Report: Walmart trims fulfillment center headcount by more than 2,000
Walmart is reportedly eliminating thousands of positions related to its e-commerce supply chain.
According to CNN, the discount titan is laying off more than 1,000 workers at two e-commerce fulfillment centers in Texas, as well as 600 jobs at a Pennsylvania facility, 400 at a Florida hub and 200 at a New Jersey center.
Walmart reportedly filed Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification (WARN) filings, which companies with 100 or more employees are required by federal law to submit at least 60 days in advance of facility closures and widescale layoffs, announcing its intent to enact these job cuts.
In March 2022, Reuters initially reported that Walmart would be adjusting its headcount in its e-commerce supply chain operation by making “hundreds” of job cuts at several fulfillment centers across the country.
Walmart, the nation's largest private employer, also at that time said a scaling back in evening and weekend shifts at the facilities led to the elimination of jobs. The company said affected employees will be paid for 90 days and may be able to find jobs at other Walmart fulfillment centers in the U.S., as well as at its 5,000 U.S. stores.
"We recently adjusted staffing levels to better prepare for the future needs of customers," Walmart said in a March 2023 statement to Reuters.
Walmart also recently said an internal company memo that it is reducing costs by shutting down three U.S. technology centers, although affected employees will have the option to relocate to take jobs at other tech hubs it operates.
Read more from CNN here.
Walmart unveils next-gen fulfillment center model
Walmart is enacting these layoffs several months after debuting a proprietary supply chain automation system in its new high-tech fulfillment center located in Joliet, Ill. Described as the "first-of-its-kind" for Walmart, the 1.1 million-sq.-ft, high-tech facility is the first of four state-of-the-art fulfillment centers dedicated to e-commerce that Walmart plans to open during the next three years. It will store millions of items available on Walmart.com, that are then picked, packed and shipped directly to customers.
The new center will also fulfill third-party Walmart Marketplace items shipped by Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS), the company's end-to-end fulfillment service for third-party e-commerce sellers.
First announced in June 2022, Walmart's new next-gen centers will feature an automated, high-density storage system that, among other benefits, will allow the retail giant to double the number of customer orders it can fulfill in a day.
[Read more: Walmart unveils next-gen fulfillment center model]
Once completed, the four next-gen centers for Walmart could provide 75% of the U.S. population with next- or two-day shipping. The other three locations are McCordsville, Ind.; Lancaster, Texas; and Greencastle, Pa. The four facilities will collectively employ more than 4,000 associates, and Walmart indicated some employees impacted by its current fulfillment center layoffs could be hired at the Joliet facility.