Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Sunday 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.
Employees were told the news at mandatory meetings on Sunday morning.
"In the club channel, demo sampling events are a very important part of the experience," said Sam's Club CEO Brian Cornell in a phone interview with The Associated Press. "Shopper Events specializes in this area and they can take our sampling program to the next level."
Shopper Events, based in Rogers, Ark., currently works with Wal-Mart's namesake stores on in-store demonstrations. Sam's Club is looking to the company to improve sampling in areas such as electronics, personal wellness products and food items to entice shoppers to spend more.
And Shopper Events, run by a partnership of Crossmark and Advantage Sales and Marketing (the company I work for — see pic), means more work for me! Very welcome news indeed.
