Wal-Mart Cuts More Than 10,000 Sam’s Club Staffers

PALM DESERT – Fifteen Sam’s Club employees are part of a nationwide downsizing.

Employees in the membership and demonstration departments at the Palm Desert store learned their jobs had been eliminated during a meeting Sunday morning.

The CEO of Sam’s Club says he thinks an outside marketing company being hired to do in-store product demonstrations will hire nearly as many people as the more than 11,000 being laid off.

That company is Shopper Events, based in Rogers, Ark., and it currently works with Wal-Mart’s namesake stores on in-store demonstrations.

Sam’s Club will now look to the outside company to improve sampling in areas such as electronics, personal wellness products and food items. The idea is to entice shoppers to spend more.

Sam’s Club has underperformed the Walmart chain in the U.S. and abroad and CEO Brian Cornell has been working to improve results since taking the helm in early 2009.

In a memo to employees, Cornell said eligible workers will receive severance pay and benefits, and that the company will help them find opportunities at other Sam’s Clubs and in Walmart stores, in addition to Shopper Events positions.

Sam’s Club recently closed10 stores, including the location on Highway 111 in La Quinta, resulting in about 1,500 jobs being lost.

Sam’s Club employs about 110,000 people.