BREAKING NEWS: Wal-Mart says it is cutting more than 10,000 jobs at Sam’s Club

[Roon]

Source: AP

NEW YORK - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Sunday it is cutting more than 10,000 jobs at Sam's Club, representing about 9 percent of the warehouse club operator's staff, as it outsources its product-sampling department to marketing company Shopper Events and eliminates another unit.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35046668/ns/business-retail/

[dkf]

1. Dammit.

When will congress get a clue. This is really really beginning to hurt.

[Johnny Harpo]

8. Congress Will Never Get A Clue Because.....

Congress will never be hurt.

The ivory tower of DC insulates them all from the reality of the real world.

And what if they don't get re-elected?

Why they just start up a consulting firm and continue to feed off the government.

[FreakinDJ]

16. This is just to LOWER WAGES - it signals economic recovery

I'm seeing / hearing a lot of this in the last month. Numerous companies have moved to cut their employee's wages - Obviously because once the economy starts to pick up again they won't be able to.

What WallMart and Sam's Club are doing is cutting Higher Waged Employees and hiring new employees at a lower wage

If you are old enough to remember the Recession of RayGun's Presidency, the Birth of Reaganomics, and "Trickle-Down Economic Theories" (the same economic policies that got us in the present day mess) a huge number of Americans took wage cuts in order to back to work. If fact many unions cut wages and called it the "Back to Work Cut"

What we are really seeing here is a "resurgence of the same Failed Economic Policies" that created the 2008 Economic Melt Down

[CatholicEdHead]

19. And easier to let workers go

Due to past pressure, "Associates" need to be written up as normal to be let go. By having pure "contractors" here, Wally World can treat them like they treat their temp remodel associates, they can let the "contractors" go at their whim for no reason whatsoever.

[jimmil]

65. Any Employer can do that any time.

I have been in a position where I hire and fire. You cannot discriminate because of race, religion, sexual orientation, or age. After that, if I don't like the color of your hair it is all right to can you. If I don't like your accent, your smell, your shoes, the wind blowing that day, I can hire or fire you.

[Bennyboy]

31. There is no "less than minimum wage".....

and these jobs are that.

And actually this presents a possibly better situation with the employees. Now they are working for a company that does several stores and companies so they can get in more hours at all the stores, instead of just one store.

I did this for a while, both in store and private contractor...

[iamjoy]

59. Yeah, It's Not All Bad

My step-father is "retired" and this works really well for him (doing the product demos). There are no benefits, but that doesn't matter to him because he has Medicare. His job description is quite narrow (prepare food, interact with shoppers, clean up, record units sold). If he had to get a job with the actual store they might not want to hire him based on his age, or they could want him to do other tasks and would probably want some kind of commitment from him on hours (without reciprocating). Something like this is also a good deal for some one who is working a second job. And it probably works for a stay-at-home spouse or parent who is just trying to pick up a little extra household income, but has a primary wage/benefit earner in the house.

Of course, if some one needs an actual first job with benefits, it sucks. I fear we are going to see more of this kind of thing - companies contracting out tasks so they don't have to commit to full time workers or benefits.

[Mithreal]

14. So we lose a few Walmarts, isn't that what you liberals wanted?

:sarcasm:

[caseymoz]

21. No, it's more like: we told you so.

You can't have industries paying less and less to the population and expect them to buy your goods forever, especially in retail.

Now will have thousands of more on unemployment, welfare and collecting state medicaid. Just like the conservatives wanted. (I know that isn't true, just recognize the sarcasm.)

So, with more unemployed, can conservatives say where this economic growth is supposed to come from?

[Mithreal]

26. Very good question and conservatives seem immune to the irony

I would argue conservatives want a LARGE pool of unemployed skilled labor to push wages down.

Of course, they intend to cut "entitlements", even many in our own party have bought that idea, so if people can't receive it, those programs will cost less.

Their magical view is that the TPTB will control so much wealth, as if any amount was enough, that when they are not outright gambling with other people's money and economies, they will theoretically use that money for job creation. Who needs something so messy as a democracy when you can quietly seize the power. It will still look like a democracy on the surface, but just for show.

Walmart and Sam's Club owe no allegiance to community or country but in that they are little different from their fellow "persons".

The parasite will just move, oblivious of the damage it did to its last host.

[Nickster]

33. Exactly. A large pool of unemployed folks makes sure that there is a large class divide to exploit

and a population that is more focused on their own survival than what those corporations are up to. It also ensures a large pool of potential employees who are more than happy to work for peanuts because if they don't, there are 6 other people who would gladly take their place. That whole globalization thing won't work out so well if we insist on clinging to our old ideas about what a living wage is all about, we should just be happy that we have a job.

It's not so much that conservatives are immune to the irony of their ideas, they just believe that if you need a helping hand, you should be punished for needing that helping hand and only the suffering of being poor, hungry, and alone will make you see the wrong in your ways. If you just worked a little harder, you'd deserve that extra bowl of gruel.

[Yavin4]

36. Esp. Since The Days of Free and Easy Credit Are Over

I recalled having many fights with other DUers here back in 2003-06 regarding the fake economy based entirely on debt.

[Mithreal]

74. I hope all of them have seen the light. Any still holding out, just curious?

[DainBramaged]

2. 10,000 more out on waivers on top of the 1500 let go last week

too much self-imposed competition from itself and from Costco.


Walmart Stores Inc. said Monday it is closing the Sam's Club store in Vista as part of a cost reduction plan that includes closing nine other money-losing outlets and cutting 1,500 jobs. The stores will close Jan. 22.

Three other Sam's Club stores in California are closing, in Irvine, La Quinta and Sacramento. Outside of California, stores are closing in Clay, N.Y.; Louisville, Colo.; Nampa, Idaho; Rolling Meadows, Ill.; Houston and Phoenix.

The Sam's Club in Murrieta will remain open.

Kevin Ham, Vista's economic development director, said 138 people at the Vista Sam's Club are losing their jobs.

http://www.nctimes.com/business/article_1a102855-12ba-5691-aa52-90dab60ad620.html

[onethatcares]

3. save more, live better.

jeeeeeezuseatingdonuts,

[K8-EEE]

5. I fucking HATE that slogan!! By those who wreck communities

and lives any time it will increase their profit margin even by .0001%

[ChairmanAgnostic]

11. safe morons, live bitter.

[arcadian]

4. The lowest common denominator is in a downward spiral.

The parasite that feeds off it's host society. This can not be good. Wal-Mart was supposed to be recession proof.

GAME OVER Man! GAME OVER!

[liberal N proud]

6. Recommending that people are losing their jobs? REALLY?

I know it is Wal-Mart and we all hate Wal-Mart but do we have to wish this on the 10,000 more people who will be soon unemployed?

:wtf:

[dkf]

9. Omg is that how you recommend or unrecommend posts?

I do it based on how important the story is to know about.

[Ruby the Liberal]

12. Reccing doesn't mean pleased or agreement to me.

It means that the OP is important and I would like others to see it.

[DKRC]

29. I also rec if the discussion is important

Sometimes the OP is just the beginning of a great discussion. A lot of good information is contributed by DUers bringing their opinions & resources to the thread. I've followed links to sources I had never tripped over; which is how I found DU in the first place.

[uppityperson]

38. I rec if the story is important, not if I agree with what is happening.

wtf indeed if you unrec a story about unemployment because unemployment is bad.

[pscot]

45. Like putting a bag over your head

so noone will see you.

[uppityperson]

47. That makes no sense. Recing an important story is hiding my head so no one will see me?

I see reccing an important story exactly opposite, so people WILL see it. Unpleasant perhaps, but hiding warty important stories helps no one.

Maybe you meant to reply that to someone else?

[pscot]

52. No Unreccing a story about unemployment

because unemployment is bad is ostrich-like. Reccing an important story to move it up is good. I was agreeing with you. :thumbsup:

[uppityperson]

54. Thanks for the clarification. eom

[Codeine]

57. More like "Liberal and Dumb"

Nobody is reccing the notion of unemployment, genius. They are reccing the article, so that people see it on The Greatest page.

[Brickbat]

7. Save money, live better,

undercut community standards, bring the town down, feed a manufactured need for slave-made goods...put a big ol' smiley face on it, and you're good to go!

[Captain Hilts]

10. New Headline: Minimum Wage Employees Take Hit for Family of Billionaires. nt

[Nickster]

13. So if workers can't even get a low paying job with no benefits, where else do they go?

[CatholicEdHead]

15. Many of these jobs are not being lost, just "outsourced"

but that will of course lead to lower wages and even less worker rights as "Associates" turn into "Contractors".

http://www.startribune.com/business/82552022.html

NEW YORK - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Sunday it is cutting more than 10,000 jobs at Sam's Club, representing about 9 percent of the warehouse club operator's staff, as it outsources its product-sampling department to marketing company Shopper Events and eliminates another unit.

They are passing the buck to Shopper Events who will outsource at a lower rate to Walmart, take their cut off the top and pay workers/aka "contractors" even lower rates.

As bad as Wally World is, this just makes it even worse for the workers.

[barb162]

32. Since Wally's does minimum wage mostly, how does outsourcing help them?

They're already the WORST.

[CatholicEdHead]

35. Easier ability to fire people

Their policies (due to outside pressure) make it a bit difficult to fire associates. By doing this they can fire the now outside contractors even easier than their associate policy. The only associates they can fire on the spot for anything are temp associates, usually for their remodels (there are a few things they can fire general associates for but not everything). It also keeps the workers off their benefits plan,a s tough as it is to get on it and how little they give, but they are taking away the little profit sharing, health insurance, etc... More penny pinching.

[Gormy Cuss]

56. That's exactly right.

Easier to hire and fire, less costly overall per employee.

[bluestateguy]

17. Layoffs are unpatriotic and UnAmerican

I could give a rat's ass if you have a yellow ribbon on your car saying "Support the Troops", but layoffs are just downright treason.

[SheilaT]

18. Since I have not been inside

a WalMart of Sam's Club in about ten years, this does not particularly matter to me.

Maybe if more people understood just how the proliferation of WalMart really does hurt everyone, more people would stop shopping there, would spend their money in places where employees are paid a little better, and so on.

Yes, thousands of WalMart employees would lose their jobs, which would suck big time for those people, but in the end, at least some of them would get better jobs elsewhere.

One thing no one has talked about at all in the entire health care debate, is the fact that if we did switch to a single payer system (which I think is the only moral, decent, and correct thing to do) thousands of employees who currently earn their living working for the big health care insurance companies would all be out of work. And practically none of them would be finding jobs with the single payer entity, that's for sure. So the dislocation and financial disruption would be huge. But in the long run it would be worth it.

[bighart]

20. If Wal-Mart begins a serious reduction in labor

it won't be thousands that are impacted it will be hundreds of thousands. They currently employ over a MILLION people. Crazy stuff.

[TheCML]

25. Your neighbor losing their job doesn't particularly matter to you?

But you're right at least some of them will get better jobs now since we know so many places are hiring. I know people with college degrees stocking shelves at Walmart and Target to make ends meet right now, that is 10,000 people who may not be able to put food on the table.

[Ernesto]

22. Pictures from the National Tea-Baggers HQ......

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/?paged=167

[LowOiL]

23. Not looking too good...

Endless spiral... without job creation, there is less and less people to spend. Less spending less retails jobs, more laid off..

[SoapBox]

24. They need $$$ to spend on candidate campaigns!

...just wait...waaaaait for it...

These companies will need millions and millions to elect who they want.

I'm just say'n!

[Joanne98]

27. Bingo

[high density]

28. Product sampling

I thought that was already outsourced since those people have no clue what is going on in the rest of the store.

[Bennyboy]

30. Okay lets not all get up in arms over this m'kay?

Costco already does private sampling contractors and so does Sams. The same number of people will be handing out stuff at Sams. So these people will have jobs, that are just getting paid by someone else that is providing the service. They won't get paid less, because they can't get paid less. They won't lose benefits cuz these jobs don't have benefits.

[quakerboy]

37. So then what is the point of this action?

If the workers are paid minimum with no benefits, and they will still be there, with a new company contracting to sams club, paid minimum with no benifits, why did Walmart do this? It would seem like something that could only cost them money by adding a middleman to a proscess they already have. Where is the benifit to Walmart?

[Bennyboy]

39. Becasue Sams club does all the hiring, Personnel stuff and with this

it moves that job to the private contractors, saving money.....There is one employeed that runs the store's sampling and there is constant turnover in the sampling personnel....

Not to mention that a Sams club job is one store and people don't want to have work at one store jobs, they would rather have a lot of stores to be able to work from....So that will eliminate some of the constant turnover in these positions...So this actually aids the employees.

[madrchsod]

44. i worked at sams clubs in the chicago area

most of the sales ladies were long time sam`s clubs employees. the company i worked for had problems filling positions everyday. people would`t show up,come in late,or quit with out notice. there were time where we get done setting up at 4 in the morning drive a hundred miles home and turn aroun4 hours later and have to drive back cause no one showed up. several times the ladies at sam`s club did our job till we could get there. the company paid 12 an hour.

[Bennyboy]

53. Well that is the thing about the jobs...

I have done both, worked for Costco directly and then worked for a private contractor at the same store and it was the same. Lots of turnover....it is good way to pick up some money and not much more..... Wish I could still do it, but my feet won't let me stand for hours on end.....

I got paid more by the private company too and heard that Sams paid the worst of all of them. never got scheduled there so don't know that for fact...

[uppityperson]

40. I really hate "m'kay". Why not just say "ok"? "m'kay" is soooo cutesy

you know, like ooooo, you know, like it, like, is just, like, such a cutesy little, you know, thing. grumble grumble grumble

[Bennyboy]

41. M'kay.....

Okeedoookie?

[uppityperson]

43. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

getting more curmudgeonly as time goes on

[Bluebear]

61. Oh? Is every single worker guaranteed a job or do they have to re-interview?

Does the new company have the discretion not to hire those that they don't want to?

[Bennyboy]

64. They get a severance and a recco at the new place....

But as I just witnessed on the news, the poor people who lost their Wal Mart jobs are already bad mouthing the new company. "They'll go for younger blood" etc. NO THEY WON'T. And why on earth would you not apply for THE SAME JOB with a new company?

Sams Club is going like Costco (who uses private companies to do their samplers)and are doing a big huge promotion so they need to change things up. The samples are big part of Sams and Costco and they will never do away with them. In fact, they will use more of them through this new promotion..

[Bluebear]

70. So, it IS something to get all up in arms over, m'kay?

[Ian David]

34. Fuck you, Wal-Mart. n/t

[madrchsod]

42. i worked with some of these ladies who are getting cut.

they are professionals and great sales people. they are some of the nicest ladies i`ve ever meant. it`s a shame they are getting let go because they were part of walmart. believe me the "shopper events" employees will not be as good as these ladies.

belive me walmart---your product sales people are no longer loyal to your company.

[jmowreader]

46. You did read the article, right?

Walmart Corporation is stranger than you'd think. There's a Walmart Stores division and a Sam's Club division, but for all intents and purposes they may as well be two completely separate companies. (Exhibit A: their distribution network. The two brands have completely separate distribution centers, which is weird if you think about it.)

Right now, the product sampling workers at Walmart stores all work for Shopper Events; the product sampling workers at Sam's work for Sam's. After this huge change, all the product sampling workers will work for Shopper Events. If nothing else it makes paying for them simpler--Walmart will cut one huge check to Shopper Events instead of one large check to them and small checks to the 10,000 product samplers at Sam's.

I really don't think this is going to affect the number of workers, at least not in the sampling department. They ARE getting rid of their member-recruitment people. They seem to have figured out people are joining whether the recruiters are in the store or not, so they're just sending them away.

[BeatleBoot]

48. I shop at CostCo - Fuck Wal*Mart and Sam's Club

CostCo workers have a Union - Sam's Club does not

Fuck Wal*Mart and all of it's affiliates.

[Bennyboy]

72. But COSTCO samplers are working for a private contractors just like Sams is trying to move to....

COSCTO made this move a few years ago. They are not union. They have no benes. They are not employees of COSTCO they are employees of that company....

[BeatleBoot]

75. And so, I repeat, Fuck Wal*Mart and Sam's Club those anti-Union pricks.

and the employees of CostCo are Union.

[Bennyboy]

76. Okay, you are not getting it....

Costco samplers ARE NOT UNION Nor have they ever been. They use the SAME contractors to hire samplers as Sams will do. Only they have been doing it for a much longer time.

[Indy Lurker]

49. Optimistic Post of the Day.

Maybe people are starting to avoid Walamrt, and are shopping at Mom and Pop stores.

[BeatleBoot]

50. Or at least Union-friendly stores.

:)

[VPStoltz]

51. When the biggest retail concern in the world is issueing pick slips

just to keep those dividends rolling into the pockets of its faithful, how is PresO supposed to create jobs?

[blue_onyx]

55. I'm surprised more stores...

aren't cutting jobs or closing down. I thought there would be more stores closing after another lackluster holiday season.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

58. Is Walmart releasing Sams Club?

does't Sam's serve mainly the commercial market?

[One Fly]

60. Poor Sally

This is what OTC thinks about this as well.
http://oakcreekforum.blogspot.com/2010/01/simple-sally-feels-betrayed.html

[onehandle]

62. ...to make Obama look worse. nt

[RedCloud]

63. Why doesn't Kroenke just give up one his many sports teams?

[denem]

66. Sam's Club To Shed 11,000 Positions

Source: WSJ

Sam's Club, engaged in a tough struggle to stand apart from competitors, is cutting about 11,000 jobs and is turning to an independent marketing firm to handle in-store product demonstrations at its warehouses nationwide.

About 10,000 of those jobs, or about 9% of the Sam's Club work force, will come from outsourcing product demos at the company, a division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Most of those jobs are part-time, the company said Sunday.

Brian Cornell, president and chief executive of Sam's Club, said the move was aimed at boosting sales and customer loyalty, not cutting costs. "Operationally, we see this as a net neutral," he said. Mr. Cornell added that he expects many of his laid-off workers to be hired by the marketing firm, Shopper Events LLC of Rogers, Ark.

Shopper Events already runs product demos at Wal-Mart stores. That program, branded Bright Ideas, hands out 2.8 million samples a week but also offers diet and cooking tips, such as how to core a pineapple. The firm mixes and matches items from throughout the store—setting up a Wii Fit videogame, for instance, next to an array of low-calorie snacks. ... Shopper Events charges Wal-Mart $200 per store per day for its demos, according to the firm's Web site

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704375604575023332121918228.html?mod=rss_Today's_Most_Popular

---

Net neutral. $200 per day. Imagine that.

[One Fly]

67. Sally feels betrayed

She does so because she's not smart. Read more here and it didn't come from Sam. http://oakcreekforum.blogspot.com/2010/01/simple-sally-feels-betrayed.html

[denem]

68. Very sad. Trashed for $200 a day.

[New Dawn]

69. Even our low-wage jobs are disappearing.

And that is actually the consequence of having so many low-paying jobs: fewer people can buy stuff at the stores that pay low-wages. Thus, businesses close down locations or reduce the number of employees.

[shireen]

71. i thought the economy was improving ...

:sarcasm:

[chelsea0011]

73. So profitable companies continue to screw workers?

Anyone who thinks the stimulus package should have been done in the form of tax breaks for companies should look no further than this story. WalMart still would be laying off workers.