Well I worked for Wal Mart for couple of years part time mainly. It wasn't bad when I was in a department I knew SOMETHING about.
Their philosophy is cheap not service.
You also should know that just because they throw someone in a department (electronics, sporting goods, etc) today doesn't mean they were ever trained for that department or that they will ever work in it again.
I met more than one person, while I worked there, that had worked full time at that store for over 10 years and still didn't know how to make a key. Not to mention anything about guns, hunting, or fishing. Yet they would often be working in the sporting goods department.
One trick for getting service at Wal Marts is to ask for assistant or Store Manager they don't get paid by the hour. They have a real $$$ incentive to make store profitable. They get real bonuses if their store does well, if can be more than half their income.
The hourly employees at Wal Mart are not expected to be intelligent, they are supposed to be warm bodies. So the ones with skills, motivation, intelligence, or whatever go into salaried management or leave.
I do think it is funny though that people go to Wal Marts or MCDonalds and expect service. If you want service you need to go to a service focused business.
BTW I don't think that many of the smaller gunshops are really into service. Try to buy something a little different and they often say "We can't get that." When it is something any FFL can get within 2 or 3 days.