Editor’s Note: Sadly, this post was prophetic – it was written before we received the very sad news this morning that a Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death as people rushed into a Long Island Wal-Mart on Black Friday.  Glassdoor extends its deepest sympathies to those that were injured or died, and their families, in this senseless violence.  [11/28/2008 10:20am PST]

Black Friday, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season which falls the day after thanksgiving, may be particularly hectic for Wal-Mart employees this year. That’s because high jobless rates and record low consumer confidence will cause holiday shoppers to seek out deep discounts in order to stretch their holiday budget further. Wal-Mart, known for its low prices, is a natural place for discount seeking shoppers to turn. This added influx of holiday shoppers may be bad news for Wal-Mart employees, who are already “Dissatisfied” with the overall work experience at Wal-Mart, which rates lowest among employees of major retailers on Glassdoor.com

We compared employer ratings of frontline sales associates at major retail chains and found Wal-Mart to be at the bottom of the list of places to work, with overall scores of “Dissatisfied”. Other retailers, Best Buy and Nordstrom topped the list with overall scores from their sales associates of “Satisfied”.

Retail Chain	Sales Associate’s overall employer rating:
Best Buy	3.7		“Satisfied”
Nordstrom	3.7		“Satisfied”
Circuit City	3.0		“Neutral”
Target	2.7		“Neutral”
Wal-Mart	2.3		“Dissatisfied”

Looking a little deeper, we find that Wal-Mart sales associate’s rate Wal-Mart particularly low for Employee Moral and Fairness and respect:

Sales Associate’s category ratings of their employers

So what’s to make of all this? Well, if you find yourself holiday shopping at Wal-Mart this year, please try to be extra kind to the sales associates – chances are they are they may be having a bad day.

Black Friday may be extra hard on Wal-Mart employees… is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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3. Retail Industry Report Card; Overstock.com & REI Highest Rated Retailers