Depression Here: Walmart and Sams Club Lays off 700!

Wal-Mart Lays Off Workers
LAST UPDATED TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2009 12:22 PM CST IN NEWS
By THE MORNING NEWS
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., began laying off 700 employees at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club home offices this morning, according to two sources.
Ed Clifford, president of the Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce, said he began hearing of the layoffs about 9:30 a.m. today. He said the effect of the action will be widespread across Northwest Arkansas.
A woman who said she lost her job today as a recruiting coordinator for Wal-Mart told The Morning News that she was called into a meeting at 8:30 a.m. with a group of other people from her department and was told that they were among 700 people being laid off.
Those being laid off were given packets with information about severance arrangements and escorted from the building, she said. They will be allowed to come back after hours to retrieve personal belongings and clean out their desks, she added.
"You could tell who was leaving because we all had our folders with us," she said. "It was very quiet."

Messages seeking comment have not yet been returned from Wal-Mart.

Kathy Deck, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas, said the job losses would have a "multiplier" effect.

"It's never good news and particularly when you talk about a bedrock company like Wal-Mart that has such a multiplier effect in the community, where each job lost affects other jobs, because people don't shop or eat out.

"It is bad out there. I don't think it's hard to overstate right now just how bad it is. Consumers have a complete lack of confidence because there is no safe haven -- no job is a safe job."

Wal-Mart Stores posted a 2.1 percent increase in same-store sales in the U.S. in the fourth quarter. Deck said though Wal-Mart is performing relatively well in the retail sector, "the company must be thinking strategically about costs and its work force."
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