Wal-Mart to cut 450 jobs at headquarters

McMillon and other top executives are due to present their strategy for the company at an annual meeting with analysts and investors later this month in New York.

Deisha Barnett, a spokesman at Wal-Mart, declined to comment.

The Associated Press reported that laid-off employees will get 60 days of pay with benefits, plus a severance package of two weeks’ pay per year of service.

The Wall Street Journal had reported this week that the company was preparing a round of layoffs at its headquarters.

Other US retailers have moved this year to cut corporate jobs or close stores as they confront slow sales growth and a shift to Web shopping.

Target laid off 1,700 employees in March. Wal-Mart employs 1.3 million people in the USA and about 19,000 at its headquarters alone. Almost every part of the local economy, including the real-estate market and donations to charities, is linked to the world’s largest retailer.

All of the affected employees worked at the company’s Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters.

“Wal-Mart management has been talking about becoming more efficient, and they know from previous experience that taking employees out of the stores is not the right avenue”, Yarbrough said. “We intend to build fewer, much stronger private label brands”, said Ms. Brewer. Sam’s Club, the warehouse retail division of Wal-Mart, trimmed 2,500 employees nationwide in January 2014, and Wal-Mart cut 300 jobs in February 2010.

The Charlotte Observer adds that Wal-Mart has been facing intense competition several companies, ranging from Amazon.com and dollar stores to the traditional grocery chain. Analysts have said the company would have to find a place to cut costs to afford placing more people in stores and beefing up the e-commerce business. From October its stores in eight United States of America cities will have an option of free grocery pick-up wherein a customer can order online, select a pick-up time and have a Wal-Mart employee deliver the food to their vehicle upon arrival.