I saw the below post on another forum. Has anyone else heard of this?

"Rumor has it that Walmart announced only 5 companies will be allowed to do merchandising in Walmart starting in September 2017. Acosta, Crossmark, Daymon/SAS, Premium Retail Services, Anderson. All others will no longer be allowed, including CAST, SPAR, RMS, Advantage, etc."

Hmmm, that's weird. Wonder how that rumor started and wonder if there is any truth to it? I work with Advantage and we do a bit of work at WalMart. Wonder what's up?

I heard the same directly from a merchandising company I work for, but the date was 2/1/18.

I actually don't like Walmart so this works out to my "Advantage" LOL. Not so much for my company, however.

Um, hum! Here's a story from "The Street." [www.thestreet.com]

And that's why I complain so much on this forum and in my community about merchandisers not signing in, going into the backroom and just grabbing whatever to put on the shelf, scanning 600 items for retail-detail, Bare and others without a LOA. TOO LATE NOW!!!!! Better print your badges! Here's the original story [talkbusiness.net]

Works for me.

Just blame Walmart. Their business model is to screw over smaller retailers, vendors and employees. What they do to their suppliers should be criminal.

And this part "The retail giant said it will establish program guidelines with its approved partners which includes service costs." You know those 5 companies are going to lower wages for the in-store Merchandisers to cover that cost; they certainly are not going to take it out of their own pocket. Say hello to the new minimum wage, just out of high-school not having graduated, food stamp receiving, section 8 getting, backroom thieving average Walmart Merchandiser!

That was my point. They are not satisfied paying their own employees so little, it needs to be spread around. I have as much desire to go into their stores as to board the Death Star.

What about Hallmark, Coke, Frito Lay, The Magazine Reps? I'm sure they forgot them or consider them a direct vendor.

Regina, DM for cosmetics at the store I worked at had been working for Walmart for 12 years, just out of high school. She was making $21 an hour. The "old folks" covering the door (greeters) can max out at $27 an hour.

I try to pay a little more...by not shopping at Wal-Mart. I don't mind a few pennies more.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2017 03:30AM by JASFLALMT.

Me too. So many things are made so crappy there now I just try to buy less. My heart goes out to the small companies like "Old Folks" and Soda Stream.

I don't know where you are getting those wages. I have a cousin who has worked at Walmart for at least a decade and she isn't getting that kind of money.

My stepson worked there for about 2 years. Great young man, strong work ethic. He worked too hard compared to his co-workers. Drove him craaaazy!

I was AM at my store, don't work there anymore, and I had to schedule during the holidays. To schedule you aren't just give your total hours you can use, but also a total dollar amount. That's why even DM's get their hours cut even though they are considered full-time.

Walmart's stores, not Corporate, doesn't want you to, nor do they reward you for, working hard. They just want you to be consistent.

@spicy1 wrote:

Here's the original story [talkbusiness.net]

A quote from that article that I found particularly interesting was this one:
"In other words, merchandisers at Wal-Mart will not be able to take other assignments at competitors of the retail giant."

I worked for Premium Retail for 7 years, and in addition to working in 7 Walmarts, I also covered Target, Toys R Us, CVS and many other stores, covering whatever assignments came up for the week, as I'm sure other Reps still do who work for Premium Retail. So, as a Premium Rep, if I covered a display set up of Mattel toys in Walmart, and also in Toys R Us for Premium, and say, Cosmetics in Walmart, and the same Cosmetics in CVS, if I were still working for Premium, does this mean that Premium can no longer send those same Reps to these other stores??? That would be something, as it would force Premium to hire additional Reps, and may cause the Reps who worked in multiple stores to have decreased hours! And I agree with other posters who have pointed out that the wages for the Reps working in the Walmart stores will probably go down, so as to meet the budget requirements that Walmart lays out for the Vendor Companies. Of course, you know that this will end up in the hiring of folks who really won't care about their work, but there to just make a buck, and when they find out how hard and intense the work can be, will quit or be let go. And you know what will happen??? More stuff left in the back room, more items placed in the wrong locations, resets left undone, etc etc. I worked in 7 Walmarts for 7 years with Premium, as well as in Toys R Us, CVS, Target and many other stores, and I can see a DISASTER coming, not only for the poor customers of Walmart, but also for these 5 other Vending Companies!!! What a mess! Let's see what happens at Christmastime.....how well I remember the Walmart stores having these additional HUGE trailers brought over and kept out in the back....FILLED with stuff that wouldn't fit in the back rooms, stuff that NO ONE KNEW the location of, that we Vendors would try and find and get out onto the sales floor!!! Let's see what happens with THIS stuff when Christmastime comes around with a limited number of vendors to try and help get all this stuff out onto the sales floor!! HOO-BOY!!!

I could go on and on and on about the potential fall-out from this decision, but I'll quit for now!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2017 05:25AM by guysmom.

Yes, I predict disaster as well. Yes, Walmart has now dictated that there are only 5 merchandising companies allowed and those merchandisers are to be dedicated to Walmart only AND they are going to associate a COST to merchandising companies for the privilege of doing so!

Have you seen the Associates stocking the Grocery aisle smack-dab in the middle of the after work rush? And, now Walmart no longer front faces their product. They're stuffing it all in the back of the shelves like Kroger does so "the scanning Associate can see what needs to be ordered", rather than looking like the shelves are full they look like the apocalypse is just about to hit. I mean, that's exaggeration, but c'mon!

It's going to be chaos. I have already seen how disorganized things are in the backrooms at stores in my area. I am not doing them anymore, obviously. But I feel badly for other company reps. I'll stick with my grocery stores, thank you.

I hope the merchandisers for those companies are hired as employees or they are familiar with the laws governing independent contractors. Restricting an ICs work is probably a big old violation.

I know I'm an employee, though it's very part time. I'm rather overjoyed I don't have to do Wal-Mart anymore, though I'm sure the higher ups at my company are not.

We had to candy packout at Halloween every year for Mars. Supposed to be a 2 hour job. What a waste of time. I'd go in and it would take me 30 minutes just to track down a manager who didn't really want to help me locate my product, which sometimes was stuck way up in the backroom with a bunch of stuff on the floor below in the way that had to moved before they could get it down for me, and they made it clear I was inconveniencing them. I had one manager say, "Just put out Hershey." Um, no.

I tried to remain polite and pleasant but often was treated with disdain and negativity at some of their stores. We still get to keep our account with Target, where the stores are clean and organized.

They do this every few years and then it falls away. Nothing new.

They've never done a preferred vendor list where no other vendors are allowed. Where's the article on that?

Yeah I've never heard about before, but I've only been merchandising in Wal-Mart's for 10 years.

@LisaSTL wrote:

I hope the merchandisers for those companies are hired as employees or they are familiar with the laws governing independent contractors. Restricting an ICs work is probably a big old violation.

I know that when I worked for Premium Retail for 7 years, I was an employee...heck, they even had a matching 401K plan even for part timers!!

@JASFLALMT wrote:

We had to candy packout at Halloween every year for Mars. Supposed to be a 2 hour job. What a waste of time.

We still get to keep our account with Target, where the stores are clean and organized.

JAS, yes, I did the MARS candy at Target for Halloween for a couple of years....have to agree with you about the organization of the stores....even the back rooms in the 2 Targets I did were actually orderly and clean!!! What a difference!!

I know, and the Target employees are pleasant. Many Wal-Mart employees are not.

Go back about ten years and they did the EXACT same thing. Lasted about 6 months if that long.

Edited...... about 15 years...... still only lasted 6 months

@spicy1 wrote:

They've never done a preferred vendor list where no other vendors are allowed. Where's the article on that?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2017 05:29PM by CANADAMOMMY.