Wal-Mart’s Greeters Make Shoppers Happy

GILMER, Tex. — In the Wal-Mart parking lot, a car radio plays a country ballad about a “porch-swing state of mind.” Outside the store’s entrance, a vendor sells corn dogs and cold sodas.

Nearby, a woman gently coaxes her young daughter into getting off the small merry-go-round; two rides are enough, she says. “Mommy’s got to go shopping now.”

Reluctantly, the little girl dismounts and tags along into the store. Her pout gives way to a grin as a smiling woman greets her with “Hi, Honey!” and fixes a happy-face sticker on her hand.

Have Many Functions

Anyone entering the Wal-Mart in this east Texas town--and Wal-Marts elsewhere--encounters such a person. The people greeters welcome shoppers, give advice on where to find things and mark merchandise being carried in for returns or exchanges.

On the way out of some Wal-Marts, exit greeters thank people for coming while keeping an eye out for receipts to make sure there is no shoplifting.

The people-greeting practice is one of many ingredients in Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s highly successful recipe for retailing.

Staffing entrances and exits is not unheard of at other stores, particularly at discount houses with heavy traffic. What sets Wal-Mart’s greeters apart is the way they handle the task.

Don’t Feel Bullied

Customers in some high-volume stores feel bullied when employees demand that they reveal the contents of parcels, for instance, but not in Wal-Marts.

Wal-Mart “associates,” as the company calls its employees, give the impression that the security element of people-greeting is secondary to being a friendly host or hostess. They appear to enjoy passing the time with patrons.

“I get to see everybody who comes to Wal-Mart, and everybody in Upshur County comes to Wal-Mart sooner or later,” says Peggy Smith, on duty at the entrance of the Gilmer Wal-Mart.

Smith, a 39-year-old Gilmer resident who won an award for being the most courteous employee in the county in February, speaks proudly about working at Wal-Mart.

She’s grateful to have the job. Other people around Gilmer, a town of some 6,500 people about 120 miles east of Dallas and the Upshur County seat, are less fortunate, due to deep staff cuts at a local steel mill and the prolonged slump in the oil industry.

Not All Are Suited

Wal-Mart store managers say not all associates are suited to people-greeting duty. Besides friendliness and maturity, useful traits are patience and perhaps a touch of inquisitiveness, some say.

Retirees supplementing their fixed incomes are frequently found doing stints on Wal-Mart’s hospitality patrol.

One of them, 68-year-old Jack Butler, says being a people greeter at the Wal-Mart in Duncanville, Tex., fits his needs fine. After 20 years working in the warehouse of a tractor company, he enjoys having less physically demanding work.

The idea of manning Wal-Mart doors came from one of the hourly associates. Sam Walton, company founder and chairman, liked the suggestion, and made it a company-wide practice.