Posted on 10/01/2015 2:12:01 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) is planning to lay off hundreds of people at its headquarters in Arkansas as part of the retail giant's efforts to pare costs, people familiar with the matter said.
Fewer than 500 employees are expected to lose their jobs and an announcement could be made as early as this Friday, according to one of sources, who declined to be named because the move had not been made public.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
I saw an analysis of the causes of job loss. By far the largest contributor was technology. At one of my jobs with a government contactor, I saw ways to vastly cut down the work load using software we already owned. I approached my boss with a plan and he said, “well, okay, but you’ll be the first one I lay off.”
That was about three years before sequestration. They have since laid off about 70% of their work force. But they had the capability to implement changes that would have drastically reduced the cost of their product and they could then have implemented an attrition plan and gotten to the same figure while maintaining their business and product line. Instead, they wanted the government to know how hurt they were. The last thing they wanted was to decrease their overhead costs and thus affect the bonus on all future contracts. Very short sighted.
Oh s**t! from NW Arkansas. Hope they don’t also hit SAM’S CLUB!
Oh wait! I’m retired and have never worked for the Walmart Group! Better get the spare bedroom ready for out of work family members!
On second thought, I will fill the spare with junk and say “Sorry, I can’t help you! Hit the road!”
Another sign of our “booming” economy. No doubt US government statistics will show a decline in the unemployment rate and an uptick in the number of people voluntarily exiting the labor force.
In reality it demonstrates the adverse impact of government intervention in the marketplace. The feds and liberal activists insisted Wal-Mart pay higher than market wages for unskilled labor and give employees better medical benefits. The consequence is the company’s cost went up and it is having to reduce expenses. Labor is a variable cost, hence labor costs can be reduced by shedding full time employees and having part time employees work fewer hours.
Liberals won the fight with Wal-Mart and the employees are paying the price, not the self congratulating wine and cheese crowd at the parties in Manhattan and Georgetown this weekend.
I wonder where they can possibly go in NW Arkansas to find another job. From all the Mexican flags I saw on a recent trip to that area the Mexicans now own Springdale.
It is hard to believe but the first Mexicans were imported into this area by the Chicken Men who used to have this area in an economic stranglehold. You worked for their agricultural starvation wages or you did not work.
When Sam Walton started Walmart wages were better and many people went to work for him. One of the accountants for the chicken Men found they could give their workers a raise and not affect the bottom line, the chicken men absolutely REFUSED to do it! They then began to import legal Mexicans back around 1968 to do the work.
The children of those Mexicans decided not to work for starvation wages and went to work for Walmart so the Chicken Men imported South Sea Islanders, H’mong from SE Asia, and now Somalis to do the work.
We will see what happens to these laid off workers from Walmart. Often Walmart will openother jobs for them.
That’s retail. When I worked in that business my district manager used to lay awake nights trying to think of ways to cut one $3.35 per hour cashier out of the schedule each week.
$3.35 x 4 hrs. x 800 stores begins to add up to real money.
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