I submitted my resume online, and the next day was phoned by the store hiring manager. After a few questions ("Tell me about a time, at work or school, when you had to deal with a hostile situation?", "What is your major strength, and your major weakness?" etc), I was scheduled for a group interview a few days later.
I arrived about ten minutes early, and was the first one in my group to arrive. Everyone else was dressed very casually (Denim shorts, flip flops, tank tops, hoodies etc) and so I felt a little overdressed in my blouse and dress pants. We were ushered into the 'training room' and the training session was conducted by the produce manager, despite everyone in the group applying for different positions.
We began by being paired up and handed cards with questions on them meant for us to get to know our partner ('Why do you want to work here?", "Tell me your favourite food?", "What's your favourite TV show?"). Then we went around the group, telling everyone else about our partner and what we learned about them. We then were handed business cards with questions on them about working at Wal-Mart ("What do you pay?", "What is the profit sharing program?" etc) and went around the group asking them to the manager. Finally, we were grouped off and handed a card with a scenario (A team member is training a new hire wrong and not following the training manual, what is the problem and solution here?) and went around the room talking about our situation.
After that, eight managers from the store (Store co-manager, electronics manager, customer service manager etc) came in and conducted one minute interviews with everyone. They asked a question ("Describe a time when you went above and beyond your job?", "What would you do if you saw a co-worker stealing?" etc) and them moved onto the next applicant.
After that, we were dismissed and told the managers would go over our interview answers, group activity and 'behavioural activity' and phone us within 48 hours.
I found the process bizarre, and very haphazard. The person training us, the produce manager, told us he had 'never done this' before and spent the entire time reading from a manual. When the eight store managers arrived for the quick interviews, they seemed surprised to be there and ill-prepared. I thought a corporation as large as Wal-Mart would have a very organized system, but apparently not. Also, the group was kept waiting 10 minutes after our scheduled starting time and spent 10 minutes waiting for all the store managers to arrive - annoying!
There wasn't really a chance to make an impression, since none of the Wal-Mart staff who interviewed me actually had a discussion with me. I would provide an answer to their question ("Give me a time when..." etc), they would write it down and then move on to the next applicant. With so many faces, I'm not sure if when they dicuss the applicants they can recall who is who.
A few notes for potential interviewers. Despite the position you may have applied for, the interview does not deal at all with this. Those details are sorted out once you have been called back and go in for training, so don't worry about that sort of stuff. Like I said, the dress code (Among both interviewers and staff. Example - one store manager was wearing a pair of yoga capris, another one was wearing a blouse and pencil skirt) seems to be 'anything goes', so don't worry too much about your outfit. Be prepared for a lot of repetitive questions about customer service, working with others and your work ethic. The questions aren't difficult, just be ready to repeat yourself. Also be prepared to be there for quite a while, the whole thing lasted two hours for my group.