to investigate possible ways to save energy and go green are signs of a shift towards a more responsible approach to retailing.
The only reason they "decided" to go green was because they were sued. Check out the documentary. Walmart has so many lawsuits against them right now it's unbelievable. The long lines are because they have 14 lanes, not including self-check, and only 5 cashiers working.
Self-checkout is supposed ot be for ten itens or less. At my store, customers would come into the self-checkout lane with two carts full of items. This happened all the time. I would politely walk up and tell the customer that this was an express lane, and they had more than ten items.
One of the reasons I quit was that more often than not, I got cursed at and told, "Well, if you had more cashiers, I'd go to another line. So, shut up and leave me alone!" Like I was responsible for hiring. Then the customer behind them with ONE item would get angry at me too, for not INSISTING the two-cart customer leave. Only I couldn't. According to management, that's all I was ALLOWED to say. If they wouldn't leave, I had to let them ring up 200 items if that's what they had.
I am a mystery shopper also, and I have evaluated K-Mart, Shopko, Home-Depot, and Walmart. Walmart was by far the worst retailer for customer service, (finding someone to help you at all was a miracle--they have ONE employee covering three departments) items in stock, wait time, store/restroom cleanliness.