I can not believe my ears yesterday and today as Wal-Mart announced its layoff of over 700 employees in Northwest Arkansas. This is also effects the vendor community that deals with Pharmaceutical and Apparal which happens to be a couple of my dearest and closest friends. I live in ultimately - one of the best places in the world - Northwest Arkansas... "Home of Wal-Mart" and as Wal-Mart has brought much of the growth and wealth to our area - now it is hard to swallow that they will make an impact like this on so many families... I hate to hear it.
In an article in the New York Times on January 30th - "The overhaul, which has not been made public, is intended to revive one of the weakest departments in Wal-Mart's 5,000 stores: men's, women's and children's apparel, a $30 billion business for the retailer." (see full article linked below) REVIVE? How about the 1000's of people (IN MY HOMETOWN) that are losing their jobs, maybe their homes... Not the best time for this sort of "reviving" - just my opinion... Think this is what Sam would have wanted? Hmmmm, don't think so...
My thoughts and prayers go out to all families left in a not so great situation because of this. For those this layoff has effected: THINK POSITIVE - Go buy a copy of "The Secret" and keep your head up high!!! Everything happens for a reason; sometimes it is hard to figure out how and why - but do know that there is a plan and a good attitude will help you over those with a bad one.
LINKS TO ARTICLES REGARDING WALMARTS LAYOFF IN NORTHWEST ARKANSAS:
The New York Times
The Local News in Northwest Arkansas... Read the full story (click here)..."Wal-Mart has told 5NEWS they "expect the changes to impact approximately 700-800 Home Office positions including merchandising, real estate, marketing and support divisions in Walmart U.S., Sam's Club merchandising and some corporate functions."
More from the local News..."One Wal-Mart employee said that a group of employees was called into a meeting Thursday morning and told they were being laid off and would receive severance pay through April."
The Morning New... I don't view this as a major retrenchment for Wal-Mart, but for the 700 families involved it's catastrophic," said Gov. Mike Beebe. "We'll have the state's displaced workers task force there to offer whatever assistance we can."
I agree there's got to be a reason, we may never know but I believe another reason other than the economy was to play in this one.