Thread regarding Walmart layoffs

A news article just hit saying that Jet is struggling.

So after spending $3B on a company most knew would fail, ML and DM are still employed.

Let me say that again. DM, Walmart’s CEO, spent $3B on a company that they are now admitting publicly isn’t hitting expectations...

I would bet you that if you backed OGP sales out of online sales, Walmart’s online business is not at all impressive. And after spending what? Almost $20B on acquisitions?

At some point the money runs out. Then what?

So you guys think Walmart is cooking the books? I don’t think that’s even possible. Wouldn’t the feds catch that?

Part 2 This is from the below article from Reddit. snametake_idid

APM19 points ·

14 days ago

I have a conspiracy theory.

level 2

00Shaggy

O/N Fresh Department Sla- Cleaner

15 points ·

14 days ago

Well, I love conspiracy theories. So, do you feel like indulging us?

level 3

isthisnametake_idid

APM18 points ·

14 days ago

Fairly certain if I do I will be eliminated by the Doug patrol. Let's just say that things arent adding up. Literally.

level 4

urlach3r

"Permission granted!!!"17 points ·

14 days ago

Books are being cooked?

level 5

yeezyyeezywhatsiraq

11 points ·

14 days ago

Hearing the same thing. These f---tards aren’t very smart with it l

level 5

Sam_Waltons_Ghost

8 points ·

14 days ago

Enron got away with it I'm sure Walmart will too.

level 6

urlach3r

"Permission granted!!!"12 points ·

13 days ago

And Enron is... where, now?

level 7

davidj1987

former employee3 points ·

13 days ago

Yes but while Enron effected a lot of people...it wasn't the biggest employer in the country nor in every state unlike Walmart which is both in every state and biggest employer.

They could get away with whatever, maybe or maybe not. But this would be a different scale.

level 4

Predatorftfw

Backroom / Front End / Grocery ASM10 points ·

14 days ago

Glad I'm not the only one thinking this.

level 5

isthisnametake_idid

APM21 points ·

14 days ago

Just go look at your pnl. Let me know how many "reallocated" charges you are seeing that make absolutely no sense. And when you request information about charges all you get back is a maze and a headache. And dont even get me started on shrink. A store in my market shrank out almost $200,000 in pets. PETS. like wtf. All the money movers are now in one location and arent really even a part of Walmart. Highlyyyyyyyy suspicious my friend.

level 6

Predatorftfw

Backroom / Front End / Grocery ASM18 points ·

14 days ago

Yeah. God forbid you try and question any "weird" things on the journal. Nobody has the answers. Hell, I even reached out to the Sr. Director over the area in which a $20,000 expense was posted and after a promise to get me an answer, guess who isn't replying to my emails anymore.

level 7

isthisnametake_idid

APM14 points ·

14 days ago

I see you've found the rabbit hole I have. Glad I'm not the only one.

level 8

Predatorftfw

Backroom / Front End / Grocery ASM9 points ·

14 days ago

Yeah, I'm in a low volume SC currently so I have ops/AP. It all started from a MM/MAPM request to review some things and "provide an explanation"

Ha. Ha. Ha. Okay.

level 9

isthisnametake_idid

APM11 points ·

13 days ago

Ironically enough a visiting MAPM is the one that inspired me to start digging and see if I could "find what she finds"

level 9

Faithnoelle1966

1 point ·

13 days ago

I had a MAPM tell me I didn't need to know about the "fees" that popped up on my shrink for Dept. 87 last year. It was weird....like for weeks at a time I would get need to counts on these random fees. Some as low as a few cents up to hundreds of dollars. Um,,,,yes I questioned it, no answer though. I'll see if they pop up this year I'm less than 30 days out.

level 6

NotHomeOffice

10 points ·

13 days ago

Yeah i know we lost an AP once because the number was fudged on holiday clearence markdowns. But your telling me the manager had no clue what was going on with his store $$ numbers? Riighhhttt but he kept his job :/

level 6

SomebodyMartiniMe

No lipstick for you, Karen14 points ·

13 days ago

I have worked in retail corporate offices my whole career at the director level - I’m currently working in an hourly position at Walmart because of some family issues (I needed health insurance and a flexible schedule to take care of a family member). Anyway, I’ve been asking for the past year about shrink because the answers I’m getting make NO sense.

No other retailer I’ve ever worked at claims that shrink is caused by on-hand changes. It should literally be the difference between what is in your store on inventory day, added to whatever you’ve sold, all subtracted from what has been shipped to you. That’s IT. Messing around with on-hands, price changes, and whatever else has no effect on what you actually have in the store (yes, it will trigger possibly unnecessary shipments, but that’s not the issue here). I’m baffled that nobody in my store, or in the academy store, sees any issue with the company line that taking a price change with an incorrect on-hand causes shrink. There’s something seriously screwed up with our books if that is actually the case. But I don’t think that’s what’s going on - I think you’re right that they’re using a method of explaining shrink that makes no sense so that nobody at the store level can really question these crazy inventory results.

level 7

isthisnametake_idid

APM14 points ·

13 days ago

It's funny you knew exactly what I was getting at when I was trying to be vaguely vague. The "books" that are given to the stores are intentionally vague and impossible to really know what's going on. And when something is questioned you're given the run around.

Add on to that the company is writing off literally millions of dollars of "shrink" that doesnt actually exist. Here's a crazy idea Walmart, why dont we just take shrink at cost and let people do their damn jobs? Like honestly where is all that lost "profit" going? Straight into a bunch of executives pockets and off shore accounts that for sure. I've taken graduate level accounting courses, I'm not an id--t.

It's been real guys. But im fairly certain im about to be assassinated. Peace.

level 8

SomebodyMartiniMe

No lipstick for you, Karen10 points ·

13 days ago

I’m just glad I’m not crazy. I’ve asked everyone I can think of, from my APM to my SM to my MAPM to academy trainers, and they all repeat this on-hand/ price change nonsense like it makes perfect sense. I ask further questions and they repeat exactly what they just said. I guarantee none of them understands accounting or they’d realize how nonsensical the whole thing is. I finally stopped asking questions, but it gets really annoying attending these “shrink” meetings in which all kinds of incredibly incorrect information gets passed around like it makes perfect sense. I hate being managed by people I could out-manage in my sleep. My family situation should resolve in the next several months and I should finally be able to go back to my former career, thank god.

level 9

HistoricalProfession

CSM of all trades6 points ·

13 days ago

I actually brought that up in academy, funny you mentioned it. I asked how is it shrink if on hands are changed and gave an example of "if you have 3 towels, and on hands say you have one, you still have 3 towels, so nothing is lost." Sure, it's not accounted for in the system properly, but like you said shrink is not calculated based on just what the system says which is why perpetual inventory systems always require a once a year physical count.

Never thought this would be part of a greater conspiracy though.

level 9

Sennis_94

3 points ·

13 days ago

It causes a missed markdown, we have 100, but take a price change on 10, we missed the markdown on 90, which makes no sense because it still sells at the marked down price. Walmart runs their stores like they're franchised.

Continue this thread

level 9

isthisnametake_idid

APM2 points ·

13 days ago

Take me with youuuu

level 7

cpkrako

Fresh Dept Scapegoat1 point ·

13 days ago

Thank you. Former ASM here and now just an MS grunt. I have been trying to understand this on hand change causes shrink thing forever and could never understand it. Especially when you throw in the fact that the DC now 'phantom' ships things to my department and changes my onhand when the truck is finalized, but I never get the product. How do you even try to keep your onhands correct?

level 8

n1ghtsn1p3r

CAP 22 points ·

13 days ago

I've noticed weird c-ap with the high-ticket stuff occasionally. We'll see something on the pre-notes that we didn't get (may or may not finally be on one of the next trucks), or we get something that wasn't listed on the pre-notes for that truck or previous ones.

level 8

WalmartWordsmith

1 point ·

10 days ago

I've sometimes thought we SHOULDN'T bother trying to get/keep on-hands correct. They're never truly right, anyway, no matter what we do.

level 4

Idgafin865

7 points ·

13 days ago

And who would be able to find out for sure? Probably someone not willing to risk their job.

level 4

00Shaggy

O/N Fresh Department Sla- Cleaner

7 points ·

14 days ago

Sooo, you're saying someone spilled a stain on that white collar Mr. Doug loves?

level 5

isthisnametake_idid

APM7 points ·

14 days ago

Something along those lines......

cooking the books Part 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/walmart/comments/bpddwt/walmarts_q1_comp_sales_best_in_nine_years_yet_we/

Does Amazon’s online business turn a profit? If it doesn’t, how would Walmart ever make that work?

Here is the real question. If Walmart forces the bulk of its business online, can it afford to operate?

So Walmart destroys its in store business in lieu of online ordering, grocery pickup, grocery delivery, and various other online ventures. Is the online business profitable?

Put another way, could the online business survive without the in store business it seems to be strangling?

So you think that by gutting stores, we are forcing customers to dotcom faster?

Sorry this is it from the article below.

Walmart, in its quarterly earnings report, said that its “eCommerce” sales in the US soared 37%. This is a huge increase. But total net sales in the US, including eCommerce, only rose 3.3% to $80 billion.

So let’s do a little speculation because Walmart refuses to supply the data: If just 15% of its US sales are eCommerce, so $12 billion, and if they’re up 37% from a year ago, eCommerce sales increased by about $3 billion. And its brick-and-mortar sales would have fallen by 0.5%.

But if the proportion of Walmart’s eCommerce sales is similar to Nordstrom’s at around 30% of total US sales, Walmart’s brick-and-mortar would have plunged. There is a reason why Walmart only brags about the percentage increase in its eCommerce sales, and makes it impossible to calculate what is happening with its brick-and-mortar stores.

Important ! This is from the Wolfstreet article below :

Here’s How I think E-Commerce Is Wiping Out Brick the store in my part of town closed years ago. The store carried two types, the one I buy, and the one by a big-name company that I tried but didn’t like. When I got to the store, I found out they don’t carry my brand anymore. They only carry the big-company brand. I’d wasted time and gasoline. Once back home, I ordered it online directly from the manufacturer in the US. It arrived via USPS in my mailbox today. And this was likely the last thing I’ll ever try to buy at a brick-and-mortar sporting goods store. I’m not the only one:

The chart above shows sales at brick-and-mortar sporting goods stores as a rolling 12-month total (to iron out the enormous seasonality). From the 12-month-total peak in July 2016, sales have now dropped 13% – and it’s not because people suddenly stopped buying sporting goods. It’s because they’re buying them increasingly online.

A few years ago, I walked to Macy’s Men’s Store by Union Square to buy the same brand and type underwear I always bought there. But they didn’t have it anymore. They’d cut their inventories. And staff was nearly absent. The cost cutters had taken over from the merchandisers. It was obvious. And they’d wasted my time.

Once back home, I went online, found a new brand, and bought from the company that makes them. It took five minutes. And that was the last time I tried to go to a brick-and-mortar store to buy clothes. Our last effort to buy sheets at a brick-and-mortar store ended the same way, online, with the best sheets we’ve ever owned, at about one-third of the cost of the prior set. None of these deals involved Amazon.

Cost-cutting by reducing inventories and getting rid of staff is the fastest way of k--ling a brick-and-mortar store.

The Macy’s Men’s Store was shut down and sold to an office developer recently. The City, trying to keep some retail in what used to be the retail center of San Francisco that draws a lot of tourists, specified that the first three floors would have to be retail, including restaurants, otherwise it would all have been converted to office. We’ll see how that turns out.

The internet has an unlimited inventory, and what took two hours and often without success, now takes five minutes, success nearly guaranteed. It’s not even necessarily a matter of price – though comparison shopping is infinitely easier on the internet. But it’s just so much easier and faster. So here is what is happening to sales at department stores:

Nordstrom reported quarterly earnings this week. It’s the only major retailer I know of that started reporting enough figures for its “digital sales” to where you can calculate the actual dollars (on a rounded basis). Other retailers keep that a secret because it would show just how terrible their brick-and-mortar stores are doing.

And this is where Nordstrom was with its “net sales,” which include everything but revenues from credit-card interest and fees:

Total net sales: -3.5%, to $3.35 billion.

Digital sales: +7%, to just over $1 billion. Digital sales accounted for 31% of total net sales.

All brick-and-mortar sales: -7.5%, to $2.3 billion.

So digital sales jumped 7% and brick-and-mortar sales fell 7.5%. It doesn’t take long before the stores are toast.

This has been going on for years. During the quarter of the holiday shopping spree, 33% of Nordstrom’s sales were digital.

Just about all retailers include their digital sales in what used to be called “same store sales,” but are now called “comparable sales.” Walmart started to include its website visitors in what used to be called “foot traffic” at its stores, but is now called “traffic.” Other retailers have followed.

These retailers are trying desperately to obfuscate to what extent dollar revenues at their stores are slumping. But they do want to brag about the online sales successes. Hence the twisted metrics.

Walmart, in its quarterly earnings report, said that its “eCommerce” sales in the US soared 37%. This is a huge increase. But total net sales in the US, including eCommerce, only rose 3.3% to $80 billion.

So let’s do a little speculation because Walmart refuses to supply the data: If just 15% of its US sales are eCommerce, so $12 billion, and if they’re up 37% from a year ago, eCommerce sales increased by about $3 billion. And its brick-and-mortar sales would have fallen by 0.5%.

But if the proportion of Walmart’s eCommerce sales is similar to Nordstrom’s at around 30% of total US sales, Walmart’s brick-and-mortar would have plunged. There is a reason why Walmart only brags about the percentage increase in its eCommerce sales, and makes it impossible to calculate what is happening with its brick-and-mortar stores.

He explains about Walmart and how they smoke screen their data about their stores.

https://wolfstreet.com/2019/05/24/heres-how-i-think-e-commerce-is-wiping-out-brick-mortar/

Feb 2017 Warren Buffett sold $900 million of Walmart stock. He has bought $900 million of Amazon stock by May 2019

Go ahead America start world war 3 over the world economy. WAL-MART PLEASE GET BLEACH STRONG ENOUGH TO K--l CREEPY CRAWLERS? CEMETERIES MEMORIAL DAY!

Walmart wasn't as good at taking advantage of easy money from quantitative easing as Jeff Bezos, and convincing this countries elites to throw money at them like Jeff. The conformism and lack of political savvy at directing qe money towards them is what k--led them. I mean if you look at Little Rock Arkansas the city is absolutely beautiful being next to two national forests, it could have easily rivaled Amazons HQ in Seattle as a major tech hub in America, if only Walmart had invested in it instead of Bentonville. Instead they choose Bentonville where nobody wants to live just because they wanted a company town that they controlled.

When companies like Walmart started bringing in all this foreign made c-ap and exported our manufacturing jobs, the middle class started dying.

Then they broke the unions and fixed it so that wages haven’t kept up with the cost of living for the last 30 years.

They made short term profit but they strangled their customer which was the middle class.

As for dotcom, I think Walmart will wind up spending itself broke trying to catch Amazon. That new fancy home office they’re building will wind up being a memorial tombstone to a once great company.

Agreed. I've actually been saying this for years if not decades. Pay the workers more and guess what? If they work in retail like WM, they will spend more money there. They will spend more to help boost the economy overall.

And if WM (and anyone else) 'ruthlessly eliminates' the human expenses then they won't have anyone to buy their China made garbage.

We can no longer afford to pay workers enough to survive. We must pay them enough to

contribute to society. And instead of determining how the economy is based on by Wall St. standards, how about determining it on Mr and Mrs. Main St. standards?

Good post