In the early days working at Walmart (The Bronx), I had to cover a few 15-minute/ 1-hour lunch breaks for the store greeters. At first, I thought this was going to be a walk in the park because all the greeters do is wave and say “Hi” to people. Right? I was dead wrong! I had yet to realize the responsibilities of being a greeter and their true purpose!
The first time I served as a greeter was on my third day. An employee named Mac (not his real name) trained me. He was in his early sixties and had a full head of grey hair, but looked like he’d been in a few too many fights in his life. The first thing he did after introducing himself was give me the “Sticker Gun.” It’s purpose was to scan items that were brought in to the store for returns or exchanges and print out a sticker that would identify them. The second thing Mac did after handing me the sticker gun was tell me, “This gun doesn’t work…ever!” He wasn’t lying; about 90% of the time, the gun just wouldn’t print any stickers. Most of the time I’d just have to write on the stickers whether an item was a return or an exchange. This would bring about the fury of Stryker!
He’d get very angry at me for hand-writing the stickers because this was a common tactic that shoplifters would use to steal money from the store. For example, they’d order a sticker gun refill sheet online, walk in to the clothing department, get the most expensive piece of clothing and then write “return” on the sticker. Afterwards, they would go to customer service and ask for a return. According to the customer service guys, scammers would almost always get away with this. Another thing about Stryker was that for a guy as big as he was, he was a master of stealth.
Every time I was covering a greeter break, I was positioned on the GM side door (General Merchandise). It was the entrance opposite of the grocery side door. In this position, I was directly in front of the security office – better known as Stryker’s Lair! There was only one way in and out of the office, which was in my field of vision and impossible to miss. However every time Stryker walked into the security office, I’d never see him leave. Yet, he always successfully snuck up behind me and chewed me out about how I shouldn’t be hand-writing the labels. Every time he yelled at me about that, all I could do was think in amazement “How did he do that?” I asked around the store shortly after the first time to see if anybody else noticed how he got out of the security office unseen. No one, not even the store manager, knew how Stryker left his office unseen! On top of that people said he’d get all over the store unnoticed, even though he was 6’2” and pretty built! There were rumors around the store that he used secret tunnels to get all over the building unseen, but all of the managers flatly denied that claim. I just think he was an ex-special forces agent and used stealth training to maneuver in everyday life! I’ll discuss more on that theory another day!
Now its time for Walmart’s greatest secret to be revealed! The true purpose of the greeters is… to deter shoplifters. They are not there to be nice and smile at you; our purpose was to prevent shoplifters/scammers from escaping with store merchandise. The methods we were required to use weren’t that effective, but they worked once in a while. For example, if anyone was getting near the door with an electronic of any kind, you were required to check their receipt. Also, if you didn’t see a customer go though a register and was walking out with merchandise, you had to check their receipt. These polices didn’t work out well for us greeters.
When a customer suspects that you’re accusing them of shoplifting (though we never did), they get aggressive to the point where you genuinely wonder if they are going to attack you! They never believed us when we said it was store policy. The nicer ones would just refuse to stop and we’d just wind up reporting their description to Stryker later on. However, even if we had proof that a customer was stealing, physically stopping them was never an option. If we ever touched a shoplifter, they could sue us for assault and we could face legal charges. The company made it very clear in training that they wouldn’t back us up in court if this ever occurred. That was never a problem for me, because I wasn’t going through the trouble of chasing someone for $7.75 an hour. Yes, that was my starting salary Walmart!
The craziest experience I had as a greeter was when I managed to outsmart a shoplifter trying to steal a plasma screen TV. It happened during my second month at Walmart, about two hours before my shift ended. I noticed a strange man approaching the exit with a 50” plasma screen TV in his shopping cart. When he was close enough, I asked to see his receipt. He nervously responded “It’s an exchange.” I told him that I still needed to see his receipt because the store policy didn’t exclude exchanges. He then used the classic shoplifter tactic of pelting me with insults saying I’m “a piece of shit,” “an asshole” and a “motherfucker!” This barrage of insults continued until a manager, Jim, heard the commotion and approached the man. He too asked the man for his receipt and this time the strange dude changed his tune and said the receipt was in his car. The thief quickly trotted out of the store, leaving the TV, as Jim received a message on his walkie-talkie; it was from one of the stockers in the backroom. A 50” plasma screen TV was missing from storage. It turned out that the shoplifter had somehow snuck into the back room unnoticed and took the television. Of course, this happened on Stryker’s night off.
Tune in next time for Welcome to Walmart 4, coming soon to a blog near you!
Ricardo Lugo 