Thread regarding Sam's Club layoffs

After 11 years with Sam's Club (six different stores in three states), I decided to get out. Why? For exactly what you're outlining here. I saw all these changes take place while I was there. I watched long standing employees - once highly valued by the company - take it on the chin and over time, become that which was frowned upon by the ones pulling the strings. All this contraction and consolidation is the direct result of a business model that is slowly dying. It isn't the fault of the employees themselves, nor does the blame lie with management. The tides have been turning as the growth of Amazon and a vast number of online retailers gains more of the traffic. Walmart no longer cares about Costco. They want Amazon because its glaringly obvious to anyone who hasn't been living under a rock the last several years that brick and mortar is gradually becoming a thing of the past. While the wrecking ball business tactics of Walmart have set them up in most places as the only place to shop, Sam's Clubs have been slowing down, as have virtually all other large retailers (i.e. Best Buy, Office Depot, D--k's Sporting Goods, etc.). My prediction is that in ten years, Walmart will have long since abandoned and shuttered Sam's Club entirely, as well as scaled down on the number of Walmart stores, simply due to the fact that there will be no reason to absorb the cost of maintaining them. This is the way of the world we now live in - there's no going back to how things ran before. And what about those who have been and will continue to be displaced by these changes? An entire segment of the labor force is being removed from the playing field and only a small percentage of those will have the tenacity (and the youth) to right themselves well enough to stay in the game. How do we begin to address what happens with the rest, who are then considered unemployable? Could this be why the idea of, "Universal Basic Income", will now be a regular part of the discussion come the next election? The retailer became the place where a great deal of those who were adversely affected by the changes that arrived almost 25 years ago. The loss of manufacturing jobs gave way to service jobs, which were then outsourced abroad and gave way to retail. Now that physical retail is dying, who will become the new enemy of the shareholder once there are no floor level employees to get rid of?

Yes, good post. I'm not sure if Sam's Club will survive much longer. With Walmart losing over 3 billion dollars,

You just took me down memory lane thanks for the memories. Now new memories for me and they won't be with Sam's Club either.

well written and thought out post. You hit the bullseye. Long term associates, once considered a great asset by the company, are now considered a great liability by the home office. Your predictions for further downsizing seem to be dead on.

good post