Wal-Mart’s Superstores provides low prices for food, deli counter, clothing, household goods, and auto services. Excluding the auto services, bakery and deli departments, its employees do not have any specialized training. The employees are not organized in different ways, as they can usually work in any department. Their customer service/check out lanes is sorely lacking. The lines are consistently long, depending upon which part of town you are in and what time of day/day of the week you visit. In some stores, to help ease congestion; they have incorporated two new types of express lanes; several do-it-yourself-check out and express checkout lanes.
Wal-Mart, in an effort to make it truly a one-stop-shop, even has basic auto repairs. You can have an oil change, tune up or tire service, while you do your weekly shopping. Once you visit the Superstore, you do not have to go anywhere else for services. Most Superstores encompass vendors’ services for a nail salon, banking services, a food vendor-like Subway or McDonald’s, vision and tax services. Wal-Mart’s operating system has been created solely for the purpose to get consumers to spend and that gives it a competitive advantage.
Home Depot is the world’s largest home improvement retailer, which provides home builders, do-it-yourselfers and homeowners with everything needed to complete home repairs. Once there, customers have no need to shop anywhere else for supplies. Home Depot employees are knowledgeable in specific aspects of their products. In order to encourage the do-it-yourselfers customers to make purchases, the employees are trained to be a wealth of information. In each department, the employees are trained to know how to answer any question a customer may have. Even monthly training class ...