Wal-Mart cuts about 11,200 Sam’s Club staffers

The headline jumped off the news wire this morning as if to say, “Yes, America, we are in a recession and yes, it is dog-eat-dog.” When Wal-Mart begins to cut jobs (not to mention so many jobs) we can all begin to worry.Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced yesterday it is cutting about 11,200 jobs at its Sam’s Club warehouse division as it outsources in-store product sampling to marketing company Shopper Events in an effort to win more customers and boost lagging sales.The terminations represent about 10 percent of the warehouse club operator’s 110,000 staffers across its 600 stores. About 10,000 members of the demonstration department, most part-time workers, were let go. The company also cut its new business membership representative positions, affecting about 2 staffers per store, or about 1,200 staffers in total.Granted Shopper Events is based in Rogers, Ark and so none of the positions are being farmed out overseas it still represents a trend we have seen too much of lately. How much fat, so to speak, can be left to trim? Does no one remember that if people are out of work and not making money they simply are not able to contribute to the profit of other stores? And if the stores have to close down due to lagging sales they will be unable to contribute to the tax revenue pools of the cities they are based in. If this cities lose tax rev……well, I do hope the point is not lost.So what do you think? Is this a contributing sign of the armageddon straight from the journals of Nostradamus? GO!