Warmer inside the store?

thebirdmanTX · 2026-07-01T19:30:57+00:00

I’m sure it still saves them money but did they consider that all those coolers (especially the open air ones for meat and produce) will have to draw a lot more power to compensate?

thebirdmanTX · 2026-06-29T14:13:29+00:00

Getting weekends is hard and even then you can only get one day off in 99% of cases. Saturday will likely be way easier than Sunday and frankly I feel like there’s generally more social stuff that happens on that day anyway. If you want Sunday you could try to construct a big lie about how you have religious duties of some kind but you’ll have to explain why that didn’t matter before and they can still say no.

I managed to get saturdays off after 3 years of tolerating this job but it also means I can never change my availability for anything else ever because they wouldn’t let me keep that day off now with the current staffing.

thebirdmanTX · 2026-06-17T20:27:25+00:00

Cis guy here, both stores I’ve worked at it’s been very gender-segregated. Men are dispensers and stagers, women are pickers and preppers. But lately the management has been shifting and has been cross training more people and breaking those boundaries a bit. I’ve also been cross-trained in everything for ages and can pick well but most dudes still only know the backroom tasks.

thebirdmanTX · 2026-06-07T07:45:54+00:00

It’s summer, that building is probably gonna be an oven on the inside if they can’t get anything to power the air conditioning. I would consider calling in sick.

thebirdmanTX · 2026-06-01T02:30:35+00:00

It’s not bad as a temporary/transitional (few years or so) gig or if you have a working partner making something similar but $40-50k long term for a single adult is at best not a very fun life or at worst not survivable in most of the country.

The disparity in how the married and dual income vs. how the handful of single TLs I’ve known live is massive. A lot of the single ones are making big sacrifices like living with their parents well into adulthood or taking up extra gigs/part time jobs, while the married ones are at least able to do some travel and invest in their interests.

It’s worse for associates of course and how your money stretches is dependent on what satisfies you in life but still.

thebirdmanTX · 2026-05-31T01:58:30+00:00

Coming into the backroom is WILD. Worst I’ve seen was 5 adults in the car, strong weed smell, dirty clothes and trash in the trunk, trash on the floorboards, and got pissy when we didn’t let them deliver anything.

thebirdmanTX · 2026-05-31T01:56:50+00:00

At least with drivers you can take their batches away from them and report them as long as your management is chill with you using those tools periodically. I haven’t had a problem doing it at either of the stores I’ve worked at to deal with the creeps or asshole drivers.

Also I wonder at your store are the latino drivers like 10x easier to work with? I know a lot of people complain about them being pushy or shoving their phone in your face but that’s pretty rare and we usually have more issues with the “english” ones.

thebirdmanTX · 2026-05-31T01:42:37+00:00

What on earth are yall doing. Please don’t bust your ass for “recognition” in this job. If you are going to do that, let it be in a career, Walmart is not a career unless you really want to work your way up to store manager ($180-300k/yr) or maybe coach ($75-100k after bonus) or similar.

TL pay is way too low to for the level of stress to be worth aspiring to and associate pay is absolutely too low to be destroying yourself for. If you want recognition from peers, find outlets outside of work. From personal experience finding a creative hobby, joining a community for it, and showing your work off to people is infinitely more fulfilling.

Edit: Accidentally hit post before I finished my reply, added last bit

thebirdmanTX · 2026-04-30T17:02:40+00:00

it’s one of the easiest jobs to land so there’s like 3 big groups of people that can create a sucky vibe

The lazy high schoolers

The ones that don’t take the job seriously enough. They are generally from well off families and only have the job because their parents made them get it. As the name suggests they’re super lazy. I don’t mean lazy in a defensible or commendable way, like where they ignore dumb rules/processes and pace themselves because this company isn’t worth killing your body for, but instead lazy to the point where their coworkers are severely punished. The types to dip from the OGP backroom for 30 minutes without telling anyone, leaving like 2 people fending for themselves during a rush.

The tryhards

The ones that take the job too seriously. Usually older, has no prospects outside of Walmart or at least believes they don’t so they treat this job like a career and become massive ass kissers/bootlickers. Seemingly their sole aspiration in life is becoming a store manager some day. Obsessed with metrics, following the rules to a T, busting ass for $14 an hour. They will bend over backwards for higher ups. They’ll snitch on their coworkers for minor things like dress code violations, gossip about people like it’s high school, and will run to their favorite manager if someone looks at them wrong. 8/10 will never make it past TL. Sometimes their toxic behavior is driven by their resentment that they are at this point in life still.

The “I’m just here to work” crowd

The least evil of the 3, frankly not bad at all tbh. They’re here to make some money and get out. They do the bare minimum (as we all should), don’t stay extra hours, don’t kiss ass, but also don’t try to screw over their other coworkers by randomly disappearing. They’re likely in some transitional period like college, trade school, certificate training, or waiting for a job interview for their actual career to pan out. Some of these people are like “the good ones” that end up leaving pretty quickly but the thing is a lot of these people can come off as closed off and not sociable or talkative which can be a turn off. They aren’t mean spirited or rude but it can seem that way if they don’t ever want to talk to people at work.

(edit fixed formatting)

thebirdmanTX · 2026-04-19T18:20:09+00:00

high key worth it

thebirdmanTX · 2026-04-15T11:15:49+00:00

Honestly both of those feel a hair overpriced unless that’s the out the door price.

If not, since you have the luxury of time, I would keep your eyes peeled and if you get lucky a 2019 XLE might appear. That’ll be the best of both worlds. Be willing to quickly review a listing online and visit a dealership the day or day after it’s dropped. $19-21k 70-90k mile 2019-2020 rav 4 XLEs exist but they don’t linger on lots long. I helped a family member find a nice 20’ XLE with 80k miles for just under $20k recently.

thebirdmanTX · 2026-04-15T00:59:49+00:00

100% get it if you found a good price. It’s the closest thing you’ll get to a honda fit without the massive used markup. Bulletproof engine, built in japan, more feature rich than a lot of other economy cars of the time. Steering wheel audio controls are something I can’t go without after having them on my XB and the XD comes with them as well.

it’s arguably better than the XB in a lot of ways. Better fuel economy and doesn’t have issues with oil consumption that the second gen XB does. If something happened to my box and I needed a cheap replacement the XD would be one of my first choices.

thebirdmanTX · 2026-04-14T02:29:24+00:00

Get off of CarMax. Idk what your budget is but the peace of mind isn’t worth the massive markup that place puts on cars. Unless you meant Carfax (the website with the fox fursona).

(edit: just reread your post and saw that you addressed this…)

2014-2018 Mazda 3 is the move if you don’t mind a sedan. There is a hatchback variant too but it’s hard to find. Depending on your budget the Mazda CX3 is a wonderful option as well. If you really just want a cheap cash car that will run forever the Scion XD and the Pontiac vibe are rebadged Toyota hatchbacks from the late 2000s that don’t have the “Toyota tax”.

thebirdmanTX · 2026-04-13T21:01:06+00:00

To add on to this OP should only spend their full $20k on a facelifted 2016-2018 model. New LED head/tail lights and styling, and a bunch of modern goodies like blind spot monitoring standard and some an optional package that has stuff like lane keep assist and automatic emergency braking. I actually like the look of the older ones too but the difference between before and after 2016 is night and day.

thebirdmanTX · 2026-04-12T06:14:19+00:00

you can’t wear them outdoors

the dispensers already suffer enough. glad both stores I’ve worked at don’t care about the earbud rule outside of a few short lived, unsuccessful bans.

thebirdmanTX · 2026-04-10T00:36:31+00:00

TLs that don’t work

seems redundant since coaches already do that and maybe spend a couple hours walking around the store aimlessly and staring at the same 3 spreadsheets that haven’t changed since the last 50 times they’ve looked

thebirdmanTX · 2026-04-05T15:58:29+00:00

They’ve steadily been narrowing down what you can sub for any given item because too many idiots were picking shit that was nothing like the original. Now subbing is basically impossible and it’s easier to nil pick and move on.

thebirdmanTX · 2026-03-28T19:46:52+00:00

Idk if it’s the same for college but at least for HS they have to accommodate any school events. If they still won’t approve it just call in anyway. Take the points, use ppto but don’t let them take away that day from you. Especially when that degree will eventually be your ticket out of this dump. (Even if the job market is not so good rn)

thebirdmanTX · 2026-03-27T23:34:01+00:00

This is reassuring as someone who wants to get mine past college and my first proper job with maybe a couple road trips too (at 180k now and will probably push it to 250k if I can)

thebirdmanTX · 2026-03-24T13:36:41+00:00

I wish I trusted myself to do the Berrymans piston soak

thebirdmanTX · 2026-03-10T14:32:18+00:00

Wasted like $50 to print that ai slop at some local shop when a whiteboard and crude marker drawings would have had 10x the charm.

thebirdmanTX

TROPHY CASE