Funny Thing About Walmart

Well anyway, in the urban areas at least in Northern Virginia, it seems like almost all the Walmart employees are not US born. I had sent my ex to buy a mop head there for me, since, the nearest Walmart is like 45 minutes from here, and he has one close to his house. The mop did not indicate which one to buy and I had to call O'Cedar so I told him the type he was supposed to get, he was having trouble finding it, I said well why don't you ask one of the employees? He said, well no one here speaks English. I said well you could go to Customer Service, he said I am not too sure they speak English either...hehe. I said Ok, he just ended up buying a new spongemop! Has anyone else encountered this at America's favorite retailer?

 

So far, not where I live in Texas. The employees at my local Walmart all speak English and are middle aged. Maybe it's coming my way, though.

 

Nope. but the same could be said for almost any store.​

 

Regardless of where an employee was born, I just don't believe that there are Walmart stores where NONE of the staff speaks English. And no, the same cannot be said for almost any store.

Accents......sometimes hard to understand.....sure. But to say no one speaks English is stereotypical and presumptuous. The store would quickly lose money and go out of business. Walmart would not let that happen.

 

I live on the outskirts of Houston,Tx., and we have stores of all nationalities. The closest grocery store to me is a Mexican store. They are set up like the small stores a lot of remember from way back. It has a bakery with wonderful Mexican pastries, a steam table with Mexican dishes, and a real butcher's department with at least three real butchers, (no prepackaged meats), behind the counter.

All the employees are Mexican and do not speak English, and I don't speak Spanish, but I quickly learned to bring up pictures of whatever on my phone if I can't find what I need. I don't mind that they don't speak English, and they don't seem to mind my pictures.

 

Small stores are one thing. Walmart is another.

 

I bet pictures would work in the big stores as well. With or without language I generally can get my point across.

 

Ina, I say again you are a wise and kind person. I admire your grace.

 

Here on Oahu where I live I've been to 3 Walmart on the leeward coast. Pearl City, Ft. Street Mall and Keeaumoku St. Walmarts all have hard working people who always seem to be stocking empty shelves, all knowledgeable, all know English and are nice to me. It's interesting that no one know English working in america you got to know English.

 

Well, ya gotta have Mexican-Americans working there, and LOTS of them have "bilingual expertise": they understand English perfectly well under common circumstances, but when pulled over by a cop, cannot speak a word of it! I've SEEN it in Phoenix. Wow, I expect repercussions, though, but I HAD to say it!

 

I really can't believe anyone speaks English. English was not my mother's first language or one of my brother's wives. The latter speaks with a heavy accent and has said sometimes she doesn't want to open her mouth. The thing is sometimes we need to open our ears.

I used to work with this ignorant woman and when one employee who had a heavy Eastern European accent used the intercom this individual would state "why don't you speak English" I'd reply "I understood every word she said" And believe me, English is the only language I speak. Most unfortunately, this individual didn't get it and would still make these stupid comments.

 

There's a heavy Latino influence here, but I haven't encountered any employees at Walmart that don't speak English. The ones here don't have accents, either, all seem to be born here. There are a lot of workers coming in from offshore and also who work in the labor industries in the area, and many of them have accents, although I haven't encountered any that didn't speak English.

I think it probably depends on where you live and shop. Where I last lived, in Spring Branch, there were a lot of immigrants, and I'd hear quite a few different languages as I shopped, but I think all of the employees spoke English. The Walmarts up there were different from the huge Supercenters here, they were the smaller innercity type Neighborhood Markets, and have limited stock and variety.

When I would go to the laundromat there, which I would do on occasion, if I had a particularly large amount of laundry to wash, or when the washer had broken, I felt as if I'd stepped into another world. Most in there had limited English ability, and I felt as if I were back in the mercado in Matamoros, except the people weren't Mexican, they were from central and south America. The place was basically a social center. Families would congregate there while the moms did the laundry, the dads would play pool, and the kids would run around playing. There was even an internet cafe, basically a couple of phone booth looking kiosks where you'd pay by the minute or ten minutes, something like that. There was a fabulous taco truck parked outside all day, and that was my favorite part.

 

Actually, I've heard/read that this is pretty true.