Walmart Orders Store Managers To Improve Fresh Section's Performance, Sales

Walmart instructed managers at its stores across the United States to improve the performance of “Chilled and Fresh” items in the retailer's dairy, meat, and produce sections. Part of Walmart's efforts to stop sales from declining further, the move also seeks to deal with customer complaints about the state of its fresh produce business. Reminding store managers that their primary responsibility is driving sales, the memo issued by Walmart also calls on managers to cut backup inventory to reduce costs and urges them to avoid exceeding store budgets. Some retail market analysts, however, believe that Walmart's problems are caused by its failure to deploy enough employees in its stores to perform the many tasks that need to be accomplished, such as identifying old stocks and keeping store shelves fully stocked.