A senior writer for Wired went undercover as an entry level employee at Wal-Mart and wrote about his experience in the NY Post.
I especially liked this part:
On average, anyone walking into Wal-Mart is likely to spend more than $200,000 at the store during the rest of his life. Therefore, any clueless employee who alienates that customer will cost the store around a quarter-million dollars. “If we don’t remember that our customers are in charge,” our trainer warned us, “we turn into Kmart.” She made that sound like devolving into some lesser being – a toad, maybe, or an ameba.
Here is the link: Undercover at Wal-Mart