Out Front

Nearly all big box retailers are cutting back, laying off retail workers and closing stores due to poor sales.  Wal-Mart is different.  It is cutting back on corporate staff but keeping store employees untouched.  The company realizes its PR is at the store level and between floor employees and consumers.  Stores with fewer retail staff tend to be dirtier, have inconsistent inventory and are harder to find items in.  Keeping retail staff boosts morale in its aisles.  Wal-Mart has been a target for unionization for years.  So far, the company has beaten back activists, but it recognized that it couldn’t go on paying the minimum wage and win the reputation war.  Now that it is keeping its retail workers and cutting corporate staff, it is showing good faith to consumers and its own workers.