Walmart is closing 63 Sam’s Club stores across the US, according to Business Insider.
In our area, one will close and another will remain open.
“Ours will stay open but the Bellevue location will close,” Rosin Abdullah, a customer service representative at the Mallory Lane in Cool Springs Sam’s Club, said over the phone.
The Bellevue location is at 615 Old Hickory Blvd in Bellevue with a Nashville postal address. The Franklin one, which Abdullah said will remain open, is located at 3070 Mallory Lane.
Employees asked at the Murfreesboro and Antioch locations said they had not heard anything about their locations being marked for closure.
The closings come on the same day Walmart announced it was raising starting hourly wages to $11, expanding employee benefits, and offering workers bonuses of up to $1,000. On Twitter, in response to criticism of the move Sam’s Club justified what will mean layoffs of thousands of employees:
Wow, a whole lot of @SamsClub locations shut down today while giving 0 notice to workers. That sounds like the management team alright. They are heartless people. I feel terrible for the thousands of people who just lost their jobs.
— YourMCAdmin (@YourMCAdmin) January 11, 2018
After a thorough review of our existing portfolio, we’ve decided to close a series of clubs and better align our locations with our strategy. Closing clubs is never easy and we’re committed to working with impacted members and associates through this transition.
— Sam’s Club (@SamsClub) January 11, 2018
From the Business Insider story:
Several stores were abruptly closed Thursday. In some cases, employees were not informed of the closures prior to showing up to work on Thursday.
Instead, they learned that their store would be closing when they found the store’s doors locked and a notice announcing the closure, according to reports.
Ten of the affected stores will be turned into e-commerce distribution centers, and employees of those stores will have the opportunity to reapply for positions at those locations, a Walmart official said. The remaining stores will stay open for several weeks before closing permanently.
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Wal Mart knew it was going to close its Sam’s Club stores (was it facing unionization pressure?), so it tried to control the potential negative publicity attention by offering the starting pay raise and a one time bonus that is offered on slimier terms, almost like we get with military enlistments. Only other explanation for Was-Mart closing Sam’s Club is because it is losing money. Soon our friends at War-Mart who work at the regular stores will realize that they will not see this bonus or enjoy this initial payment pay raise either, as more regular stores will be probably closing as well. Brian Ghilliotti