SeeYou190What an awful disaster. The store was just fully remodeled, and now there are no cashiers, and the aisles are arranged like an Ikea maze. You kind of need to go through the store in sections. As you go through different parts of the store, gates close behind you. You need to get back to a hub to go to the same section again.
I assume that this template will be spreading to other Walmarts as they remodel. They need to battle more organized theft attempts.
Its up all over the country. Say what you will.
- Douglas
DoughlessI assume that this template will be spreading to other Walmarts as they remodel.
I would agree with you that this is the future of big-box retailers, at least in the high-theft bigger city locations.
When my wife was manager there, the goal was to keep shrinkage below 2%. They had over 200 million per year in gross sales, so 2% was $4,000,000.00 per year, or $10,000.00 per day.
About half of shrinkage was discounted or disposed of inventory. That means $5,000.00 per day was theft.
It is hard to wrap my head around $5,000.00 per day walking out the front door.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
SeeYou190 Doughless I assume that this template will be spreading to other Walmarts as they remodel. I would agree with you that this is the future of big-box retailers, at least in the high-theft bigger city locations. When my wife was manager there, the goal was to keep shrinkage below 2%. They had over 200 million per year in gross sales, so 2% was $4,000,000.00 per year, or $10,000.00 per day. About half of shrinkage was discounted or disposed of inventory. That means $5,000.00 per day was theft. It is hard to wrap my head around $5,000.00 per day walking out the front door. -Kevin
Doughless I assume that this template will be spreading to other Walmarts as they remodel.
I bought 5 bags of mulch at a big box store. At checkout, they wanted to look in between each bag, unload then load, because they said people put expensive saw blades in between the mulch bags.
In the good ol days before self serve warehouse type of stores, an employee would have to load each item for you...handle it themselves through the checkout. While it was a service, it also prevented theft from means other than somebody hiding it on their person.
Cape Coral is probably not an area Walmart is worried too much about, but I bet all stores scheduled for a remodel get that template. And people do come in from other areas to target the stores that don't have antitheft measures.
Doughless SeeYou190 What an awful disaster. The store was just fully remodeled, and now there are no cashiers, and the aisles are arranged like an Ikea maze. You kind of need to go through the store in sections. As you go through different parts of the store, gates close behind you. You need to get back to a hub to go to the same section again. I assume that this template will be spreading to other Walmarts as they remodel. They need to battle more organized theft attempts. Its up all over the country. Say what you will.
SeeYou190 What an awful disaster. The store was just fully remodeled, and now there are no cashiers, and the aisles are arranged like an Ikea maze. You kind of need to go through the store in sections. As you go through different parts of the store, gates close behind you. You need to get back to a hub to go to the same section again.
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
DoughlessCape Coral is probably not an area Walmart is worried too much about, but I bet all stores scheduled for a remodel get that template.
Cape Coral has quite a seedy side now. It is not the retirement paradise it was 30 years ago.
I do not know if this is still true, but for a while the WalMart in Florida with the highest amount of theft was the one closest to Daytona Beach. I guess, Spring Break, Bike Week, The 500, Jeep Week, Biketober Fest, and so on bring out some bad people.
I was in Home Depot a while back and saw someone stash a saw blade between two 80 pound bags of concrete. It does happen.
I have only been in our local Walmart half a dozen times in the 33 years that we have lived here. If they do away with all of the cashiers I will never shop there again.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Our Walmart has a self checkout area, just like every grocery store in the area. It is faster than a cashier where the woman customer in front of you, has 20 $1 bills crumpled and stuffed in every corner of her handbag and she has to fish around for each one.
The local grocery stores spray their lettuce with water so it is either rotten or trimmed down to very few leaves, for which they charge by the head rather than by pound. Walmart doesn't do that.
And their craft paint is cheap.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Good evening .....
Meanwhile, in Western Kentucky , the cruise ship company has submitted a request to the Corps of Engineers for approval to use a technique called water jetting to free the cruise ship from the sand bar.
https://www.wpsdlocal6.com/newsletter_stories/corps-of-engineers-receives-permit-application-to-try-water-jetting-to-free-american-jazz-riverboat/article_d78560b8-e3c2-11eb-b8e2-5f045d060d2c.html
So, it looks like the ship will be there for a while longer.
I still don't know why the ship got onto the sand bar. The channel is clearly marked with buoys. It is deep and wide. Big barge tows pass through every day. Maybe, the captain dozed off while at the helm. The ship ran on the wrong side of the red buoys to get to the sand bar.
Everybody...... Have a nice night.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Without wishing to offend the Moderators, I would point out that not only do self checkouts eliminate jobs, they also don't pay any income tax. That means that you and I have to make up for the lost revenues. Therefore, they are at least theoretically costing you money to use them.
Also, if the people who lost their jobs end up on social assistance, that's going to cost you as well.
howmusSounds like one more reason for me not to shop Mall Wart! Haven't been in any of those joints for over a decade now and haven't missed them!!!
Same here. I don't think Sam would like the way the kids ran the business after he departed.
Around here it seems like The Walmart is a magnet for all sorts of less-than civil behavior.
Cheers, Ed
I'm not interested in talking about WalMart ....
Here is the Denver Zephyr near where I grew up on the CB&Q triple track main line from Chicago to Aurora.
Maybe we can get back to the month's theme of posting pictures of trains where we live or where we have lived.
I agree Garry.....
https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/images1/1/0117/10/atlas-ho-rf-125-gp40-lighted-powered_1_818f49670a76c36d9acd745cfa1ec97a.jpg
If the link works you should see a familiar Atlas model. A gp40 in RF&P livery, number #125. It's just a link I grabbed off the net.
If the link doesn't work you would have been looking at an atlas gp40 #125.
I grew up in the 'F' part of this line. I actually have a picture of 125 idling in Fredericksburg waiting to go out on the evening local northward to Potomac Yard.
I sure do miss those blue and gray geeps.
Here's the real thing....
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/429812358174788365/
They don't call it the 'Run Fast & Push' for nothing....
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/429812358166046676/
Douglas
Heartland Division CB&QMaybe we can get back to the month's theme of posting pictures of trains where we live or where we have lived.
I posted a handful of new pictures of the SEMINOLE GULF a couple of days ago.
Here is one I took about 15-20 years ago.
The World Is A Beautiful Place.
Heartland Division CB&Q I still don't know why the ship got onto the sand bar. The channel is clearly marked with buoys. It is deep and wide. Big barge tows pass through every day. Maybe, the captain dozed off while at the helm. The ship ran on the wrong side of the red buoys to get to the sand bar.
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
Good morning Diners. Tea and toast please, Chloe.
A warm day today. I hope the rain stays away.
Northumberland
David
Good Morning.
As I grew up and learned more about the railroads in the Cleveland, Ohio area I discovered that there was a 33 mile electrified section of the New York Central that ran very close to my house. Unfortunately, I was born in 1956 and the electric locomotives made their last runs in Cleveland in 1953.
CUT_P1a_214 by Edmund, on Flickr
Still, I was fascinated by the thought of these "heavy" electrics running in my boyhood territory. Years later I was rewarded by actually seeing and riding behind these behemoths running between Harmon and Grand Central.
CUT ad merge by Edmund, on Flickr
In my teens, Cleveland Union Terminal became my "stomping grounds" while working on railroad equipment belonging to the railroad club my dad and I belonged to. I could only imagine the glory that the "Terminal Tower" had once enjoyed in its heyday.
CUT_Dedication1 by Edmund, on Flickr
Several times I was invited up to the main interlocking tower "CT" by the operator. Alas, what was left had vanished by 1971 and Amtrak chose not to use the Terminal for its two trains a day.
There was one Cleveland-Youngstown Erie-Lackawanna commuter train that actually ran a few weeks into the Conrail era but even that is long gone.
EL_625 by Edmund, on Flickr
This was one of the last looks I got at CT tower where the operator once invited me in.
CT Tower, Cleveland by Edmund, on Flickr
Today all the passenger tracks are gone and the planned shopping mecca for the old Union Terminal is history. Just a dinky, little used, light rail line is left.
Today I can at least run a couple of the C.U.T. P-1a motors on my layout and dream of what once was:
IMG_6782_fix by Edmund, on Flickr
Trains in Northumberland.
Morpeth Station
Hexham Station (Now my local station.)
Something a little different.
Good morning, everyone. We woke up to a welcome noise -- thunder and the sound of rain on the house. In farm country, no one ever complains about rain.
Ed, that photo of the planes on the train is neat. Every-so-often, we will see them come through here. Someone told me they are going from Chicago to Seattle when they come through here. I don't know if that's true or not.
Garry, that ship stuck on the sand must be a huge headache and public relations nightmare for the company. It doesn't instill confidence in those people considering that line for a trip.
Today is another packing day for our trip. Our kids are all flying while we are driving, so it has fallen on us to pack quite a few things we can carry in the truck that they can't pack flying. I don't mind, but I'm fairly sure I will forget something. Old age is a convenient excuse if needed.
I need some help with my photos today. I've found some pictures of Doodlebugs that had notations that these were used by Union Pacific in Nebraska. I have never heard of them in this state before, but these pictures indicate the photos were taken here.
I think they are pretty neat, and if they were used on the UP or Burlington in Nebraska, I would like to try to find one for my layout.
If anyone can help, it's appreciated. I have one more day, then I probably won't answer back for a while, but I am grateful for any help.
Have a good day, everyone.
York1 John
Good morning ....
Ed .... The NYC eelctric locomotive is impressive.
David .... Thanks for sharing viseos.
John York 1 ..... The old McKeen doodlebugs were interesting. I think Dave Critter has one.
Burlington doodlebugs were of more comventional desgn, and they were used very extensively by that railroad in the rural midwest. :
Here is my doodlebug on a branch line.
Chloe, I think I need some strong black coffee this morning. For some reason I thought it was Thursday. When I realized it was Wednesday I felt silly. Then it ocurred to me that it does not matter... for me everyday is Saturday!
Good morning everyone. For my fellow retired folk, it is Wednesday in case you lost track like did.
I was a really cute kid when I was five.
Good morning
What's still left of it. A bit late for the breakfast back burner or brunch as some call it.
I have a wide variety of taste for music depending on which mood I'm in at any given time on any giving day.
Some of my music choices are great and some perhaps garbage but I don't think anyone would argue that there's nothing better than the easy listening of some good old Johnny Cash!
Enjoy
TF
With only seven notes in different octaves I still find it interesting how some songs are so very similar
Good 'Ol Charlie
Heartland Division CB&QHere is the Denver Zephyr near where I grew up on the CB&Q triple track main line from Chicago to Aurora.
Interesting that you should mention the Zephyr. This is a restaurant in my little town of Ocean View, Delaware. The dining cars form part of the eating space.
Oddly, the railroad never came to Ocean View, as far as I can tell. The Royal Zephyr was built to resemble a station, or possibly reasembled at the site. The locomotive and cars were trucked in from somewhere.
The Royal Zephyr was a real train-themed restaurant, but it only lasted a few years. After that, it became a bar/restaurant serving Mexican food, although very Americanized, named the Salted Rim. That restaurant moved to larger quarters last year, and this year an overpriced breakfast place moved in.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
hon30critterAlso, if the people who lost their jobs end up on social assistance, that's going to cost you as well. Dave
"Lost" might not explain it.
My barely work age son easily got an 11 dollar per hour job at walmart. He says the employees commonly don't show up, and the manager struggles to keep his store staffed. They show up when they need money, and don't get fired because the manager is grateful when anybody shows up.
11 dollar an hour unskilled job pays less than stimulus, apparently.
Self-checkout aisles can work 24/7, and never call in "sick".
Just got new tires. Took several days. Several days to get basic all-season 17 inch tires. One guy working the desk, one guy working in the shop. That's it.
Guy said he lost three people. One went to work for Caterpillar, which paid better, the other two simply quit.
Supply chains are having problems too. Not trying to pick on one thing, but the traditional ideas are not necessarily prevailing currently.
And there are boxcar shortages, as mentioned in another thread. Many things are being disrupted for many reasons or because of unknown sources.
People have been losing their jobs since the industrial revolution. Stores, whether they be Walmart, grocery or home improvement have made it extremely time consuming to use a cashier.
We've sent whole industries overseas and now the hill to die on is for cashiers? ..................
.......... Sorry I to turn down my Sylvania TV to take a call on my Western Electric telephone. Where was I? Talking about my made in China Rapido? No I remember.
Let them learn to code like the oil sevice workers and the coal miners. I have that from a high governmental source.
Hope Steve still has a sense of humor.
Howdy ...
Mr. B ....... That looks like a great restaurant! If I ever get back to Delaware, I will have to look for it. ..... By the way, Burlington did have a train called the American Royal Zephyr. It was an overnight train between Chicago and Kansas City.
TF .... I like the rhythm of the Johny Cash song . Too bad it is a sad story.
Kevin .... The Seminole Gulf pictures are interesting. Is that short line on former Atlantic Coast Line tracks ?
John York 1..... I think you are right. Such accidents are bad for encouraging people to go on cruises. However, it did not sink. .... I'm think sand bar is not a good phrase in this situation because the ground is not sand here. Instead it is rocks and clay. Maybe it should be called a mud bar.
Everybody .... Keep on posting pictures of trains if you want. ...... Have a nice night.
Heartland Division CB&QEverybody .... Keep on posting pictures of trains if you want. ...... Have a nice night.
I like that idea.
Smile!
Builder_Stop by Edmund, on Flickr
This is in Painesville, Ohio, about five miles from where I now live:
NKP_PE6 by Edmund, on Flickr
The Grand Trunk Western ran some of the nicest looking USRA Pacifics and Mikes I've ever seen:
GTW 3754 by Edmund, on Flickr
Better get a flagman on that REA truck!
Time for dinner!
Mr B I was going to recommend a restaurant in Fenwick Is, but Fin Alley has closed according to google. Too bad they had great rockfish.
Liquid Assets at 9301 Coastal Hwy we liked.
Rain! woo hoo. We had 1/4" earlier and then on my 1 mile walk around the neighborhood the skies opened up. I had to take shelter in a porta potty at a house underconstruction and phone my wife for a rescue. That dumped another 1/2" It is now raining for a third time.
I was looking at Virtural Railfan's daily recap and there was a riverboat in Iowa. I had forgotten there are still touristy riverboats. I have no desire to go on an ocean cruise, except maybe Alaska, but the Mississippi might be fun.
Has anyone been on one or know anyone who has been on one?
https://www.americanqueensteamboatcompany.com/
Evening all, another perfect day on the left side.
Big dog show this weekend and the throngs have decended on our house. There is a massive grooming convention going on in the back as the hub bub begins. I am hiding in my office as the dog hair is thicker than fire smoke.
On the way home from Costco today there was a fire in a field next to the road at a railway crossing. Too big for those of us that stopped to handle and the sirens were coming so we got out of the way. News said it grew to over an acre before they got it under of control.
Last night we had to go somewhere and it was a forty minute drive each way through the rural countryside, it was a perfect evening with hardly a car on the road. No traffic lights and a couple of stop signs only confirmed how much I don't miss the rat pit of suburbia.
Daughter went to get covid vaccine #2 and can leave in 3 minutes. Last time a hunky firefighter gave her the shot, not so lucky this time. I am talking to her on FB.
We have the West Coast Railway Heritage Park just North of Vancouver in Squamish. I took a bunch of kids there a couple of tiimes and they loved it as they could climb all over the equipment and go in the locos.
Well it is going to be a very busy weekend at the homestead with the dogshow, first one since the covid restrictions have been lifted.
B.C.Rail shop.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."