Can Wal-Mart Repair Its Image?

It seems that Wal-Mart is getting a bad image, and that shoppers are leaving them and heading to other retailers.

According to this story from Bloomberg and Yahoo! Finance, empty shelves and poor customer service is are common-enough an occurrences that people are beginning to avoid the mega-store.

I was forced into the Wal-Mart on Pinhook the other day (it's a long story), and I told myself "give them another chance."  I counted 5 baskets deep in the shortest checkout line.  Personally, never again.  I would much rather pay a few dollars more and bring my business to NuNu's or Heleaux's (or another LOCAL store) where they know my name and treat me like a customer, not a number.

The article mentions, other than empty shelves (lack of employees to do the job) and poor customer service (lack of employees to assist customers), long checkout lines (again, lack of employees) as main reasons people are no longer shopping at Wal-Mart (or still do, but are aggravated by these conditions).

I encourage you to read the whole article and tell me what you think!  Do you experience any of these problems at YOUR Wal-Mart?  What's your favorite store??

(Via Yahoo!)