Wal-Mart to Cut, Outsource 11,200 Sam’s Club Jobs

Wal-Mart Stores will cut about 11,200 jobs at its Sam’s Club warehouses, according to a company-wide memo distributed Sunday. Wal-Mart is laying off 10,000 workers who demonstrate products in Sam’s Club stores (such as food samples) and will cut an additional 1,200 membership recruiting jobs.

The product demonstrations will be outsourced to Shopper Events, an Arkansas-based marketing company that already handles some demonstrations at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart spokesperson David Tovar told the New York Times the 10,000 display-employees laid off could apply for jobs with Shopper Events, which plans to hire about that same number of workers.

Sam’s Club is the second-largest warehouse club in the U.S. The move is not being described as a cost-cutting measure, but rather an investment by Wal-Mart CEO Brian Cornell.