Walmart Stocker, Backroom and Receiving Associate

Job Description

Stockers play a vital role in a Walmart store by ensuring shelves are constantly full of merchandise for sale in a presentable fashion with accurate prices. This process typically starts in the backroom or warehouse where inventory is received, unpacked, scanned and organized before placement on the sales floor. Once the merchandise is prepared, stockers are often responsible for transporting / carting it to the sales floor and neatly placing it in the proper location ensuring accurate prices. Depending on store procedures and the type of merchandise involved, a stocker may need to follow restock reports, understand safe food handling requirements and adhere to product rotation and facing standards. Upon completion, stockers typically head back to the backroom or warehouse to ensure the area is clean and organized for the next delivery. Stocker jobs typically enjoy more flexible schedules than most other retail positions with shifts ranging from early morning to overnight positions. For those shifts occurring during business hours, stockers do spend time in a visible place in the store and are responsible for providing customer service and assisting shoppers locate items on the sales floor.

Walmart Stocker, Backroom and Receiving Associate Tasks

Unload trucks
Sort products in the backroom
Stock products on shelves
Ensure aisles are neat and area is clean
Engage vendors and drivers with a positive attitude
Greet customers and answer their questions

Wages & Employment Trends

Regardless of your experience, Walmart boasts a starting wage of at least $11.00 per hour and states that it could be higher depending your location, education and experience.

U.S. census information for stockers:
Employment: 2 million+
Average hourly wage: $7.91 to $14.15 depending on geographic location
Median wage: $11.77 hourly, $24,470 annually
Projected growth rate: 5% to 9% annually

Source: http://www.bls.gov
https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/occupational-projections-and-characteristics.htm

Highest Paying Stocker Employers

Costco Wholesale Company
The Kroger Company
Walmart
Sam’s Club
Lowe’s Home Improvement

Potential Career Paths for Stockers

While it’s no surprise that the most common career path for a stocker is retail management where wages can almost double, it is noteworthy that some carve a path into a skilled trade such as forklift driver, welder or warehouse supervisor.

*Source: http://www.payscale.com
https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Stocker/Hourly_Rat

You Will Likely Enjoy Being a Stocker, If….

Often times, reading a job description, understanding the responsibilities of the position and meeting the requirements are not truly indicative of what it’s actually like to do the job. So, our friends at O*Net Online have profiled the characteristics of people who enjoy and excel working as a stocker. The results provide a pretty accurate guideline to help determine what you like to do. Accordingly, those who enjoy working as a stocker are typically:

Conventional – enjoy following set procedures and routines with a clear line of authority to follow. For example, many stores will have set restock procedures that involve printing out a restock report, picking identified merchandise from the backroom, moving it to the sales floor and accurately placing and facing the merchandise in the appropriate location.

Realistic – enjoy work activities that frequently include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. Further, those with Realistic interests tend to enjoy more physical positions. For example, a stocker may be asked to compare actual inventory received compared to the packing slip and identify and report discrepancies.

Enterprising – enjoy starting up and carrying out projects. Further those with Enterprising interests have the capacity to lead other people, and make decisions based on risk and reward, often in the context of business. Stockers are sometimes faced with making decisions on where to group certain merchandise based on the type of inventory, sales reports and which product, based on the information on-hand, will sell the best.

Relationships – enjoy work that allow for providing service to others and working with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment. Obvious examples here are assisting customers while on the sales floor (assuming your shift is during business hours) and working cohesively with other team members to ensure merchandise is received, unpacked, scanned, organized and placed on the sales floor according to store procedures.

Support – enjoy work where you feel supportive management is standing behind their employees. Because company policies, amount of supervision and company procedures vary from store to store, it’s tough to provide an example here. However, before accepting a job, we recommend reviewing the vast array of employer reviews available on the internet to better understand if they offer an adequate level of support.

Independence – enjoy the ability to work on your own and make decisions. While there are aspects of being a stocker that involve working as part of a team, there are others that involve working independently. For example, a teammate may have scanned all the merchandise, while another organized it and passes the baton to you to cart it to the sales floor for placement.

You’ve Completed Your Walmart Application – Now What?

Unlike a few other applicant tracking systems, Walmart’s Hiring Center does a good job at presenting a screen that confirms you have completed the necessary steps and your application has in fact been completed. Please make sure you reach this screen – there’s nothing more frustrating (and potentially embarrassing) than following up on an application that was never received by an employer.

After successful submission, your application is forwarded to the Personnel Associate of the store you selected for a review process. The Personnel Associate is assessing whether your skills and desired shift match a position they are attempting to fill. If so, they will reach out directly to schedule an onsite interview.

Unfortunately, Walmart does not provide any expectations on how long this review process can take or when candidates should expect to hear back. They do however, offer two unique features that offset this lack of timing expectation. Walmart states that candidates who are not offered an interview are informed of the decision so their job search can get back under way. Additionally, Walmart keeps your application for up to 60 days during which period you are remain a candidate for any other positions that may open during that time. You are encouraged to reapply after 60 days if you want to be considered.