Yahoo Finance Walmart lays off 155 workers in Charlotte as retail giant shifts business strategy
Walmart is laying off 155 employees in Charlotte after the retail giant recently remodeled several area stores and consolidated corporate offices nationally.
The layoffs affect workers at Walmart’s southwest Charlotte regional corporate office at 2118 Water Ridge Parkway, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) filed Thursday with the North Carolina Department of Commerce. The layoffs are effective Sept. 20.
The job cuts are due to “recent changes to Walmart’s business strategy,” human resources officer Maren Waggoner said in the notice addressed to the state, Mayor Vi Lyles and Mecklenburg County Chairman George Dunlap.
All of the affected employees may apply for positions at other Walmart facilities, according to the notice. Walmart officials did not immediately respond Tuesday to requests for comment.
Last month, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant said it would lay off several hundreds workers as part of office consolidation requiring office workers in Dallas, Texas, Atlanta and Toronto to relocate to Bentonville, Hoboken, New Jersey, or the San Francisco area.
Walmart in the Charlotte area
The Charlotte layoffs come as over a dozen area Walmart stores have or will be remodeled as part of the retail giant’s $9 billion investment nationwide.
And this month, Walmart announced it is starting an annual bonus of up to $1,000 for full- and part-time hourly workers.
In 2021, Walmart purchased Iredell County’s largest speculative building for $69 million at 386 Old Murdock Road in Troutman, 35 miles north of Charlotte, and aimed to create 500 jobs, The Charlotte Observer previously reported. The fulfillment center is part of Walmart’s strategy to grow online sales.
In 2019, Walmart laid off nearly 570 corporate employees at its site near Charlotte’s airport. The retailer was transitioning its finance and accounting services to a third-party vendor Genpact, a publicly traded financial services firm headquartered in New York.
Walmart has 32 supercenters, eight neighborhood markets and seven Sam’s Clubs in the Charlotte region, and over 62,000 employees in North Carolina.
Other large layoffs in the Charlotte area
There have been several other large layoffs in the region this year.
This month, Stanley Black & Decker Inc. said it is laying off over 220 workers and closing its Concord facility as part of the company’s “changes to its manufacturing and distribution network.” In March, the New Britain, Connecticut-based toolmaker said it will close its Fort Mill, South Carolina, manufacturing plant, with nearly 200 layoffs.
Also this month, FedEx said it would lay off 69 employees as it closes a Catawba County facility in September.
In May, Medline Industries, based in Illinois, said it would close its Charlotte distribution center in Lincolnton, resulting in 220 job cuts as the medical supply company consolidates operations at its new Mebane facility. Last year, Medline permanently closed its Salisbury facility that made surgical procedure kits, resulting in 97 layoffs.
In March, UPS announced 75 job cuts at the West Charlotte facility at 1815 W. Pointe Drive “due to volume loss in our network” causing a lack of available work, effective May 24.
And in January, ASSA ABLOY Americas Residential Inc., which offers products related to locks, doors, gates and entrance automation, said it would close its site at 15040 Choate Circle in Charlotte, resulting in 87 job cuts by July 28.
