Walmart's Dumb PR Overshadows Smart Move to Close 63 Sam's Clubs

The giant footprint of Sam's Club is getting significantly smaller.Walmart, the warehouse club's corporate parent, said Thursday it would shutter 63 Sam's locations, bringing the number of stores in that chain down to 597. The company did not specify how many jobs will be slashed, but some have estimated it could be around 10,000.Before we dive into whether this was a sound strategic move, it's worth noting that Walmart handled the delivery of this news rather poorly. Reports of the closures were swirling online for hours before the company sent out a press release about the move. (The Sam's Club Twitter account had earlier mentioned some clubs were closing, but offered scant details.)The silence about the store closures felt awfully discordant with the trumpets Walmart had blared earlier Thursday about its decision to hike its minimum wage to $11 across its U.S. business and dole out one-time bonuses to some workers. You couldn't help but feel like the company was trying to drown out bad news.  Continue reading...