Researchers and workers point to the company’s chronic understaffing of stores in communities of color. 
 
 Daniel Coles, a Walmart worker in Paramount, California, feels it’s impossible for him to do his job well. “Right now we are understaffed big time,” says Coles, who works in a predominantly Latino, working-class community. “Especially at the front end, we don't have enough cashiers to take care of customers, so we have long lines.” 
 
 
 
 Coles says he faced similar problems at his previous Walmart job in Crenshaw, a majority-black neighborhood in Los Angeles, but had a much better experience at a Walmart in San Bernardino, which he says catered more to middle-class, white customers. “At San Bernardino, we had enough staffing, we weren't really short at all,” says Coles. “We had coverage in every department, so customers respected us because it was a good experience.” 
 
 
 
 In Coles’s experience, Walmart seemed to prioritize adequate staffing and customer satisfaction far more in white communities. New research suggests that his experience may be shared by Walmart workers in communities of color across the country. 
 
 Adam Reich, an assistant* professor of sociology at Columbia University, conducted an analysis of roughly 35,000 Yelp reviews of all of Walmart’s stores nationwide. Among the 2,840 Walmart stores the reviews pertained to, Reich found that the higher the percentage of Black or Latino residents in a zip code, the lower the Yelp reviews were of stores in that area, even when controlling for the area’s average income. 
 
 When Reich analyzed the adjectives in the Yelp reviews used to describe stores, however, he noticed another telling pattern: Much of the ratings’ language seemed to be about store characteristics, rather than racial judgments. 
 
 (Adam Reich, Columbia University) 
 
 In Walmart stores in predominantly black zip codes, customers were more likely to use words like “worst,” “unorganized,” “nasty,” and “slow” to describe their shopping experiences. In predominantly white zip codes, customers used words like “smaller,” “friendly,” and “clean” to review their stores. 
 
 
 
 Reich says this evidence, along with interviews his team collected from 89 Walmart workers in Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Florida, suggest that Walmart systematically understaffs stores in communities of color, a practice he calls “consumer redlining.” (Walmart did not respond to CityLab inquiries about Reich’s hypothesis.) 
 
 
 
 But this perceived understaffing may not necessarily be a result of explicit racial animus so much as a natural consequence of Walmart’s business model, which relies on far lower labor costs than its competitors. Since Walmart opens up many stores in areas where consumers already have few shopping options, the chain, Reich argues, has little incentive to invest in labor for these stores, which are often in communities of color. 
 
 “When Walmart moves into the South Side of Chicago, it’s not really displacing numerous other businesses,” says Reich. “So it can shortchange investments in staff, and force people to work harder. Consumers don’t have a choice about where they’re shopping.” 
 
 
 
 Anthony Roberts, an assistant professor of sociology at California State University who has written extensively on Walmart’s urban-expansion attempts in recent years, points out that such staffing decisions are integral to Walmart’s model. 
 
 
 
 “The company utilizes data from its stores to predict the optimal staffing levels at the local and regional levels. Employee compensation is an important factor in this analysis, because the company's retail model depends on low wages for profitability,” says Roberts in an email to CityLab. “Given the dependence of these communities on Walmart stores, there seems to be very little need to address poor customer satisfaction… .” 
 
 This argument resonates with Coles’s experience working with Walmart customers. “Customers [in black and Latino communities] figure it’d be more convenient to not have to travel to Timbuktu to go to another Walmart, or to the ‘right’ neighborhood area because of gas and all that,” says Coles. He notes that the company also conducts “a lot of customer surveys about people's shopping experiences,” which help gauge how much money specific stores bring in—and therefore may influence the number of employees hired. 
 
 These labor cost-saving strategies, however, may actually be hurting Walmart’s ability to expand, especially in urban markets with large black and Latino populations. Though Walmart has made inroads in cities like Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C., it has struggled to break into other major urban centers such as Boston, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle, in large part due to community mobilization and political pressure. 
 
 
 
 Walmart’s failure to capture its national average market share in the most urban areas has cost it nearly $96 billion dollars a year, according to a 2015 UCLA study by the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. 
 
 
 
 “Labor investment is critical for penetrating the urban market, because these communities are most concerned about job prospects in local development,” says Roberts. “If Walmart wants to dramatically break into the urban market, the company needs to address its reputation of creating 'bad jobs' by expanding and investing in its labor force.” 
 
 If customers feel the toll of this model of labor investment, Walmart workers in black and Latino communities do, as well. “At Crenshaw, customers would say, ‘Y'all so ghetto. You don't have enough registers, customer service people,’” says Coles. “It was sad to see how the company didn't care about the [workers]. … They are looking at the bottom line, that’s it.” 
 
 
 
 *CORRECTION: This post has been updated with Adam Reich’s correct title. ||||| All Walmarts are, bluntly, not created equal. Some have better customer service than others and are just plain more pleasant shopping experiences. And if you’ve felt like the Walmarts in richer ZIP codes are more likely to be the nicer ones, well, one study says you’re right. 
 
 A study published this year took a look at Walmart customer satisfaction by analyzing the 35,000 total Yelp reviews for all Walmarts nationwide. And the trend the researcher found is… disquieting. 
 
 The reviews covered a total of 2.840 stores. Among them, the study found, reviews for stores in areas with a lower average income were significantly worse than reviews for stores in areas with higher incomes. 
 
 And worse: even controlling for average area income, the higher the percentage of black or Latino residents in a certain ZIP code, the worse a Walmart there would rate. 
 
 The researcher running the study didn’t just look at the numerical ratings stores got; he also looked at the words reviewers were using to describe them. Stores in areas with predominantly black residents tended to be “negative,” “nasty,” “terrible,” “unorganized,” and, mainly, “worst.” Stores in areas with mostly white residents tended to be “friendly,” “typical,” “clean,” and even “pleasant” or “amazing.” 
 
 Now, it seems incredibly unlikely that anyone at Walmart is actually sitting around twirling their handlebar moustache and trying to figure out how to make life miserable for low-income or minority customers on purpose. Still, the trend in the data is there — so what’s going on? 
 
 The researcher who conducted the study points to chronic understaffing and poor working conditions as probably causing the poorer service. In a series of interviews, he and his student-assistants talked to 89 Walmart workers around the country. Employees across the board reported a lack of support, but it seemed “particularly acute,” he writes, for employees working in low-income communities of color. 
 
 And all of that — Walmart’s ability to cut corners and generally suck while still drawing in customers — is tied to competition, the researcher suggests, or specifically, the lack of it. 
 
 Walmart is able to compete so aggressively on price that it drives other retailers out of an area and establish a local monopoly, the researcher suggests. It’s called a “monopsony”: 
 
 “Instead of raising prices and lowering product quality and quantity to increase profits, profits are increased by lowering wages and staffing levels, worker effort, and employee retention. All companies trade-off lower turnover and effort for lower wages; Walmart is distinct for the extent to which it has chosen a strategy in which low-wage workers do not stay very long, do not invest much effort, but are paid such low wages that Walmart is still making a profit.” 
 
 Walmart, of course, thinks the study is bunk. In a statement to Business Insider, a spokesperson for Walmart called it “flawed and without merit.” 
 
 “Our customer traffic and overall customer satisfaction scores have been improving and we’re focused on continuing to do better,” the representative told BI, tacitly acknowledging that the company has some pretty serious customer satisfaction problems overall. 
 
 The statement continued: “Our associates play a critical role in the company’s success and that’s why we’ve invested $2.7 billion on associate education, training and wages. We’re also proud to provide communities across the country, regardless of social or economic background, access to affordable goods and career opportunities to help them better provide for their families.” 
 
 And, as BI points out, the study itself may be flawed: using Yelp alone, though it generated a fairly high sample of reviews, can’t account for other biases or outside influences. The Yelp-using population may not be representative of the broader population, or it may be predisposed to perceive any store in a ZIP code mainly populated by people of color as low-quality, regardless of the reality. 
 
 On the other hand, the Yelp reviewers aren’t the first to notice a significant absence of staff at Walmart stores, either: staff cutbacks have led to increased crime across the board at Walmart locations. 
 
 Want more stories from Consumerist? We’re a non-profit! You can get more stories like this in our twice weekly ad-free newsletter! Click here to sign up. 
 
 walmart’s consumer redlining [Contexts] 
 
 A study reveals a disturbing trend about Walmart locations across the US [Business Insider] ||||| Joe Raedle/Getty Images The worst Walmarts are located in low-income, minority communities. 
 
 That's according to a study published in May by Contexts, a quarterly publication of the American Sociological Association. 
 
 A Walmart store's location is closely related to how good or bad the store's customer service is, the study found. 
 
 The study, which was recently highlighted by The Atlantic's CityLab, evaluated customer service by analyzing the Yelp reviews of 2,840 Walmart locations across the US. 
 
 Stores in areas that have lower average incomes have significantly worse customer reviews than locations in higher-income ZIP codes. Additionally, locations in areas with higher proportions of black or Latino residents have worse reviews than those in areas with more white residents. 
 
 The study's author, Adam Reich, an assistant professor of sociology at Columbia University, analyzed approximately 35,000 reviews of Walmart locations and found that there was a consistent correlation between a neighborhood's majority race and socioeconomic status, and a location's Yelp reviews. Reich blames the disparity on Walmart's decision to understaff stores in certain areas. 
 
 In the early 2000s, Walmart implemented cost-cutting policies that reduced the number of necessary employees per store and resulted in a drop in stores' quality. This study provides evidence that a decrease in store quality was not consistent across the board, but instead affected some customers more than others. 
 
 "Walmart is the largest retailer and largest employer in the world; moreover, it has consciously branded itself as a champion of and boon for disadvantaged communities," Reich wrote. "Its underinvestment in these communities is thus particularly notable." 
 
 A Walmart spokesperson told Business Insider that the company found the analysis to be "flawed and without merit." 
 
 David McNew/Getty Images 
 
 "Our customer traffic and overall customer satisfaction scores have been improving and we're focused on continuing to do better," Walmart spokesperson Lorenzo Lopez said in a statement to Business Insider. "Our associates play a critical role in the company's success and that's why we've invested $2.7 billion on associate education, training and wages. We're also proud to provide communities across the country, regardless of social or economic background, access to affordable goods and career opportunities to help them better provide for their families." 
 
 The study may in fact have a few holes. The reliance on Yelp means that researchers can't examine reviewers' biases and outside influences. For example, a store's location in a lower-income or predominantly black or Latino neighborhood may affect how its quality is perceived by some reviewers, regardless of the store's customer service. 
 
 However, this isn't the first time Walmart's apparent understaffing has been called into question. 
 
 Reports of Walmart saving money by reducing staff members have also gotten the retailer into hot water with police. Earlier in August, Bloomberg reported that more than 200 violent crimes had been committed this year at Walmart locations across the US. 
 
 Bloomberg reported that the rise in crime is a result of corporate policies. The cost-cutting policies resulted in a drop in quality, while the loss of greeters and the rise of self-checkout scanners made shoplifting and other illegal activities easier to engage in without employees noticing. 
 
 "In the coming weeks and months, we will continue our increased outreach to law enforcement across the country, as part of our ongoing commitment to meet our customer's and associate's expectations of a safe and enjoyable shopping experience," a Walmart representative said in an email to Business Insider earlier in August. 
 
 While Walmart's cost-cutting policies have had negative — and, at times, dangerous — outcomes for customers, they have also driven profits: Bloomberg found that sales per employee in the US grew 23% in the last decade, to $236,804. 
 
 Joe Raedle / Staff / Getty Images 
 
 Reich writes that the retailer can turn a profit despite providing poor customer service because Walmart's super-low prices have helped put local competition out of business. As a result, Walmart becomes some customers' only option — no matter how poor the shopping experience is. 
 
 However, Reich argues that the retailer may suffer in the long term if it doesn't make some major changes. A poor shopping experience could be increasingly damaging for the brand as online shopping grows and competitors increasingly invest in providing quality in-store experiences. 
 
 "For Walmart and other retailers, providing a pleasant customer service experience seems likely to be increasingly important to corporate profitability," Reich wrote. "For its own sake, then, Walmart should hire more employees, particularly at stores in low-income communities of color, and give all Walmart employees more reasons to smile through better wages and working conditions." ||||| The elites — and those pretending to be elite — love to sneer at the “big box” retail stores as much as the public loves to shop at them. The D.C. Council, not made up of elites, to be sure, is nevertheless expected to give final approval Wednesday to imposing a discriminatory $12.50 an hour “living wage” on large businesses, such as Wal-Mart. Other employers would still pay the $8.25 minimum. 
 
 It’s good politics in certain circles to assert that enacting a city ordinance will magically create wealth for the struggling masses. What’s more likely is that more people will end up earning $0.00 an hour. The D.C. leaders continue to send the message to major retail chains that they’re not welcome in Washington, and they should take their jobs to the suburbs. 
 
 The District can’t afford to drive away jobs, since entry-level employees in the city suffer at 16 percent unemployment, as calculated by the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute. 
 
 Residents want more retail stores, especially residents who live in the “food deserts” of Wards 7 and 8 east of the Anacostia River, where full-service grocery stores are scarce. For a jurisdiction with 600,000 residents and one of the highest per-capita incomes (owing to federal spending) in the country, there’s a dearth of big-box retail stores. There are no BJ’s Wholesale Clubs, Kohl’s, Lowe’s or Toys R Us stores, for example. Many residents cross the Potomac to Virginia or drive to the Maryland suburbs to shop for groceries and prescriptions, or to find convenient cleaners. A drive through the parking lots at shopping malls reveals hundreds of D.C. license tags. 
 
 For all the happy talk by the council members about a gentrifying District becoming more business-friendly, the Large Retailer Accountability Act reverses the goodwill by imposing higher wages only on businesses with more than 75,000 square feet of retail space and have corporate parents with annual sales of more than $1 billion. 
 
 The debate is aimed at Wal-Mart, the biggest-box retailer, which first opened its doors in a small town in Arkansas in the 1950s. The firm prides itself on taking lower prices to consumers in underserved areas. It works. Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer. That turns some politicians green, not with environmentalist obsession, but with envy.
– Ouch. A study out of Columbia University suggests that Walmart deliberately runs much better stores in white neighborhoods than in minority neighborhoods. The study found that stores in lower-income neighborhoods have considerably lower customer service ratings than those in wealthier ones. More specifically, the higher the percentage of black or Latino residents in an area, the lower the Walmart rating, reports Consumerist. The researchers suggest one reason is that the chain generally doesn't staff stores in low-income neighborhoods adequately because it doesn't need to do so—Walmarts in such neighborhoods are often the only place people can shop, and thus competition and customer satisfaction aren't priorities. “When Walmart moves into the South Side of Chicago, it’s not really displacing numerous other businesses,” study author Adam Reich tells the Atlantic. “So it can shortchange investments in staff, and force people to work harder. Consumers don’t have a choice about where they’re shopping.” The authors, who published their study in the American Sociological Association journal Contexts, analyzed Yelp reviews of 2,840 stores and found that those in predominantly black areas tend to be rated with words like "nasty," "terrible," and "unorganized," while those in white areas tend to be described as "friendly," "clean," and "pleasant." A Walmart spokesperson tells Business Insider that the analysis is both "flawed" and "without merit," and the publication notes a few "holes," including that reviewer bias and outside influence can't be accounted for. (More than 200 violent crimes have been reported at Walmarts so far this year.)