Walmart Restructuring Store Management Positions

Walmart announced this week that it 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, in a new restructuring plan, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The stores facing cuts either have lower sales in those departments or are increasingly relying on contract workers from wireless carriers to sell cellphones. In addition, Walmart is adding 800 new e-commerce assistant managers at higher-volume stores. "Retail is changing rapidly, and over the past two years we've been transforming too," a Walmart spokesman said. "Our associates are fundamentally important to this effort, and success depends on having the right people in the right place at the right time. That means creating new roles while consolidating and redesigning others."

Total Retail's Take: Walmart announced earlier this year that it was planning to cut more than 1,000 corporate jobs. The layoffs are expected to be completed by Jan. 31, 2019 and will focus largely on employees in its corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. In addition,  Walmart also has pared positions through store closures and job cuts in recent years. In 2016, for example, it cut around 7,000 back-office store jobs and an additional 16,000 positions related to store closures. What's more, other large retailers, such as Amazon.com, are laying off hundreds of corporate workers. This week, the online behemoth said it was cutting positions in its Seattle headquarters and elsewhere. Reportedly, Amazon’s rising employee numbers over the last two years left some departments over budget and with too many staff on hand. If Amazon is cutting jobs, I guess it's not surprising that other retailers are as well.