Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) announced Thursday that it’s going to slash 7,000 positions, affecting mostly accounting and invoicing. This latest action is a continuation of Walmart’s plan to streamline its stores and better serve customers.
A spokeswoman for WMT, Deisha Barnett, says the cuts will affect back-office employees across its cumulative 4,600 stores. According to Barnett, Walmart’s latest round of layoffs is meant to build up its sales floor, and WMT is giving workers a chance to accept a “consumer-facing position.”
Those affected by Walmart’s layoffs are involved in tasks running the gamut from handling the cash flow of the entire store to processing manufacturing claims.
As for what will happen to those positions, WMT will begin using automated “cash recycler” machines and handling invoicing from a central office beginning early 2017.
In theory, the move would put more hands on deck during peak store hours to operate more efficiently and keep foods at their freshest. In practice, it’s a bit of a tough pill to swallow to go from being among Walmart’s higher paid in-store employees to a more low-wage position dealing with customers.
The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story, spoke with an accounting employee at WMT about the nature of the positions being eliminated:
“You are not running around the store on your feet all day … Everybody wants to get in there. The jobs never open up.”
The decision to go forward with another round of layoffs after cutting back similar positions across 500 stores a few months ago means WMT is seeing results. But it also shows just how far e-commerce shops like Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) have bullied traditional retail conglomerates for sales.
As of this writing, John Kilhefner did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
