NEW YORK – Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will cut about 11,200 jobs at Sam's Club warehouses as it turns over the task of in-store product demonstrations to an outside marketing company. The move is an effort to improve sales at Sam's Club and comes on top of a decision to close 10 underperforming warehouse locations, which cost 1,500 jobs. The cuts represent about 10 percent of the warehouse club operator's 110,000 staffers across its 600 stores. That includes 10,000 workers, mostly part-timers, who offer food samples and showcase products to customers. The company also eliminated 1,200 workers who recruit new members. Employees were told the news at mandatory meetings on Sunday morning. "In the club channel, demo sampling events are a very important part of the experience," said Sam's Club CEO Brian Cornell in a phone interview with The Associated Press. "Shopper Events specializes in this area and they can take our sampling program to the next level." Shopper Events, based in Rogers, Ark., currently works with Wal-Mart's namesake stores on in-store demonstrations. Sam's Club is looking to the company to improve sampling in areas such as electronics, personal wellness products and food items to entice shoppers to spend more. Sam's Club has underperformed the Walmart chain in the U.S. and abroad. Cornell has been working to improve results since taking the helm in early 2009, introducing new store formats, price cuts and offering more variety and more brands of items from take-home meals to baked goods. As consumers eat out less in the shaky economy, Sam's Club has tried to steal customers from grocery chains and rival warehouse stores like Costco Wholesale Corp. by offering more everyday goods like food and health and beauty items and paring its assortment of general merchandise like furniture and clothes. But during Wal-Mart Stores' most recent quarter, revenue at the Sam's Club division slipped nearly 1 percent to $11.55 billion while U.S. Walmart stores posted a 1.2 percent sales increase to $61.81 billion...............>>>>..................>>>>..........http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_wal_mart_sam_s_club
Wal-Mart cutting hundreds at headquarters BY CHUCK BARTELS The Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is cutting 300 administrative jobs at its headquarters as it completes a yearlong series of changes to improve performance. The company has cut almost 14,000 jobs in the past 13 months. Wal-Mart President and CEO Mike Duke told employees about the latest layoffs in a memo on Wednesday. “With this last major strategic piece in place, we are beginning our new fiscal year with every part of our business focused on being even more responsive to our customers,” Duke wrote. He said the world’s largest retailer trimmed its labor force to advance its strategy of improving its “growth, leverage and returns.” The 300 being laid off this month at the company’s Bentonville, Ark., headquarters include workers in corporate affairs, finance, human resources, information systems and legal departments, Wal-Mart spokesman Dave Tovar said. Wal-Mart, which generated $400 billion in sales last year, has welcomed wealthier consumers trading down from higher-priced stores during the recession. But it also has noticed financial strain among its core customers, including bigger swings in spending between paychecks. ............>>>>...........>>>>................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00703&AppName=1
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