Today Walmart abruptly announced the shut down of dozens of Sam’s Club locations — a move that could cost more than 10,000 people their jobs.
As Many As 11,000 Could Lose Their Jobs
Sam’s Club shutdown? Employees at this S Loop store tell me they showed up to work and were told store is closed effective today. Sign on door says same thing. Hearing other stores also affected. Waiting on answers from parent company, Walmart #khou11 pic.twitter.com/RtbY7EhiIK
— Jason Miles (@JMilesKHOU) January 11, 2018
Sixty three Sam’s Club locations across the U.S. are closing down — approximately 10% of the company’s locations. Some locations will close in the coming weeks. Others are already closed. Several reports indicate that many Sam’s Club workers did not find out about the closings until they showed up to work only to find locked doors. A company-wide email about the store closures went out earlier today.
Business Insider estimates that as many as 11,000 people will lose their jobs as a result of the store closures. It isn’t clear how many truck drivers, if any, will lose their jobs as a result of the closures.
Sam’s Club has shut down multiple locations, and some employees and customers say they did so without warning https://t.co/Kdrn4MNEYS pic.twitter.com/HpylluE9si
— CNN (@CNN) January 11, 2018
Walmart listed less-than-ideal store locations as part of the reason for the closures: “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. 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.”
Some Sam’s Club Locations Will Become eCommerce Fulfillment Centers
Ten of the shuttered Sam’s Club locations will be converted into online fulfillment centers.
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
Walmart also announced today that it would be raising hourly wages for employees to $11.
Walmart has one of the largest private fleets in the world with 6,000 trucks.