Management Interview Of A Walmart Store Manager

When told to do a management interview, I thought a little bit before I asked someone to do the interview. I wanted to do the interview with someone with multiple experience, and possible someone I worked with. I then asked Dan Rogers, store manager of the Willmar Wal-Mart, because I had worked with him for two years and was someone that I could follow and learn from.

Dan is the store manager of Wal-Mart in Willmar, Minnesota; He has been with them for 10 years. Dan's duties consist of befriending some 150+ workers, going through documents and papers, check over the day to day operations, make sure the store resides in a clean and orderly manner, dealing with customers and employees, delegate, and also get feedback from employees and the district managers as well as others. Dan has been in the Central Minnesota area his whole life. He was a graduate from New London Spicer High school with high aspirations of going to college. He then got a job at a local grocery store while attending Willmar Vocational school (which is now Ridgewater College) for sales and management. He continued working at the grocery store while attending school. When his two years of school where done he had planned

to go on and get his Bachelors in management but the store manager of the grocery store had asked him to stay and become his assistant manager because he felt he would retire in a few years and thought Dan would be a perfect fit for his job. With him working so hard for the Grocery store he had moved up the latter quickly so he stayed and became the assistant. Two and half years later Dan got his shot at the Store manager's job after the other one had retired. Dan was the store manager there for 15 years. He told me it was a great experience and a wonderful opportunity but being in a smaller town and having a family he needed more. The Willmar Wal-Mart had been open for about five years and Dan had only heard good things he was hired there as an assistant manager this was before the new rules Wal-Mart has about managers having training. He was quickly moved up to store manager because the store manager was going on to be a district manager and only one other assistant manager had been there longer and he didn't want to be store manager. So Dan had told me it was a long journey with some good luck and good fortune but he loves what he does now.

The thing that Dan dislikes most about his job would have to be dealing with rude customers. This is something that I would agree with Dan because I worked there as well and this is one thing that I think all Wal-Mart employees will deal with, Mr. Rogers agreed with me. He had told me that it wouldn't be a bad thing but it seems to happen a lot. Dan then went on to tell me why he felt that customers do that and his reason is because everyone thinks that Wal-Mart makes so much money that they can help a customer out and carry every product know to man and to give them a good deal on everything. Wal-Mart has so many employees and already has some of the lowest prices that he wished people would just help him out and goes easier on him and his employees but he understands that it comes with the job. Dan told me that the thing he likes the most would have to be watching some of his younger employees grow with the company.

He told me that it helps him remember where he came from and how hard he had to work. He likes to help them emerge as leaders in his Wal-Mart so that the can go on to bigger and better things then him if they wish. He also said that it feels good if some of his old employees come back to inform him of what they are doing now and where they want to go.

Probably one of the biggest changes he said he had to make was cleanliness. Because the store is 15 years old it need a lot of work, like painting walls, shelves, and polls, changing tiles and consistently doing these when noticed that it needs to be done. This was a timely process in the beginning because many people had to work hard to accomplish one goal for the store. Everyone had to put their time in while still doing their daily tasks as usual. Once the initial cleaning was