Long time department managers identified as stagnant in their position with no upward mobility were let go. The reasoning was clear and communicated as a necessary step being that the company is no longer in a state of growth or expansion. This realignment would "knock the rust" off of stores and motivate current staff to comply and or contribute in a more robust way to the stores.
What needs to be realized is that so many of the support staff resemble these same people laid off yesterday. Burnt out former managers who were once necessary in an expanding market are now obsolete especially in the current top down leadership and centralized control of merchandising, ordering, and human relations. These same support staff positions are redundant, under performing, and do not drive results in the RBU's individually or as a whole. As a matter of practical business most of these positions should be examined and measured the way the department managers were.
By the way it has not gone unnoticed that you have given many remaining department managers the title of MIT. What positions are they training for? Hmmm Senior Managers should look at their resumes. Another purge awaits in a calculated salary dump!