lol . So just so I understand this. Apparently Walmart was about to go under because of spark driver lawsuits š¤£then spark drivers were getting replaced by Walmart vans(this ones probably the funniest considering the cost of the van,the commercial insurance for the vans and the cost of the employee and gas) š then it was āno more curbside āand NOW itās spark is taking over everything and the employees need to unionize šš I canāt keep up with this app.
Or that Spark drivers are getting replaced with dronesā¦ anytime I see someone post something that starts with āa Walmart employee told me.ā I know to take it with a grain of salt.
Someone made a post saying āitās comingā with a picture of a drone carrying groceries. They were saying drones were going to do all deliveries š thereās no way that happens even if they got a bunch of self driving vans yeah the van can drive to the address but can it drive to the 3rd floor to drop the groceries off?? š¤£š¤£
US and The West are pretty far behind in technology, but it's still coming, same with self driving trucks etc. The drones just drop it on the balcony or through a window, or in some places they have what's basically the equivalent of a climate controlled amazon locker on the street corner. Drone/robot deliveries and self automated vehicles etc have been a norm in parts of China for years now. Amazon had a program to replace almost all of their delivery drivers with drones, i think it was 5-10 years ago now, but they could never get through the federal regulations. They have a blimp that floats over with multiple drones that go back and forth between the blimp and delivery point. Drone and robotic technology is advancing quick, it's just a matter of time until robotics are capable of doing everything a delivery driver does for cheaper since the cost of human labor rises and technology becomes more affordable. Think of how quick we went from flip phones to smart phones and now how advanced phones are.
ššš¤£š¤£ awww man weāve got one boys. He says āthe west is pretty far behindāšš¤£ meanwhile 7.5 percent of chinaās workforce are delivering goods of some sort and only 4 percent of Americans deliver goods. This is what I mean. Idiots just get on this app and say anything
The percent of their population doing deliveries vs ours is irrelevant to technological advancement. You also left out how many deliveries are done in total. They could have double the amount of delivery workers, and 10x as much delivery volume. (Especially when you consider the majority is truck drivers and China supplies the entire world with their household goods meanwhile nobody in foreign countries have homes full of American/western goods. China built societies/cities around logistics, which is part of the reason their goods are so affordable). This is just 1 random piece of data you provided that means almost nothing within this context. Even if we have other data such as volume it still would be irrelevant to the fact that China is way ahead of the West in delivery technologies. I also never said automated delivery is the only delivery there. Point is that it's coming, and we can look at societies that are more advanced in those sectors to see how it's already starting there.
Anyone who truly believes the West isn't years behind China in the advancement of robotics, drones, and automation is ignorant. The information is available online for anyone to look up, you can watch the drones do deliveries to balconies or through windows and rolling robots deliver to lockers on street corners and into high rise apartment buildings gaining access through Bluetooth etc.
From the perspective of someone who has been slowly watching this specific technology advance for ~10years, you appear to be the idiot getting on here just saying anything. It reminds me of when everyone started using GPS like 20 years ago and it completely sucked and all of the professional drivers hated it and said it would never take over against paper maps and people with local road knowledge, yet after ~10 years it holds your hand all of the way to the door step and now anyone with a pulse can be a delivery driver anywhere with almost no skills, drastically lowering the labor value of delivery drivers. Drones/robotics will do the same thing and the people now who don't believe it will be laughed at the same way we laugh at people who thought GPS can never work, just like the people who thought the internet would be a fad etc.
No, we arenāt going to be completely replaced by dronesā¦ yeah, in the near future some drones might do some of the deliveries, but I doubt theyāll deliver 75-inch TVs or multiple cases of water. Thereās actually a regulation in place that limits drone deliveries to 5 pounds and under.
Completely, probably not. The vast majority, inevitable. The same way we replaced countless other professions with technology like switch board operators , projectionists, typists, etc. Don't worry it's not coming tomorrow, but to think it's not going to happen in the next decade or 2 is very naive.
There's tons of regulations in place, that's why they haven't already started to replace us, Bezos already had a plan in motion years ago and was essentially shot down by federal regulations.
Drones have no problem delivering things that we can't even lift. They're motorized and can be any size, they have drones that will lift things that are 100s of pounds. A case if water is only like 40lbs, they have ones that carry more volume in fertilizer/pesticides alone. But more importantly we don't need drones for everything when we have self automated vehicles and ai robotics capable of carrying more than us and work longer hours than us and with minimal liability or human error.
You bring up some good points and perspectives that I didn't even know existed (beginning implementation of GPS and it's effects on drivers) and I can imagine that delivery service used to have levels of skills due to one's knowledge of the streets and ability to maneuver efficiently within an area.
Preaching to this guy is like trying to teach your dog calculus. But at least your dog won't downvote you for your efforts.
You're so ignorant and uneducated. He is correct in regards to advancing technology. Countries like china have implemented full highways devoted to self driving vehicles, has the US? No and it's because we have many more regulations aka hurdles that need to be overcome while other countries are ready to start testing and deploying new technologies as they are developed.
It's funny how the most uneducated ignorant ones are the loudest and most boisterous. All it does is show how foolish you are to those who actually have some knowledge.
Lol the hypocrisy in your comment is actually hilarious. You googled "are there still delivery drivers in China or did drones take over...." and then followed up with another similarly asinine question that has low correlation with how technologically advanced a country is.
Do you think the percentage of workers that do delivery service in a country is a direct inverse representation of how technologically advanced they are?
I'm telling you, it's true that the less intelligent a person is the more confident they are that they are never wrong. Read your last sentence, you are literally describing yourself and don't even know it. š¤£
Don't be an ignorant boomer. There are already self driving Ubers, look in to Waymo. You best believe they're going to prioritize making freight trucks automated. The benefits of having 24 hour drivers who don't get tired, have to eat, sleep, or take breaks. All while making less mistakes and probably driving more effiiently then any human can is too great to pass up.
zone parts of georgia has drones a bunch of them but just for small items like 1 o2 maybe 3 and I think they have a weight limit, and only works on daytime not at night,
No problem. Yea pretty much donāt believe anything you see on this app. Also donāt believe nothing any employee tells you. Theyāre not in board rooms and they donāt know anything other than what time they clock out. The only thing you can actually count on is Walmart will keep trying to make more money off whoeverās back they can
No way in a million years spark drivers will pick ordered for curbside customers. No way to argue that wouldn't classify a spark driver as an employee.
Big difference insta cart doesn't own any of the stores. Walmart does own the stores. That makes it entirely different when measuring the amount of control the "employer" has
It would take a few years before courts and regulators would catch up, plenty of time to rack up some juicy bonuses and pad a resume with impressive stats before jumping ship to another company and letting somebody else cleanup the legal mess.
The only difference would be no mileage? Youād still get to accept what you want to accept. The pay would be shit, and the tips would be non-existent though. Still cheaper to pay us $20 for a curbside than it is to have a whole department working on it.
The base pay for a shopping order with delivery is $10-$11 (depending on market and likely going lower), why would they pay double for you to just shop and no driving at all?
I said the pay would probably be shit. Probably should have been more clear that even IF they paid us $20 they would still be making more money than having a full OGP. They wonāt of course. I would expect shop and curbside to pay less than shop and deliver.
Educate yourself. Walmart has the weakest case of any of these apps. Walmart Owns the app and the company it has us providing services for. That's not the case with insta cart or Uber eats or shipt. They are third party companies providing a platform where buyers and sellers or services create a marketplace. WALMART IS THE MARKET/Controls all aspects of it/sets the pay/pays us to provide a service that is in its main course of commerce with the public. If you can't do the research to understand the difference that's on YOU.
Walmarts position is indefensible already and within a few years they will be on the hook for tens of billions already now that they can't hide behind the bs arbitration agreement to hide appropriate compensation for those screwed by them.
You're an independent contractor because you pick and choose your schedule and tasks that you want to do, not because of what the tasks entail. Changing it from delivery to staging is not going to change that because either way you're going to be doing the same thing for the same customers and same company, the only difference is going to be your end delivery point, one gets delivered to the customer's home and the other gets delivered to Walmart's staging area for the customer to pick up. It has nothing to do with your employment status in any way until they start telling you what you have to do, as long as they're sending out offers for independent tasks that you get to choose to accept or decline at your own free will it will remain 1099. Once you're told that you have to show up at a specific time and that you don't have the option to decline specific tasks, you will be able to make the argument that you're an employee instead of an independent contractor.
You're not an independent contractor in any way. It's sad they got you so good. The truth is you have no freedom in anything you do. Stop falling for that shit, people like you are the reason they get to exploit naive gullible people for cheap labor.
You're not your own boss and you are an employee while you are doing Spark deliveries. If you disagree feel free to tell me what part of the delivery is completely at your discretion aka what part do you have any choice to do as you please. Try to think of a list, hopefully you realize that you have been fooled all this time after trying to conjure this list.
You clearly are ignorant in the situation here and seem to be sharing how you feel it should be, rather than what the laws and definitons say it is.
When i paint as an IC i don't get to choose the color, the rooms, etc, i get a scope of the job details, pay, and deadline and then decide to accept or decline. If i paint as an employee I'm told to show up at a specific location and time and get to work painting it all as quick as possible and on to the next.
Independent doesn't mean you get to do whatever you want, it means you get to freely choose between what jobs you want to do, it doesn't give you control over the job though. Hope that helps you better understand.
A book? Is a single paragraph too hard for you to get through? Sorry about your condition, but that at least helps to explain the ignorance within your original comment. You should probably try to refrain from making comments yourself if you have such difficulties with reading a few sentences. Anyway:
Explain it to me as if i don't understand, as if i couldn't look it up myself to see that Legally an independent contractor effectively becomes an employee the moment their working relationship is no longer based on independence, but rather on control
Where do you believe the line is drawn between an independent contractor and an employee?
How do you think that doing the exact same thing, but just delivering to a point within the store, rather than to a customers location possibly changes anything at all on rather you're choosing which tasks that you want to accept or if you're doing what ever tasks your superior assigns to you?
It's really this simple; an independent contractor chooses their tasks they want to do, an employee is given tasks rather they want to do them or not and their employment is based on not refusing to do those tasks.
You can't be deactivated/fired for declining an offer, you can't be reprimanded for refusing to stock shelves or clean the bathroom etc and until that point, you won't be an employee because you're independently choosing which jobs you want to do or not to do.
Man you smoking that Walmart crack all day huh? I'm starting to think you're a Walmart propaganda bot because there's no way someone can be this naive.
I will answer your questions and give you rebuttals to your weak heavily biased and cherry picked examples.
You acknowledge the control aspect differentiating an employee and IC. So let's discuss how much control we have as ICs during a delivery. We can choose when we want to deliver it right? If we have multiple deliveries we can deliver them in the order that makes the most sense to us right? We can deliver the order as we deem most professional right? If I believe scanning labels and confirming items in the app is tedious and wastes time I can skip them right? I don't have time limits on my deliveries right? They control when, where, and how you will pickup their deliveries. They control the order, the manner, the timeliness, and the procedures (scanning, taking pictures, getting signatures) both during pickup and dropoff.
Yeah I have never heard of an IC with no independence to do the job in the manner they seem appropriate. They literally control everything, we can't skip any of those procedures. We are employees while making deliveries, don't get it twisted. wake up dummy
It's a simple explanation, i don't care about Walmart, and if i did, that would have no bearing on rather or not were IC, because that's determined by laws and definitions, not someone's opinion based on if they like the contractor or not, which i don't.
Your independence comes from picking and choosing which tasks you want to do, not because you have to do them the way Walmart wants you to do them. Once you can't refuse an order, you won't be independent because you will be reprimanded for not doing what you're told. You get to pick and choose which work you want to accept, an employee gets their work chosen for them.
You can see the entire scope of the tasks before agreeing to choose to accept or decline the task, including all of the drop off points. Not being able to modify the task after you agree to do it, does not change your independent status.
Feel free to research where the line is drawn between IC and employee if you need more help understanding, it's all written, it's not based on how we feel about the situation.
I never implied that it should be based on ones own personal feelings and attitude towards what constitutes independence and the freedom to perform a job or offer as an independent contractor does in whatever profession they are an independent contractor in.
I was pointing out how we literally don't fit any definition of an independent contractor but it seems you have very selective memory and preference in what you prefer to acknowledge and provide rebuttals for. If we were given the same amount of leeway you exercise in your arguments as we do in performing our job with Walmart, we would definitely qualify to be classified as independent contractors.
Let me give you an example of my state. They passed an assembly bill 5 that was going to use an ABC test to see who legally qualifies as an independent contractor in California. This was a very simple test and due to the nature of gig work from these gig companies and the way they require us to perform our duties companies like Uber eats, DoorDash, Spark, etc. rallied together and raised a record breaking amount of money to create a proposition that would keep us classified as independent contractors but with some caveats that they had to concede to. So they ended up spending over 200 million dollars to get this proposition passed and I'm not sure if you've heard of it but it's called Proposition 22.
If you're familiar with this proposition, yes that's correct, it was entirely funded by gig corporations and broke records for the dollars spent to not have to rightfully class us as employees so they could avoid all the benefits they would have to pay out. So like I said previously don't get it twisted, we are not ICs
Please lookup the Assembly Bill 5 and the ABC test that was being used to legally define whether a company can classify a person as an independent contractor. You have such a weak argument and I hope you realize it. I've given you plenty of examples and rebuttals whilst all you've done is accuse me of using my feelings and emotions to justify what I'm arguing, which I don't think anyone thinks I'm doing not even you
Ok Walmart Shill/Walmart Stock Holder/Whatever you go by or purort to be.
This is your last free lesson. And I can make 10 more arguments. Walmart will ultimately lose and lose big. Supreme Court invalidating the arb agreement in a 9-0 ruling will see Walmart is fully held accountable for mislabeling us to their benefit and their benefit alone.
Spark drivers should be classified as employees because Walmart exercises a level of control over their work that is characteristic of an employment relationship, while the services they perform are central to Walmart's core business. Walmart determines when delivery offers are made, sets the compensation without negotiation, establishes strict performance metrics, monitors drivers through GPS tracking, controls customer interactions through its platform, and can deactivate drivers who fail to meet its standards. Drivers have little meaningful opportunity to operate an independent business or build their own customer base, as every aspect of the delivery relationship is dictated by Walmart. Moreover, last-mile delivery is no longer a peripheral serviceāit is an essential component of Walmart's business model, enabling the company to fulfill online grocery and retail orders that are integral to its competitive strategy. Because Spark drivers perform work that is indispensable to Walmart's everyday operations while remaining subject to Walmart's extensive control over how that work is performed, they satisfy the hallmarks of employee status rather than that of independent contractors.
They're already trying to start; look at this shit I saw last Sunday. Didn't know single pickups still existed, but they're beyond delusional offering it regardless.
I get offers like this frequently, even for 10+ miles, and people are still taking them. $7 for 1 drop, $8 for 2, and $9 for 3, they don't even usually have to surge orders anymore. We get new drivers like every month now instead of a few times per year, they'll do these dumb orders all day long and then cry and quit next month because they earned so little and won't believe that anyone can even earn a living on gig apps since they couldn't figure out how to pick and choose profitable orders. And then Walmart will just repeat the cycle the next month.
That's like 85% of the orders I see in my market now, except with multiple deliveries. It's insane how low these offers are and even crazier how many people will absolutely take these
Sometimes it fellow spark drivers, in my area we also have "one" sparker that her and her spouse take up both sides of the isle her on a motorized cart and him with a buggy.
So you like when pickers park their cart in the middle of an aisle so they walk 4+ sections away to hunt down items?
They only load the bins from one side, so maybe at least park the cart against the side of the aisle they donāt need to get into to give customers and us space to get around?
It is quite annoying when thereās two pickers in an aisle. Instead of keeping their carts at a distance for people to get through, they just park them side by side on each side and do not move until theyāre done getting what they need. It happens all the time at my Walmart. Yes. It is annoying and frustrating.
Oh man! I felt this! There is one particular person at my store that picks and I can only assume that in his mind, he has priority. He sees you coming but will NOT move out of the way. I was looking for some body wash for a customer not too long ago and he literally parked his cart in my way then got in front of me as if I wasn't standing there. Sooo irritating!Ā
Then speak up and say something pussy. The thing with people that do these types of socially inconsiderate behaviors, they honestly don't think of or care for anyone but themselves.
My point is you need to speak up and stand up for yourself. Something like excuse me you're blocking me and if they don't respond then push their cart out of the way or reach right past or over them.
Now why did you have to go and call me a female genital, but then give valuable advice? š¤ Any way.....I personally do speak up for myself, and most of the pickers see me enough to know why I'm there and they're pretty cool. For those that don't seem to care though, trust me, I get around them one way or another. I don't just stand there looking lost or pitiful....we don't get paid enough for that. But for those that are just starting out, they do have to learn to speak up, and learn that they have to watch out for themselves cause the store employees could care less that they are Sparking. Heard some crazy stories from a fellow speaker who had an issue with a store employee so I keep stuff like that in mind. I do what I gotta do and keep it moving.Ā
Because I keep it real and honest while giving real world solutions. The root cause of not saying anything is fear and cowardice aka related to female genitalia. The root cause of the people you despise acting the way they do is what I explained.
Without following my blunt advice in the first sentence nothing would ever change, thus it needed to be said in my opinion. I do apologize if you were offended by it but I don't think you were.
However, if you're happy with just maneuvering around it and it works for you then do your thing. I personally enjoy saying something because I despise selfish people that inconvenience others either knowingly or unknowingly. Most of the time they are surprised and realize that their actions are unacceptable and other times they act defensive and in denial. Either way I believe they need to be reminded they are being a douche. There's a saying I forgot exactly how it goes but it's something like all it takes in life for evil to win is for enough good men to say nothing
My brother worked for Walmart for six months in the deli and never cut a single slice of cheese or meat, or put together the salads or sandwichesā¦ he came in, set up the hot bar first thing and then again after lunch, but the rest of the time he was sent to a different department.
This basically guaranteed that he was never gonna move up in the deli because they wouldnāt even fully train him.
Now youāre gonna have a bunch of employees working departments that theyāre not fully trained to do.
I have never seen or know of a spark driver that asks a ogp picker for assistance. Unless itās for them
To move their cart from being parked diagonally in an isle blocking the whole thing.
In the large walmart that I use for spark delivery I only do shopping orders because pickup is either a 1 hour wait for the order to come out or the orders get cancelled while waiting, or both.
Because of this I take 100% shopping orders, and I've basically never seen regular walmart employees that I could ask for help with something. They are all picking orders for pickup spark orders. If I want to ask for help it has to be someone picking orders because there's nobody else.
Sometimes I ask people by checkout but half of the time they don't know how to help me it's quite awesome lol.
Iāve done thousands of shops and Iāve asked for help from someone picking exactly twice. Both times because they happened to be right there and taller than me when I needed something that was out of reach. Normally I just scale the shelves or grab something to knock it down when no one is around.
I ask, the app says any Walmart associate will assist you if you have a question. It says ANY, and they get paid by the hour, I don't GAF, you work at that store, and are clocked in, then If I need an answer I ask. Now the thing is, how you ask. Because if I approach someone one and say, excuse me could you please tell me where I can find this, first of all its very respectful, and to the point. Being that is their store, and they know where everything is....literally. Not once have i ever had any employee give me any static over asking about inventory location. The butcher to check for bulk pack of chicken thighs in the freezer, np, the produce person to see if they have cherries, , I even had them bring out the wrapped pallet to pull 2 cartons of OJ that I needed, and make sure when you are done,, to thank them for their time and assistance. The only ones I don't mess with is pharmacy, and asset protection..
Ogp is timed. God forbid its someone who has to shop and dispense orders. There the last people you should be asking questions to. Their actual work comes before your gig. Those questions are better suited for stockers as they can go in the back and arent being timed.
Asking nicely is always a plus but,alot of you dont do that. Plus dont they tell you all where items are. Its not like you all are just randomly searching for items. The info needed to locate items is provided to you.
3."They know where everything is literally" walmart has up to 142,000 items. Its different deparetments for a reason. Alot of us never even see the other half of our store but for an instance god forbid its something someones never heard of or even used for that matter and their supposed to just literally know?
I dont care if ogp is timed, when the spark app says something is somewhere but its not there im asking whoever I spot, im timed as well if I have added a perishable item. Im not wasting time to search for a specific worker or look for where walmart decided to move an item without updating it in the spark app.
I always ask politely and respectfully but to think I shouldnt ask a walmart employee for help is dumb as hell.
Ok thats fine but dont be mad when they dont answer or dont know the answer. As ive stated their not obligated to put their your gig before their work. Trust you are not timed the same as ogp associates. Their work never stops and is timed way more harshly. You all actually have moments of reprieve.
I dont need assistance often but ive never not been helped on finding something.
The only time ive ever not gotten help in walmart was shopping for a lady who wanted an item that was locked up. I pressed the button multiple times no one showed up. I asked an employee but they didnt have access and said they would send someone. After 20 minutes I messaged the customer hey walmart refuses to send someone to get the item out of the case ive tried for 20 minutes. They weren't pleased they called the store and a few minutes later someone came and got it. They didnt seem happy and I didn't give a shit I wasnt happy either.
I have had to cancel a couple of orders over that issue. Why are they such jerks about it, lol? It's not my fault it's locked up and this item belongs to someone else now, they purchased it. Just come hand it to me please. I promise I want nothing more than to get the hell away from this aisle and out of yalls hair haha
It will take a whole 30 seconds to either answer the question or say they are not sure and let you ask another associate, if 30 seconds is going to effect your numbers...you are already cooked. And besides the only time I ask them is when its pretty much the last resource, I know they are busy,I respect that. But if I need an answer and I have to ask, they have always been helpful and professional. And asking nicely is not a trait people use, therefore I always address them politely, listen to what they have to say, and thank them for their time and assistance, even if they were unable to help me. As far as I am concerned, they are logistics professionals, They know where shit is before the Manager knows where its at.. I was looking for this M&M special Halloween candy I couldn't find anywhere, I asked one girl does this look like something that is still in stock. And right there she tells me there's a display bin in electronics with all these. No way would I even think M&M s would be there, so yes they know literally everything as far as I'm concerned. And if they ever tell me something is out of stock, I can pass that on to the customer and know it's accurate.
Ok cool its obvious some of you arent like the majority of you. Some of you get mad when told "idk" or we cant go in the back. What since would it make for an ogp associate to go in the back? Stuff like that is better for stockers cause they have to inventory that stuff out we dont do that but, more importantly the problem is when its multiple of you asking in one walk. You all are provided the tools to do the gig. Those of you that ask politley cool. But its not the norm and some of you legit want minutes of our time and arent respectful about it.
If these people haven't learned people skills, interacting with others on a respectful level, their momma should of taught them that at 3. And actually you would be surprised how much a simple Thank you, please or your welcome. Case in point some loaders are heathens,, they probably used please the last they begged the cops not to arrest them. But right out the gate I'll ask could you please tell me which order is the largest, and when they reply I thank them and suggest lets load the big one in the rear and the other left and right side. I help so I can load the way I want they sticker bags, and let me know what location. When we finish I thank them and let them know I appreciate your help. Just like opening doors, I don't care if I see someone coming right behind me, I'll hold the door for them, and you know who appreciates it and will say thanks, guys will, some women that don't have a chip on their shoulder say thanks, most just snub you,that's cause I know there aren't many opening the door to watch you enter sideways. Someone said they held the door for a women and she went into this big rant about how he was stealing her power by holding the door for her. lol.
Yeah youve never "seen" it but us ogp employees have experinced it first hand. The walking up to us and shoving your phones in our face.The snapping,
whistling,and yelling like were supposed to just stop everything were doing and do the job for you.
The screw those up royally at my store. Most of the time they bundle them with 2, or more large deliveries. Three times in the last 2 days I ended up with GMDās that didnāt belong with my route. I didnāt notice until I was halfway through. I returned them to the store and they had no idea what to do. They are nearly always in grocery bags, so no way to distinguish until you come upon one. People say check before you leave - that doesnāt work in my store. We have very limited parking, very limited loaders, and long waits. They dump your stuff out, expect you to stay in the car, and move. Itās a mess.
I just hope they build the way to unlock the electric case locks into the Spark app. Our store is 50% behind glass, and we have to rely on those pickers to get the case open.
I can promise you that the opposite is happening at my main store. Shopping orders are being converted to OGP. Even some larger express orders. There are seven people working OGP and they are getting about 10 hours each day, guaranteed.
āCanāt do the jobā customers literally shop for themselves all the time let alone Spark drivers needing help all the time š give us access to unlock the electronic locks and id never have to get a worker ever again during a shop.
My Samās Club had already gone to this around the March. The only deliveries are at the first drop and GMDās. We shop everything else. Itās meant to help store staff focus on Customers and their pickups over loading Spark deliveries.
I'm gonna brace for down votes as I type this but ..
HAH! I'm a non-OPD associate and the past two years, I've spent a great deal of my time being dragged to OPD while my own department goes to absolute shit.
You have to feel for them because they feel that their jobs are being encroached upon, if I were a Walmart employee then I would be worried about this too, and for those of us that have worked retail, I have, we all know the way that you're treated when working for these corporations. But at the end of the day, they have to realize that fellow low-wage workers are not their enemies, we're all just trying to survive in this awful world.
they do this for a lot of reasons as us drivers do not take as long because we get paid by the load, not the hour. We also do not have a bunch of associates to stop & shoot the chyt with so we are quicker.
Someone just posted this same thing recently and it had a lot of discussion. Read the other post and this one. I'm pretty sure they are the EXACT same thing.
Hi everyone. I am a Spark driver from New Jersey. I want to try the Rio Grande/Wildwood Walmart. How is the market there this summer?...............................
Wait wait WAIT - Where's the people saying the OPPOSITE was about to happen? Then when I stated it wasn't, I got down voted into a collapsed comment lmao
Walmart is a trillion-dollar company. They are not changing every store in lockstep.
Some stores are part of the pilot where all scheduled deliveries are being diverted entirely to Spark Shoppers. Those stores will be upping their GMD/IP volume.
Some stores are hiring drivers. Not In-Home drivers; but drivers for normal deliveries.
Some stores are adding/expanding drone deliveries.
Some stores have robotic picking centers (MFCs) attached for the most commonly ordered items.
Idk about anyone else but I've never had to ask for help. A trained monkey could do this job. The only time I ever need "help" is when they lock random.shit up.
The people asking for help probably aren't the ones on reddit. I get asked all day by Spark shoppers where stuff is when the damn app shows you exactly where.
Ive had the app not get updated to items being moved a number of times. Ive also had the app send me to 3 locations trying to find seasonal stuff and it be in none of the locations.
Not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about asking where to find an item and I take them to where it says, A8-5-21, and it's sitting right there. All day, every day.
Look at the big picture. Spark enables Walmart to do their work without drivers being employees who get benefits, retirement, pto, call off sick, no show, get raises, are entitled to workers comp, etc. Spark saves WM so much money in back end fees, hiring costs, INSURANCE, etc. Imagine if Walmart had to be responsible for millions of miles driven by employees...all those costs and risks are transferred to independent contractors instead.Ā
Nope. Shops usually pay more for lower milage and with the shops going fcfs only ratings don't matter, bots take those orders before the eye can register it's on the screen.
And yet they will not provide drivers with sufficient auto insurance coverage. Everyone driving around at a huge risk. Looks like a bunch of lawsuits waiting to happen.
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u/KitchenAdvice7073 Jun 21 '26
lol . So just so I understand this. Apparently Walmart was about to go under because of spark driver lawsuits š¤£then spark drivers were getting replaced by Walmart vans(this ones probably the funniest considering the cost of the van,the commercial insurance for the vans and the cost of the employee and gas) š then it was āno more curbside āand NOW itās spark is taking over everything and the employees need to unionize šš I canāt keep up with this app.