Wal-Mart is trying to make their stores more user friendly

Wal-Mart is starting to roll out Project Impact. The project is meant to make stores more easily navigable by customers and put certain items closer to where the customers would logically think they belong.

Wal-Mart stores haven’t exactly been known for their ability to be easily navigated or for their friendly staff and accommodations. The stores are more often known for their low prices and convenience of a one stop shop. While the employees of the stores are getting a bit of a “pick-me-up” from the store redesigns, I honestly don’t believe that chipper mood will last too long after the project has been implemented.

So what happens when a store goes through a Project Impact change? Here’s what an article from Time said:

“We’ve listened to our customers, and they want an easier shopping experience,” says De La Rosa. “We’ve brightened up the stores and opened things up to make it more navigable.” One of the most noticeable changes is that Project Impact stores reshape Action Alley, the aisles where promotional items were pulled off the shelves and prominently displayed for shoppers. Those stacks both crowded the aisles and cut off sight lines. Now, the aisles are all clear, and you can see most sections of the store from any vantage point. For example, standing on the corner intersection of the auto-care and crafts areas, you can look straight ahead and see where shoes, pet care, groceries, the pharmacy and other areas are located. And the discount price tags are still at eye level, so the value message doesn’t get lost.

The idea sounds great in theory, but I can go to my local Wal-Mart store during any given time of the day or night and have to battle with palettes set up in the aisles as well as empty shelves. When I think of Wal-Mart, this is always going to be what comes to mind. There’s really nothing easy about a trip to Wal-Mart. Once you’ve added in shoppers with cell phones, it makes the whole situation that much worse.

Wal-Mart has to battle the opinion of shoppers like me, who have been burned in the past by what the store has done (or not done) to help my shopping experience.

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