager" pin on) and neither of them knew what I was searching for. They said - in very broken english - Go To Pharmacy.

I did, and asked the pharmacist. He was asian (Thai???) but could also barely speak english and didn't understand what I was looking for.

Frustrated, and annoyed, I started walking back to the gun counter - certain I could find someone there who spoke english. On the way, I passed the paint/hardware department. Since one of the items I was seeking was a kit to test for lead I thought they might know. There was a black guy there - I asked him - and guess what. . . .he couldn't speak english either. He was straight off the boat and his only response was "I don't know what this is, lead. We are paint, What is lead" :banghead:

Really annoyed, I arrived at the gun counter where a nice woman with a 10+ pin was working behind the counter unloading 100 packs of .45 ACP. I am an addict, of course, so I purchased a bunch (a whole lot more than I planned on spending today) and sure enough, she spoke perfectly fine english. She also shared my frustration about english and was able to direct me to a couple of the items I was looking for but sent me next door to Lowes for the lead test kit (Lowes had it)

My question - is it too much to ask that people speak english? Maybe not warehouse/backroom people, but your customer service reps (and especially your managers) need to speak english. I have no idea Wal Mart can get to be so large without people speaking english (of course, they all do in Georgia where we are heading now in 3 minutes as soon as I shut "my damn computer off" - thats my wife speaking)

FWIW - the other items I was looking for were diapers, freezer packs for a cooler, and flip flops. Also, they didn't ask me my age or for ID or what kind of gun I am using the ammo for at the ammo counter. It was 19.97 a box.

 

[El Tejon]

If you want to find people who will work, or even show up at work, then your answer is "yes, it is far too much to ask that people speak English."

It would drive prices up too much at Wal-Mart (just look at all the Wal-Mart threads we have here, complaints about prices of guns or ammo) to even think to offer the princely sums and gobs of benefits that would motivate the native-born to work.

 

[GlenJ]

I'm with you. I used to love nothing more than going to a training class when I was in the U.S. Navy and have an instructor that you couldn't understand.

 

[rick_reno]

Welcome to America. I was in a McDonalds in Southern Kalif where the menu was in Spanish. I've been in shopping centers in Kalif where all the shop signs were in Vietnamese - you wouldn't have a clue what they were selling without looking in the windows.

 

[San]

Yah. I have to agree that if you have someone wearing a "manager" pin then they should be able to speak english. I mean, how do they manage a store in an english speaking country without being able to communicate. I don't get it. Now, why are people stupid like that. It's not just wal mart. Go to almost any Jack in the box, and again, if they speak english you're freakishly lucky. Yet, at Taco Bell, they manage to have the person at the counter speak english, and the people in back are the ones that can't speak english. Interesting, eh?

 

[Jedi_7.62]

The problem here is that English speeking Americans want to earn enough money and have enough benefits so that they can actually, god forbid feed their families!

I recently left my former employer over the fact that I cary a gun with a legal permit.

Said employer paid $10 hr. They hired mostly hispanic (have to be P.C.) and African no not black or African American but African (Nigeria, East Swahili(SP) Zimbabwe etc.)

On an average day I had to translate 3 or 4 varieties of broken english. This does not include Bubbas red neck english which at times was not much better.

This place gets better. They turn a blind eye to drug use and dealing. It was very common to enter the mens room and find a deal going on. It didn't take long to find out who the main dealers were.

Half of the team leads were stoners, 1 was a known crack head (real crack no joke) and I suspect a couple others. The department Supervisor was a big pot head.

Anyhow back on target. the major source for most of the drugs were hispanics.

I've been needing to vent on this for about 3 months since I was fired because someone found out I carried a gun legally but against company policy.

Many companies hire foreginers to work because they can get away with not paying benefits. every couple years they supposedly leave for a couple months so they can claim foreign worker statuss and keep their job. they also don't pay income tax and send much american money out of this country.

All this ???? and I get fired for practicing my constitutional right to keep and bear arms! Not mention to protect myself from crack dealers and other scum lurking around corners.

What freakin coutry did I wake up in?
Oh yeah, THIS is America now.

Sorry saw the subject had to do some ranting myself,
Thanks,

 

[Cesiumsponge]

Welcome to America. I was in a McDonalds in Southern Kalif where the menu was in Spanish. I've been in shopping centers in Kalif where all the shop signs were in Vietnamese - you wouldn't have a clue what they were selling without looking in the windows.

I don't have problems whatsoever with ethnic stores or ethnic areas where the language in stores, restraunts, or shopping centers are primarily in a different language. Any American who starts their own business has a right to build it and advertise their business however they see fit. If they wish to use bright neon colors that burns your retinas or have all writing in Thai, then so be it. That is their right as an American.

HOWEVER, I start getting pissed very quickly when chain stores and large departments or corporations... or even road signs start becoming bilingual or start hiring employees who cannot communicate with the customer base. I would expect national chain stores to be identical, or very similar in nature and that I could walk into any one of them, ask some question in English, and get the product I need. I mentioned in a previous thread that I never shop Walmart unless I need a smaller quantity of ammunition. A fair share of the people they hire there are mentally retarded or cannot speak English, or plain creepy.

Has anyone here ever tried calling technical support for large corporations? I needed help once with retrieving the password on my PPPoE broadband connection, something I would consider easy and simple, and it took me a good 4 hours to get that information, with an insane hold time (I would guess this is because no customers understood what the tech support said).

The first three tech support people I went through were clearly Indian and I could barely understand what they said. It was cute that they were given American names like "John" or "Mary" so we could pronounce them, but that's as far as the English understanding went. None could help me because there was a language barrier. I finally got through on the sixth tech support person who spoke English just well enough that we could carry on a dyadic conversation. I never got someone who spoke CLEAR fluent English. I don't know how these companies stay in business.

 

[R.H. Lee]

Yeah but you saved money and that's what really matters.

 

[torpid]

The charmer's name was Gaff. I'd seen him around Wal-Mart before. His manager Bryant must have upped him to the paint & hardware department.

That gibberish he talked was city-speak, guttertalk, a mishmash of Japanese, Spanish, German, what have you. I didn't really need a translator. I knew the lingo, every good Wal-Mart customer did.

But I wasn't going to make it easier for him.


.

 

[Old Dog]

This is not a "General Gun Discussion," rather, it's turned into rants about non-English speakers working in retail establishments. Even if it were yet another tiresome, somewhat gun-related Wal-Mart thread, it should be closed ...

 

[Sindawe]

What Old Dog said, +1. This really belongs over on APS, or the ALI_PAC forum.

 

[Standing Wolf]

Wal Mart ammunition may be relatively inexpensive, but as a whole, the chain has too much communist Chinese junk on its shelves to suit me.

Here in Colorado, most retail people do speak intelligible English—or at least, the parts of Colorado I'm familiar with. I've done my best to stay out of Denver except for pistol matches.

 

[denfoote]

Waddia you say??

No hablo Espaniol!! Solamente Eglase e Allaman!!!! (sp)

 

[peacefuljeffrey]

Jedi, what about dropping a dime on the people who are dealing drugs at that place? Wouldn't the cops be interested to know that they can make some busts there?

They deserve it, for denying you your rights.

-Jeffrey

 

[P95Carry]

Extremely loose re gun content and certainly not THR material. Take it to APS if further discussion is to be continued.

Closed.