Retail giant Wal-Mart to cut jobs

Jan 26 2010 by Iain Laing, The Journal

RETAIL giant Wal-Mart is cutting 11,200 jobs at its Sam's Club warehouse chain in the US.

Most of the job cuts will be among staff operating in-store promotions which the company is outsourcing.

Last November, Mike Duke, Wal-Mart’s chief executive, said that the trading environment for the whole group continued to be “difficult”. And the company, which employs about 110,000 staff across 600 stores, is now outsourcing in-store promotions and product sampling to marketing company Shopper Events to try to attract more customers.

Sam’s has worked to win customers from rival warehouse stores such as Costco Wholesale by offering everyday goods like food and health and beauty items, and reducing its furniture and clothing offer.

But revenue at Sam’s slipped nearly 1% to £7 billion in the last quarter, while Wal-Mart stores reported a 1.2% sales increase to £38 billion. Earlier this month, Wal-Mart Stores closed 10 underperforming Sam’s Club locations, with 1,500 job losses.

Sam’s chief executive Brian Cornell said the move to outsource promotions was “not a cost cutting measure. It’s really an investment in enhancing our demo programme.”

Shopper Events plans to hire “roughly the same number of people” being cut, and Sam’s workers are invited to apply for those positions.