Walmart’s profits triple to $5.1 billion days after telling hundreds of workers to relocate or quit

Walmart has tripled its quarterly profits to $5.1bn just days after announcing that “several hundred” employees were set to be laid off or subject to relocation.

The supermarket chain has released its highly-anticipated earnings report which showed that in-store sales and global e-commerce have boomed in the past year.

Walmart’s quarterly profits stand at just over $5.1bn, an eye-watering 205 per cent increase compared with the same period last year, which was just shy of $1.7bn.

Consumers from “upper-income households” helped increase its market share, the retailer said in a statement on Thursday.

“Our team delivered a great quarter. Around the world, our goal is simple – we’re focused on saving our customers both money and time,” Walmart’s president and CEO, Doug McMillion, said in the statement.

“We’re people-led and tech-powered, and that combination is propelling our business,” he concluded.

While the customer reigns king and profits are blossoming, hundreds of Walmart’s employees have seemingly been shunned.

On Tuesday, Walmart’s chief people officer, Donna Morris, sent a memo to employees informing them that “several hundred” jobs would be lost.

The “majority” of employees working remotely and in offices in Dallas, Atlanta and Toronto have also been asked to relocate.

If accepted, their new place of work would be situated in either its Arkansas headquarters, or offices in the San Francisco Bay Area or Hoboken, New Jersey, Ms Morris said.

She added that the move hopes to bring remote workers back to the office following the Covid-19 pandemic.

“In addition, some parts of our business have made changes that will result in a reduction of several hundred campus roles,” she said in the memo.

“While the overall numbers are small in percentage, we are focused on supporting each of our associates affected by these changes.”

Social media users were quick to note the perceived injustice online.

“Walmart is doing something I call ‘ghost lay offs’,” American entrepreneur and social media influencer, Dan Price wrote on X.

“They’re telling remote workers to come back to the office. Some office workers need to relocate elsewhere. They know people will quit. But they don’t have to pay severance or get bad PR from lay offs,” he added.