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Fri 17 Apr, 2015 10:42 am
Wal-Mart suddenly closed 5 stores and laid off thousands of workers and no one knows why
Wal-Mart employees say they were completely blindsided by the news, having been notified only a couple hours before the stores closed at 7 p.m. Monday.
"Everybody just panicked and started crying," Venanzi Luna, a manager at a Pico Rivera, California store, told CNN Money.
All workers will recieve paid leave for two months. After that, full-time workers could become eligible for severance, according to CNN Money. But part-time workers will be on their own.
Local officials and employees have questioned Wal-Mart's reasoning for the closures.
According to ABC News, "no plumbing permits have been pulled in any of the five cities where the stores were suddenly closed for at least six months."
A city official in Pico Rivera, California confirmed to CBS Los Angeles that the city has not recieved any permit requests for building repairs.
In Midland, Texas, where another store was closed, a city official told ABC News that his plumbing inspector was turned away when he visited the store and offered to help secure construction permits.
We reached out to Wal-Mart for comment and will update when we hear back.
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A spokesman told Consumerist that Wal-Mart had not secured permits "because we have yet to know the full extent of the work that needs to be done. We may also have to do additional upgrades that may require additional permits."
Some employees believe that the stores were closed because of worker protests for higher pay.
Employees of the the Pico Rivera store were among the first to hold Black Friday protests in 2012.
"This is the first store that went on strike," an employee told CBS Los Angeles. "This is the first store in demanding changes for Walmart."
We dont know what Walmart is up to yet. They are however one of several corporations that have recently moved to raise wages. THey are also increasing staff, my walmart has the most checkers we have had in at least 5 years, and the store looks better. USA Walmarts have a new boss who seems to understand retail.
A couple of hours notice. Thousands of jobs lost. Coincidentally shutting the store where the wage protests started. Ooooookaaaayyy
@edgarblythe,
edgarblythe wrote:
A couple of hours notice. Thousands of jobs lost. Coincidentally shutting the store where the wage protests started. Ooooookaaaayyy
How does walmart normally close stores? I would certainly do it with no notice if I was in charge, who knows how much pissed employees would break or steal if the store was open for another month or so but I would not want to find out, and it is super easy to unload the merchandise .
This could be us looking at mean Walmart, but that does not fit with what they have appeared to be trying to do for the last two years. They are trying to fix their business (which is in desperate need of it) not wreck it, and they are trying to change the public perception that they are not good citizens.
I am not going to assume here, I am going to wait for proof one way or the other.
I don't assume either, so far. I too thought they were doing at least some wage raising. I've a history of fighting against a walmart store going into my last hometown on a prime piece of beautiful property; we won, but that situation was more about location than if walmart would show up in the area, which it since has.
I wouldn't say I like walmart but I don't dislike them as much as I used to. I go there rarely even though they are nearby. I have liked their employees, by and large, and their produce (etc.).
I see edgarblythe's point re the quick close and would have liked to see more help to the people laid off.
I also have a nagging feeling that I read in the news (I read too much damned news) that this was going to happen, maybe a few days or a week ago.. but I'm not positive.
Another perspective:
What is going on? I just heard that numerous Wal-Mart stores from Texas to Florida are closing immediately for 6 month period due to “plumbing problems.” There was no pre-announcement and the store
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shelves were fully stocked. They even had to discount frozen goods 50% to get rid of the stock. They have given all employees a 2 month severance pay. Does this have anything to do with Jade Helm? I have heard that Wal-Mart has a contract with DHS to act as a command and logistics center for FEMA in case of a national emergency.
North Midland Wal-Mart Closing For At Least Six Months
http://www.newswest9.com/story/28792548/north-midland-wal-mart-closing-for-at-least-six-months
Plumbing woes force Brandon Wal-Mart to close 6 months
http://tbo.com/news/business/plumbing-woes-force-brandon-walmart-to-close-6-months-20150413/
North Wal-Mart to close for at least six months starting at 7 tonight
http://www.mrt.com/news/top_stories/article_58c1eee0-e211-11e4-b32a-6bd71d0d349b.html
Oklahoma too!
http://www.newson6.com/story/28790343/plumbing-issues-close-walmart-at-admiral-and-memorial
Livingston, TX- um, that’s a lot of plumbing problems and all for 6 months…
http://www.ktre.com/story/28791533/livingston-walmart-closing-for-6-months-laying-off-422
This article says 5 stores
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for “plumbing problems.”
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026502906
Read more at
http://investmentwatchblog.com/walmart-stores-from-texas-to-florida-close-today-for-6-months-without-notice/#VL4Q51ad6WjcWUtJ.99
@edgarblythe,
Walmart tried something similar in Canada with the first store that began unionization activities.
In the end, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled against Walmart.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/06/27/walmart-canada-supreme-court_n_5537051.html
there are now some unionized Walmarts in Canada
http://www.ufcw.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51&Itemid=90&lang=en
still not as good a place to work as retailers like Costco but making progress
@ehBeth,
Until I see evidence to the contrary, I believe it is retaliation.
@ossobuco,
Quote:would have liked to see more help to the people laid off.
they get 2 months pay, can move to another store, and full time gets severance. What else do you want Walmart to do?
What do these retail outfits normally do when they close stores? I dont know. But you know what, I dont often hear about near min wage workers getting severance pay.
@edgarblythe,
edgarblythe wrote:
Until I see evidence to the contrary, I believe it is retaliation.
This is the same Walmart that decided to go into the DC area, then city government made a push for a huge min wage increase increase for Walmart workers. Previous management threatened to stop building and go away if DC government passed it, they did, and then new management came in and changed course, building all of the planned stores only saying that future expansion plans only might be degraded because of the min wage.
Walmart could have played hardball, they could have carried through on the threats but new management wants walmart to be seen as a good citizen.
I strongly suspect that what we have seen in journalism to this point on this story is heavily influenced by left wing bias in the media. I will wait for more information.
@hawkeye10,
Move, within two months?, to another store? What other store? Maybe in big cities there are other stores. Plus moving logistics are difficult often. There will be longtimers, good workers, out on their duffs.
@ossobuco,
Not hearing a promise to rehire the workers when the store opens is suspicious.
The most likely scenario is this: Walmart for the first time in a long time is willing to put some serious money into rebulding stores that are past their replacement date. This will mean tearing them partly down and chopping up the pad to redo the plumbing, and it just so happens that some of these stores have had labor problems. Maybe walmart plans to rebuild 120 stores over ten years, and they pick a few labor problems stores to go first.
Are all of these stores in prime locations? Will they be rebuilt as Walmart makes a commitment to operate at this location far into the future? I dont now yet. I have already run that all of these stores have a bad record for plumbing problems, so far the story fits.
This is a big story, to me. But MSN home page is the only place it is prominently mentioned. The TV national news broadcast and the follow up local news did not mention it. It is not on Google News. Cowed by big money, apparently.
@edgarblythe,
Maybe Walmart closing .1% of their US stores temporarily for refit is not big news.
@hawkeye10,
Quote:In addition, Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, plans to add 7,000 to 8,000 department manager positions, Lundberg said. The cost of doing so is included in the $1 billion (0.67 billion pound) investment in wages and staffing outlined in February, he said.
The moves are part of broader strategy by the retailer to rejuvenate sales in the United States by bolstering customer service and addressing other perceived weaknesses such as poorly stocked shelves.
"Putting in new departmental managers will make a significant difference," Judith McKenna, chief operating officer of Wal-Mart's U.S. operations, said at a briefing for analysts and investors earlier this month
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/wal-mart-says-add-7-202035411.html
WOW, that is big. Management is certainly willing to spend big to fix the stores.
@hawkeye10,
Quote: bolstering customer service and addressing other perceived weaknesses such as poorly stocked shelves.
this ^ is what took down Target in Canada
they could never seem to figure out what Canajuns wanted to buy or were willing to pay
buybye Target
@ehBeth,
I have never felt satisfied with any Target experience. I don't know how they stay in business.
@edgarblythe,
edgarblythe wrote:
I have never felt satisfied with any Target experience. I don't know how they stay in business.
agreed. There were a few years when the kids wanted to get school clothes there, and we did, but they were crap. And the kids had a budget for the year so crap unwearable meant fewer things to wear late in the year. They stopped wanting to go the Target.
@ehBeth,
ehBeth wrote:
Quote: bolstering customer service and addressing other perceived weaknesses such as poorly stocked shelves.
this ^ is what took down Target in Canada
they could never seem to figure out what Canajuns wanted to buy or were willing to pay
buybye Target
I'll say this, the board should have removed all of top management after that fiasco, then they should have resigned.
Meantime there is the matter of some apparent reliance on chinese goods.
I'm not entirely against all that, but I'm not a happy person about how the u.s. and other countries seemed to dissolve manufacturing in my lifetime. Real craft is quaint. I tend not to buy chinese, and not for dog food, drywall, or toothpaste for sure. Still, they have been pretty apt in many ways, except ecological, another subject, but they are now aware of the problem.
There's a thick article about China and their president in the New Yorker I'm presently reading, a long article, mix of pro and con and con, and China's devolving re the economic boom. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a fool on economics, but that's an interesting article by the end of it. How much is walmart tied to it?
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/06/born-red
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