Wal-Mart layoffs?

So...
Does this mean that the insanely long line that I have to wait in, even when Im just buying socks and microwave popcorn, is going to get even longer?
They already have a minimal staff, I cant imagine it getting any smaller.

Im all for paying people slave wages for hard work, and having nonsensical rules and regulations. But longer lines???!!No!

Pretty soon, there will be no real clerks. Just those god-awful uscan machines. Wallly world will be an unmanned operation.

Need to know where the condoms are? Ask the directU machine!
Need to check out? go to Uscan!
Did you steal the value size bucket of Berry flavored crisco? the Ustole will stop you!

reply to post by InertiaZero


Scary, but a very real possibility! Small Internet Kiosks spread around the store could be used to do searches and find merchandise and current inventory. 4-8 uscan lanes can be run by one supervisor (csm). All the inventory is already on auto reorder, and the little scanners can be used to adjust on hand quantities to account for shipping errors.

A Wal-Mart could probably be run by 15 or 20 people during the day and another 15 or 20 stockers at night, whereas they are currently employing 150 people or more!

reply to post by behindthescenes



Wal-Mart seems to be reaching point of deminishing returns with its diseconomies of scale.

I just asked the Wallyworld manager if they were hiring holiday workers. He said no and that they were not hiring for any fires or quits and that he had multiple unfilled positions.

Originally posted by Hastobemoretolife
I'm going to chalk this up as a rumor right now. But I will take it into account because Wal-Mart won't announce that there is going to be mass lay-offs, their stock price would plummet. The way we will find out is when it starts happening.

How I hear it is that Wal-mart won't officially lay people off. What they are doing is cutting hours drastically, and some people will quit voluntarily. They just won't replace them.

Just to let you know data being dripped out shows Black Friday this year actually was WORSE than 2008.

reply to post by Jessicamsa


That makes sense, Wal-Mart, I believe, is a key economic indicator. Seeing how their products are cheap when people stop shopping at Wal-Mart it is a bad sign. Also announcing mass lay-offs would hurt the companies imagine, you know the whole we are an American company thing.

I have a feeling things are going to get bad, real bad.

My bro-in-law is a Stupid Center mngr.
He says the newest plan he heard was that there would be no , main big store boss, and every dept. will operate as an individual store.
They had a major cut back...."not called ...layoff" and made all dept heads responsible for multiple depts, and the manger, has been givin orders to make up the lose ends and unfinished projects.

He says, "that unless you have been there ten years or more, and /or are considered full time employee....you will be recieving the duties of the ppl that you used to depend on to do your work, part time, school kids/type.
They are quickly becoming obsolete...in his opinion.
He's been there 14 years now , and is being made to manage the spoting goods dept, auto dept, and pet/houseware.lighting electrical...all but paint mixing.

As for MHO I hope they fall to pieces and become a forgotten store/market!

The bottom line is this:

America has been forced from a manufacturing economy to a service economy. There is no bigger icon of our consumer culture than Wal Mart.

As goes Wal Mart, so goes the USA.

The service economy is a lie. It has decimated the middle class like Wal Mart has decimated small town Main Streets.

We were sold a load of crap. Retailers and many other service industry employers are gutting full time jobs and benefits. Hell you can't even get full time hours without benefits. Just as soon as they figure out a way to replace us all with robots - they will.

reply to post by Doc Holiday




I guess the Wal-Mart is now 'rolling back' jobs instead of prices these days from the way you make it sound. I'm starting to think that the rumor is true. It might not be at all the stores, but a good number of folks on the ground are reporting similar things about lay-offs and the like.

I am glad to see so many people waking to the reality that the game is over. They haven't shut off the lights and locked the doors, yet - but that is coming sooner than later.

The reality is that when you have a fiat currency based on debt, you will reach a point of no return. We are there. Wal-Mart is the perfect barometer. I'm not aware of any lay-offs, but I was aware of a hiring freeze. They are cutting hours and not addressing attrition - kind of a passice lay-off, I guess.

I too was wondering about if it was happening nationally or just on a local level, because I can report that the Wal-mart closest to me is indeed laying off seasonal employees; they started to late last week. My sister got a job there a month ago, and they laid off 150 seasonal employees (she wasn't one of them luckily) out of 152.

Very large animals need a large and constant supply of food to survive and thrive. The smaller animals they feed on also require a certain regular supply of food and shelter in order to thrive in the numbers needed to support the larger animals. If there is a drastic change in the ecosystem which begins to negatively affect the smaller animals making them weaker and lower in numbers it is invariably the larger animals with specialized diets that suffer.

What we are seeing now is an economic parallel to this example. Wal-Mart, in many areas, is the top of the retail food chain, it is suffering because the people who it feeds on are now going broke. It's not that people are scared and are just not spending as much as they used to, it's that people DO NOT HAVE the money to spend. Wal-Mart did so well because you would go into the store for a few things and end up buying stuff you didn't intend. It's not that people don't want to spend more money, they just can't.

To change the subject an offer an observation, my girlfriend and I went into Wal-Mart a day so after black Friday looking for a few presents for a charity and were rather upset to notice that the prices for everything were much higher than they usually were, even here in New York. Between them cutting jobs and raising prices it's really no wonder they're so empty.

Wal-mart is mostly selling a lot of basics right now, including groceries. Much of those shopping groceries are buying with WIC and food stamps. There aren't jobs around here.

I'm a temp who will be let go Dec. 24. I haven't even bought a Christmas tree. What's the point? I may end up homeless soon anyway. Why add more stuff to deal with to the household?

reply to post by behindthescenes

The downturn in the economy can't be laid at Wal-Mart's doorstep. Look for the blame with the Wal-Street crew Obama has employed to make us all slaves to the state.

My wife has worked for Wal-Mart for several years. As with all retail stores, temporary seasonal employees are hired as such. If the sales aren't there they get laid off. Only BigGov can afford to hire people to do nothing.

I tire of all the bashing of Wal-Mart for everything under the sun, except ingrown toe nails! My wife has worked in retail all her life for a dozen different employers. Never has one been so accomidating to her needs as Wal-Mart. Don't get me wrong...Wal-Mart is not perfect. Perhaps you should look at Target if you want to find a real jackel in the retail trade. Explore how many older employees have been denied insurance and even terminated over the last several years at that company so they could bring in low wage youngsters as replacements.

Bottom line...Wal-Mart is only a reflection of the failure of the economy. Obama is a puppet of the NWO power-elite who hold the real power of this nation in their hands. Wal-Street and Big Bankers are stealing the country blind. Wake up!

Originally posted by romanmel
reply to post by behindthescenes

 

I tire of all the bashing of Wal-Mart for everything under the sun, except ingrown toe nails! My wife has worked in retail all her life for a dozen different employers. Never has one been so accomidating (sic) to her needs as Wal-Mart. Don't get me wrong...Wal-Mart is not perfect. Perhaps you should look at Target if you want to find a real jackel in the retail trade. Explore how many older employees have been denied insurance and even terminated over the last several years at that company so they could bring in low wage youngsters as replacements.

Sorry if you misinterpreted this thread, but I certainly wasn't bashing Wal-Mart. I highlighted it because it's a real sign of the direness of our economy when the bastion of American employment and a bellweather to the U.S. economy has begun to layoff seasonal employees before the actual holiday.

reply to post by DChenO


I work at WalMart and that is exactly what my manager told me the other day! We are short 3 people in the frozen foods section alone.

I don't think walmarts in any real trouble though. TPTB want wally world to prosper. who else is going to supply the starving masses with crappy food?

Well, I have been officially terminated.

The management had lied to me last week and said when a spot came available that they'd let me know so that they could keep me.

Well, a cashier spot came available and they picked a young kid with a broken leg for it over me. I didn't even know about it, until the young kid, who was upset about being let go on our previous discussion, was happy to tell me that he was offered a cashier spot Tuesday and that he'd be staying.

They never had any intention of keeping me. They were just wanting me to hang around until Christmas eve and figured they could keep me hanging around by getting my hopes up.

I had perfect attendance with no tardies of any kind. I had no write ups. I had a perfect record with them, yet they keep a kid with a broken leg over me. He cannot even do the job they hired him for!

I am so ticked off. I had renewed my lease for my apartment, rent increase and all, because when I was hired the management indicated to me that as long as I did a good job, that they would keep me after the holidays. Now I am stuck with a lease on an apartment with no job, and no one around here will hire me. I applied everywhere before getting this job. If I get evicted, I'll not be able to get another place to live with no job and an eviction on my record. Everywhere around here wants landlord references and runs checks on you, except the landlord I have now. If I'd known they weren't going to keep me, I could've signed a month-to-month lease instead and while I'd have to pay an even higher rent, I could leave without breaking my lease and ruining my landlord reference.

Getting turned down for a job to someone who obviously cannot do the job is so insulting. How is someone with a broken leg supposed to stand there ringing up people's items???

And they kept men and not women. I heard they kept a woman cashier, but she was in the breakroom saying they weren't going to keep her. So they gave her job to a man with a broken leg??? Not keeping a single woman temp, but keeping all the male temps including one with a broken leg??? This is ridiculous.

China-Mart is doing just fine keeping millions of Chinese employed making fine high quality merchandise with which to stock their shelves.

Merry Christmas.


[edit on 25-12-2009 by SLAYER69]

Just an FYI. A pretty notable economist told me recently that the recent "dismal" job numbers, when broken down, will reveal that holiday hiring ending earlier than normal (i.e. people fired before Christmas). Not specifically about Wal-Mart, but I think we can add two and two together.