Monday, January 25, 2010

Sam’s Club, operated by Wal-Mart Stores, has announced that it will be cutting about 11,000 jobs, most of which are product-demo part-time jobs. The announcement was made by Sam’s Club’s President and Chief Executive Brian Cornell.

The president commented that the move was intended to increase sales and customer loyalty, and not to lower costs. “Operationally, we see this as a net neutral,” he said. Cornell said he believes a large part of of the fired workers would be hired by Shopper Events LLC of Rogers, Arkansas, a marketing firm.

In addition to the cuts, Sam’s Club said it would be outsourcing its in-store product demonstration and sampling to a third-party firm, the marketing company Shopper Events.