Walmart Abruptly Closing 260 Sam’s Club Stores, Firing Thousands on Same Day it Raised Minimum Wages
Wal-Mart was quick to make a media splash with the news that it was raising the starting hourly wages to $11/hour, expanding employee benefits and offering worker bonuses of up to $1000 in response to the Trump tax cuts; it was far more covert, however, with the news that on the very same day it was also closing hundreds of Sam’s Club stores nationwide and laying off thousands of workers according to numerous media reports.
Jessica Buckner, an audit team lead at a Sam’s Club location in Anchorage, told local TV station KTVA that all Alaska stores are closing as part of a larger downsizing across the U.S. “From what I heard, there’s over 260 stores that have been closed down,” she said according to CBS News.
The wholesale clubs’ official closure date is Jan. 26, Buckner said.
The closures also affect stores in New Jersey, upstate New York, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. In some locations, per social media, people showed up to work only to be told that their location was closing, with nearly no advance notice.
Sam’s Club shutdown? Employees at this S Loop store tell me they showed up to work and were told store is closed effective today. Sign on door says same thing. Hearing other stores also affected. Waiting on answers from parent company, Walmart #khou11 pic.twitter.com/RtbY7EhiIK
— Jason Miles (@JMilesKHOU) January 11, 2018
The chain, which competes with Costco , has more than 650 locations employing more than 100,000 people, with an average of 175 employees per store, according to the company.
No formal announcement was posted Thursday morning by Sam’s Club, but the company acknowledged the closures on Twitter with a general statement.
After a thorough review of our existing portfolio, we’ve decided to close a series of clubs and better align our locations with our strategy. Closing clubs is never easy and we’re committed to working with impacted members and associates through this transition.
— Sam’s Club (@SamsClub) January 11, 2018
The company drew criticism from people on Twitter who objected to the lack of notice about the closings.
My problem isn’t with you closing stores. It’s closing stores without telling the employees. How would you, as a social media rep, like to come in to work tomorrow and find out you were fired?
— YourMCAdmin (@YourMCAdmin) January 11, 2018
And yes, we will repeat it because it bears repeating: the closures come on the same day that Walmart announced it was raising its minimum wage to $11 per hour.
Same day Walmart raises worker wage to $11 “due to tax bill”, Sam’s Club announces 419 Hoosier workers are losing their jobs.
— Stephen Terrell (@StephenTerrell) January 11, 2018
Meanwhile, Gordon Haskett analyst Chuck Grom calculated that Wal-Mart’s wage investment is just 15% of the tax gain. According to Haskett, “Wal-Mart may see tax rate of ~23% in FY19 (year ended Jan. 2019) vs current 32%, which would provide $2b windfall”. As such, he adds, the “labor investment of ~$300m represents just 15% of total; assumes a similar amount will go toward investments in price.”
What will the company use the rest of the money on: why higher dividend payments and accelerated buybacks of course.
Oh, and free advertising: “with WMT being first retailer “out of the gate,” it should get some “free media.”
Source: http://silveristhenew.com/2018/01/11/walmart-abruptly-closing-260-sams-club-stores-firing-thousands-on-same-day-it-raised-minimum-wages/
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Nothing to see here. Goyim, please move along.
Time to make room for the Goy. Does that piss yogurt off?
2 stores were closed in AZ too. When you live in an Employment at Will state, employers can do that and It totally sucks. I feel for those poor workers! As a contract worker I lost my job via text at the end of a work day after 3 years of busting my butt. “Don’t come back, the contract is ended”. No reason, no notice, nothing.
To all employees: be only as loyal to your company as your company is to you! And DON’T shop at Walmart!
Why the hell is somebody that works a dead end retail job complaining? There’s thousands of other retail stores out there that are probably hiring, pick one you retards. Maybe if you had useful job skills, a college education, or a clean criminal record you would have better job opportunities.
Wonder if they will be converting the closed Sam’s Club buildings and locations into FEMA centers?
My first thoughts ….with the times we are living in might be needing the extra space sooner than later to house all of the unruly.
LOL!!! I feel sorry for you.
If the big wigs in large companies took pay cuts they wouldn’t have to close sites or fire tons of employees. Unfortunately the majority of the public is too stupid to actually carry out a boycott to force change in any of these companies.
Walmart is not laying off thousands of employees. That would imply the employees had some notice. This is cold fires, people going to work in the morning to find out they no longer have a job. It shows nothing but contempt and disrespect for the people who made the Walls billionaires.
Capitalism.
Love it or leave it.
So what will all these ‘vacan’t store warehouses be used for??????????????? That’s the real question.
probably they’ll be housing the homeless that were picked up in illegal tent cities
The creator of heaven and Earth support him.What and Who either matter! :
Bullshit; Walmart knows years ahead what the plan is. You are a shill…..
No question about this. There are HUGE logistics in a corporation shutting the doors to a business.
There are plenty of regulations on the books for them to need to prepare.
If they had shut down ALL the stores and ceased operation altogether, that would be a different situation.
It is also obvious they are not ceasing operation as an entity. If so, they would have had one of those “mark everything up to list price and have a GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE EVERYTHING 20% OFF” sales.
If they only close some stores, the stock simply gets moved to a different store.