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As a company, yes. As a customer experience, not really.

At Walmart, I have to interact with employees who never seem happy to be there. A good quarter have no real reason to do more than minimum. I have to wait in line most times. Now, it has been over 5 years since I've had a walmart in the same country as I am, but I remember the horribleness of 2am walmart, mostly because they would only open one or two registers, no matter line length. I also have to deal with other customers. That can be worse.

Amazon? I click a few times, possibly put in some information, and I wait for my package.



> Amazon? I click a few times, possibly put in some information, and I wait for my package.

You can do the exact same thing at walmart.com - not that I advocate shopping with either company.


I was pretty sure the comment was referring to going to a physical store. Doesn't actually matter much to me anymore - I now live in a country with no wal-mart and no native Amazon. I'm pretty sure one doesn't ship here and when the other does, they usually are expensive (shipping) and do not include Norway's Vat in the price.


To be honest, with the growth of self-checkout at Walmart the times I actually interact with a Walmart employee directly is now probably close to 30%.


This experience has really improved over time. Twenty years ago, in some locations, the average Walmart customer would have had more luck operating the space shuttle than they seemed to have with the self checkout. Long lines of people who apparently had never seen a TV, let alone a touchscreen interface, chased me over to Target. I was that theoretical consumer who was happy to pay more... Something has changed since then, because I can't remember the last time I was in a Target.


They didn't have them at Wal-mart last time I lived around one - around 5 years ago. I use those in every store that has them, though, so long as possible (I can't if I'm using cash).




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