America is “winning” so much these days it can sometimes feel like we are spinning around and around the toilet bowl of civilization! U S A! U S A! Big box behemoth and duplicitous self-promoter Walmart is back at it. Last month Walmart announced that they were giving everybody wage increases—because of the proposed Republican tax giveaway. It was bullshit of course, and something they were going to need to do in the hopes of stemming the tide of activism and workers asking for much bigger wage increases. They coupled this “exciting” news by forgetting to publicize that they were also going to be closing 63 Sam’s Club stores, excising more than 10,000 jobs in the process. Today, the Wall Street Journal reports, with its most delicate headline to date, that Walmart will begin a new round of layoffs. The report, titled “Walmart to Trim Store Management Ranks,” is awash with all of the optimism a rising stock price brings to the Journal.
The retailer this week is eliminating two department manager positions in some of its 4,700 U.S. stores, including managers who oversee cellphone departments and online-grocery pickup areas, according to a person familiar with the plans.
For any “deplorables” amongst us, using my second grade addition skills, that is roughly 9,400 jobs in management—usually a position where one is making more than minimum wage—that will be gone. Business Insider reminds everyone exactly how much winning has been going on at Walmart in this brand new 2018.
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The new round of cuts comes one month after the retailer said it was removing 3,500 salaried co-managers and adding 1,700 lower-paid assistant store managers. Walmart also said last month that it was closing 63 Sam's Club stores in a move that would impact roughly 9,400 employees.
Walmart’s spokesperson told the Journal something about how “retail is changing.” The spokesperson is right, and part of what’s changing is that fewer and fewer Americans are able to afford the things that are sold in retail spaces—online or in store.
Wednesday, Feb 14, 2018 · 5:44:47 AM +00:00 · Walter Einenkel
As has been pointed out, the article says “some of Walmarts 4,700 stores,” which means that my deplorable guesstimation is truly deplorable. My new guess is that while this might not mean a new 9,400 people are out of a job—to go on top of the already many thousands already hurt by last month’s firings and “shuffling”—will put that number at a few thousand more.
We aren’t half way through February so we won’t know how much “winning” America is doing in this first quarter of 2018 for a few more weeks. /s