Kate Leinbach

Hey, it's Kate. We're off for President's Day, but we wanted to share an episode we made last year about U.S. retail giant Walmart. In this episode, we look at how Walmart compensates some of its store managers with bonuses, stock options, and huge six-figure salaries. We followed one manager to see why the job demands such high pay and perks.

This episode was originally published last May. Since then, Walmart's top-performing store managers can now make even more, over $600,000 a year. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. Thanks for listening. We'll be back Tuesday with a new episode.

Walmart has a manager for each of its 4,600 US stores, and some of them can now make more than $400,000 a year because the company is offering them bigger bonuses, higher salaries, and stock options.

How would you describe a day in the life of Nicole?

Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Kate Leinbach. Coming up on the show, the hectic, unpredictable, and increasingly well-paid job of a Walmart store manager.

A Walmart store manager is basically running a massive business inside an even more massive business. Its super centers, on average, generate more than $100 million in sales. And its store managers tend to be homegrown, like Nicole Hart. I spoke to Nicole from her office. How much time during the day do you spend in your office?

What are you doing the rest of the time?

And at the end of the day, how many steps will you have walked?

So would you mind telling us like how you got started working at Walmart?

Part-time, yeah. Was that enough to support?

No.

When did you decide you wanted to be a store manager?

It's about 7 in the morning at a Walmart outside of Waco, Texas, and Nicole Hart is getting the download from her night manager.

Nicole's been running the Supercenter in Bellmead, Texas, for four years. She has to juggle managing her staff of more than 300, coordinating inventory, interacting with customers, and making decisions on the fly. That was all on display when our colleague Sarah spent the day with her.

And on that particular day, something unexpected happened with a customer who had a camera rolling.

Can we get some Snoop cereal on the shelf?

The night manager told her that some people didn't show up for their shifts overnight, and the letter T on the Walmart sign outside is burnt out. Those are things that Nicole would have to deal with that day. But first, she takes a lap around the store.

And now, Nicole is getting paid more. Last year, her total income was $240,000, about half of that from bonuses. Walmart put out this statement announcing higher pay for store managers and bigger bonuses. Like, when you heard that, what did you think?

Would it be helpful if that investment was going to your associates?

And for Nicole to get that money, she's got targets to meet. That's next. Meeting sales goals is a crucial part of Nicole's job, and she needs to rally her more than 300 employees to get there. When Sarah visited, she went to Nicole's daily staff meeting, which Nicole kicked off by congratulating her team on a strong month of sales.

On this day, Nicole had an addition to her morning routine. Our colleague, Sarah Nossauer. Sarah was going to follow Nicole around to try to understand her job. Sarah became interested in managers like Nicole when she saw a press release Walmart published about raising their pay. What stood out to you in that release?

There's a new challenge for Nicole that doesn't have to do with the in-store experience. It has to do with Walmart's push into online shopping. What proportion of your store's sales come from online orders?

Is that on top of what existing sales had been? Wow.

You have to make sure your store looks good. You have to manage people. It is a lot. Not to mention like understanding your shoppers, what they want, where their price points are. What would you say is the hardest part of your job?

And what are you going to do after this meeting?

Do you think Nicole Hart is a typical Walmart store manager or is she exceptional in some way?

This is a job where a person doesn't have to have a college degree. They can make potentially $400,000. What does that say to you about the labor market?