Walmart and Piggly Wiggly are two of the primary employers for project this summer. I work at Walmart, and recently I have talked to some people from Piggly Wiggly, and I am beginning to see some inherent differences. Walmart management is a bureaucracy. For this reason, it is easy for management to be distanced from us as employees. Therefore, there is a very “we are here for business and nothing else”. Piggly Wiggly is much smaller. Ergo there is a much closer relationship with the management, and working there is almost like being part of a family, not an army.
Piggly Wiggly is for the most part strictly a grocery store. It has better food, fresher meat, and higher prices. The sort that shops at Piggly Wiggly is often upper class, and might even “dress up” to go shopping. To the contrary, Walmart is all about low prices. Therefore people do not dress up to go to Walmart, and people buy the cheapest brand when getting items.
Piggly Wiggly creates an atmosphere. There are often little tables set up to eat at, one Piggly Wiggly has a Starbucks with seating, and it is just generally a nice place to go. Customers look foreword to going to Piggly Wiggly—customer’s just want to get home from Walmart.