Walmart closing 63 Sam's Club stores and laying off thousands of workers

Mythical Truth

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Walmart is abruptly closing 63 Sam's Club stores and laying off thousands of workers
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Sam's Club is closing stores. AP

  • Walmart is abruptly closing 63 Sam's Club locations across the US, the company told Business Insider on Thursday. Some stores have already closed; others will close within weeks.
  • Many employees were not informed of the closings ahead of time.
  • Ten of the closed stores will be turned into e-commerce distribution centers.

Walmart is closing 63 Sam's Club stores across the US, the company told Business Insider on Thursday afternoon, after reports of abrupt store closings began to emerge.

Sam's Club has not said how many employees are losing their jobs. Each Sam's Club warehouse employs about 175 people, meaning more than 11,000 people could be impacted.

In some cases, employees were not told their store had closed before showing up to work on Thursday. Those employees learned their store would be closing when they found the store's doors locked and a notice announcing the closing, according to reports. At some stores, employees were turned away by police officers, Sam's Club workers told Business Insider.

Ten of the affected stores will be turned into e-commerce distribution centers, and employees of those stores will have the opportunity to reapply for positions at those locations, a Walmart official said.

The remaining stores will stay open for several weeks before closing permanently. All of the affected stores were scrubbed from the Sam's Club website on Thursday morning.

Sam's Club CEO John Furner notified employees of the closures in a company-wide email sent Thursday.

"After a thorough review, it became clear we had built clubs in some locations that impacted other clubs, and where population had not grown as anticipated," Furner said in the email. "We will be closing some clubs, and we notified them today. We'll convert some of them into eCommerce fulfillment centers — to better serve the growing number of members shopping with us online and continue scaling the SamsClub.com business."

Sam's Club membership fees — which cost $45 annually — will be refunded to customers affected by the closings, a Walmart official said.

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 closings came on the same day Walmart announced plans to raise starting hourly wages to $11, expand employee benefits, and offer workers bonuses of up to $1,000.

Some Sam's Club employees were informed of the closings via notices that were sent through FedEx on Thursday.

"FedEx showed up at my door with a package from Sam's Club and I was thinking that maybe it was my W-2," an employee of a Sacramento, California Sam's Club told Business Insider. "It was a letter saying they are closing down... I'm unsure of what to do I have a baby and a mentally sick mother. I'm lost. I'm heartbroken. I'm scared."

Three of the closures are in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico.

"The Barceloneta, Puerto Rico store closed without notice — over 950 people without jobs," Eliezer Cabrera, a Sam's Club shopper, told Business Insider. "This is the last thing Puerto Rico needed after Hurricane Maria devastated the island."

Here's a list of closings rounded up from local media reports and Sam's Club employees who contacted Business Insider. The list will be updated as we learn of additional locations.

  • 8801 Old Seward Hwy, Anchorage, AK 99515
  • 1074 N Muldoon Rd, Anchorage, AK 99504
  • 48 College Rd, Fairbanks, AK 99701
  • 3900 Grants Mill Rd, Irondale, AL 35210
  • 2425 E Florence Blvd, Casa Grande, AZ 85194
  • 5757 E State Route 69, Prescott Valley, AZ 86314
  • 1375 S Arizona Ave, Chandler, AZ 85286
  • 15255 N Northsight Blvd, Scottsdale, AZ 85260
  • 3360 El Camino Ave, Sacramento, CA 95821
  • 17835 Gale Ave, City of Industry, CA 91748
  • 12540 Beach Blvd, Stanton, CA 90680
  • 12920 Foothill Blvd, Sylmar, CA 91342
  • 69 Pavilions Dr, Manchester, CT 06042
  • 2 Boston Post Rd, Orange, CT 06477
  • 355 FL-436, Fern Park, FL 32730
  • 7233 N Seacrest Blvd, Lantana, FL 33462
  • 5135 S Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa, FL 33611
  • 2994 Turner Hill Rd, Lithonia, GA 30038
  • 501 N Randall Rd, Batavia, IL 60510
  • 21430 S Cicero Ave, Matteson, IL 60443
  • 6600 44th Ave, Moline, IL 61265
  • 808 S Illinois Rte 59, Naperville, IL 60540
  • 900 S Barrington Rd, Streamwood, IL 60107
  • 1055 McHenry Rd, Wheeling, IL 60090
  • 460 S Weber Rd, Romeoville, IL 60446
  • 3015 W 86th St, Indianapolis, IN 46268
  • 10859 E Washington St, Indianapolis, IN 46229
  • 4024 Elkhart Rd #1, Goshen, IN 46526
  • 9598 Cortana Pl, Baton Rouge, LA 70815
  • 9750 Reisterstown Rd, Owings Mills, MD 21117
  • 1 Tobias Boland Way, Worcester, MA 01607
  • 340 E. Edgewood Boulevard, Lansing, MI 48911
  • 32625 Northwestern Hwy, Farmington Hills, MI 48334
  • 3745 Louisiana Ave S, St Louis Park, MN 55426
  • 2800 27th Ave S, Moorhead, MN 56560
  • 11 Batchelder Rd, Seabrook, NH 03874
  • 81 International Dr S, Budd Lake, NJ 07828
  • 1900 E Linden Ave, Linden, NJ 07036
  • 301 Nassau Park Boulevard, Princeton, NJ 08540
  • 2649 Erie Blvd E, Syracuse, NY 13224
  • 720 Fairmount Ave, Jamestown, NY 14701
  • 700 Elmridge Center Dr, Rochester, NY 14626
  • 1600 Marketplace Dr, Rochester, NY 14623
  • 5085 Dawn Dr, Lumberton, NC 28360
  • 1101 Shiloh Glenn Dr, Morrisville, NC 27560
  • 4825 Marburg Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45209
  • 9570 Fields Ertel Rd, Loveland, OH 45140
  • 1145 Carr 2, Bo Florida Afuera, Barceloneta, 00617, Puerto Rico
  • Carr 830, Bayamón, Puerto Rico, 00957
  • Carr 3 Km 82 Bo Junquitos, Humacao, 00741, Puerto Rico
  • 615 Old Hickory Blvd, Nashville, TN 37209
  • 1805 Getwell Rd, Memphis, TN 38111
  • 1615 S Loop W, Houston, TX 77054
  • 13331 Westheimer Rd, Houston, TX 77077
  • 22296 Market Place Dr, New Caney, TX 77357
  • 12919 San Pedro Ave, San Antonio, TX 78216
  • 741 E Little Creek Rd, Norfolk, VA 23518
  • 4571 S Laburnum Ave, Richmond, VA 23231
  • 901 S Grady Way, Renton, WA 98057
  • 1101 Outlet Collection Way, Auburn, WA 98001
  • 7050 Watts Rd, Madison, WI 53719
  • 1540 S 108th St, West Allis, WI 53214
  • 13550 Aurora Ave N, Seattle, WA 98133
http://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-suddenly-closes-sams-club-stores-2018-1
 

BoBurnz

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Weren't they just hyping up an increase in worker pay and benefits???
They're hoping the PR from that will offset this.

It's ridiculous really, they're trying to use the tax cuts as a PR move like they weren't planning the pay increase since late 2016, and because the average person is a god damn idiot, they'll lap it up and praise god emperor trump.
 
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