People walk near the entrance to a Walmart Supercenter on February 20, 2024, in Hallandale Beach, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
Walmart is laying off hundreds of corporate workers across the country as it shutters several offices and relocates many employees to its Arkansas headquarters.
The big-box retailer confirmed the layoffs and closures in a memo sent to employees Tuesday.
In the memo, Chief People Officer Donna Morris said the majority of employees working remotely and in offices in Dallas, Atlanta and Toronto have been asked to relocate. Most will be moved to the company’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., but some will also relocate to offices in the San Francisco Bay Area or Hoboken, N.J., she said.
“In addition, some parts of our business have made changes that will result in a reduction of several hundred campus roles,” she said in the memo. “While the overall numbers are small in percentage, we are focused on supporting each of our associates affected by these changes.”
Walmart did not say how many people were affected by the cuts.
The news comes days before Walmart’s much-anticipated earnings report on Thursday.
The layoffs are the latest cost cut for the discounter. In late April, Walmart announced it would shutter 51 health clinics across Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Texas. The new clinics, which offered doctor, dentist and therapy appointments, were part of Walmart Health, a broad effort by the discounter to bring lower prices to the health-care industry. It had opened the health clinics next to its big-box stores, but said in an announcement on its website that the business was not financially sustainable.
Walmart is the nation’s largest private employer with about 1.6 million employees, most of whom work at its stores across the country.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the layoffs and relocations.
This is developing story. Please check back for updates.