Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) was supposed to be a winner in the economic slide as the “trade down” shopping destination. It goes without saying that Wal-Mart has more than a few critics. Now it looks like it will get a few more employee relations problems. The reason: LAYOFFS.
The Arkansas Democrat Gazette has reported that Wal-Mart has started layoffs to to the tune of 700 to 800 jobs in the Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters. The paper reports that the cuts are coming in merchandising, real estate, marketing, support, and some corporate functions. It also notes that it plans to move more employees to New York for its apparel operations.
For awhile there it almost seemed like it was going to be recession proof, but considering that Walmart has no respect for it’s workers it wouldn’t surprise me if they’d just go ahead and dump them even at the slightest whiff of a decrease in profits. After all, it’s not like they bother putting any investment in their work force.
Better to be unemployed than work for wal-mart! huzzah!
And even though they are doing well business-wise, they are cutting people. That’s probably a great sign of why they are so successful. That plus the fact that so many shoppers (my family) are loyal shoppers.
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p>Wal-Mart haters should continue to shop in other stores and pay more for goods to prove their points and it helps the economy.
Suddenly, the right-wing opposition to Obama’s stimulus package makes so much sense! Some people actually don’t believe having people working is a worthy goal. Of course, they will still complain about people mooching off the taxpayer through unemployment and welfare. If Wal-Mart has to cut jobs I’m glad they are at least cutting from corporate HQ rather than minimum-wage associates.