Wal-Mart Rubs Salt on Deepening Retail Wounds…”Brick-and-mortar retailers are being taken out the back and shot.”
by Wolf Richter
WolfStreet.com
January 15, 2016
With impeccable timing – the very morning that the Commerce Department would report crummy retail sales – Wal-Mart Stores rubbed salt on the wound. It disclosed in an SEC filing that it was “committed to growing,” as CEO Doug McMillon put it, but was “being disciplined about it.”
Corporate speak for shutting 154 stores in the US – its 102 Walmart Express stores, 23 Neighborhood Markets, 12 Supercenters, 7 stores in Puerto Rico, 6 discount centers, 4 Sam’s Club stores – and 115 stores internationally, for a total of 269 stores.
So this will “impact” 10,000 “associates” in the US and 6,000 internationally. Those folks will be given “priority” for open positions at other stores. If that doesn’t work out, they’re on their own with 60 days’ pay and “if eligible, severance.” They’re going to be looking for jobs just when other retailers are also whittling down their headcount.
The closures will hit Wal-Mart earnings to the tune of 20 cents to 22 cents per share, most of it in Q4, which it will report on February 18.
The SEC filing strategically coincided with the retail sales report the Commerce Department released this morning. Turns out, auto dealers, restaurants and bars, and online stores are kicking butt, while brick-and-mortar retailers are being taken out the back and shot.
The Rest…HERE
