Walmart, Other Giants Begin Lay-offs?

Walmart is reportedly laying off hundreds of corporate workers after forecasted profits plummet. Is this the first shoe to drop? Next heel to fall on meet & greeters?

According to the WSJ, the giant “retailer is restructuring [its] headquarters operations after [its] warning of profit troubles.” The bad news comes just a week after announcing a double-digit decline in excpected 2022 profits and means “around 200 jobs in total are being cut.” The main culprit was said to be “higher prices for food and fuel” causing “US shoppers to pull back on other categories that are more profitable for it.”

As the WSJ notes, “Walmart was one of several retailers … caught off guard this spring as shoppers shifted their spending away from products that have been in high demand throughout much of the pandemic … [while some products arrived late due to supply-chain snarls, causing oversupply as shopper interest waned.” Target and Best Buy also have issued similar profit warnings. And while the unemployment numbers still look relatively good (if latest claims numbers are starting to rise), Ford says it is also preparing to cut thousands of white-collar workers as technology giants like Microsoft and Meta’s Facebook have "pulled back", too.

Davd Soul