bAuHaUs
Active Member
Wal-Mart is closing down the 6 locations in Canada...effective end of March (deals a plenty so hurry).
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Sam's Club closing down retail operations in Canada
- Thread starter bAuHaUs
- Start date
bAuHaUs
Active Member
Wal-Mart Canada to close six Ontario Sam's Club locations to focus on supercentre expansion
Company confirms opening of 26 additional supercentres in 2009
MISSISSAUGA, ON, Feb. 26 /CNW/ - Wal-Mart Canada will discontinue its
Ontario Sam's Club format in March to focus on its popular and expanding
supercentre format and discount-store business. Today's announcement will
affect the company's six Sam's Club locations in Pickering, Vaughan, Richmond
Hill, London, Cambridge and Etobicoke.
The company announced today the opening of a further 26 Wal-Mart
supercentres to be unveiled this year in Canada including expansions of
existing stores, relocations, and new stores. This will bring the number of
Canadian supercentres to 82 and Wal-Mart Canada's overall store count to 316
by the end of the year.
"Customer response to our supercentres has been very strong," said David
Cheesewright, President and CEO of Wal-Mart Canada. "Today's announcement will
allow us to focus our resources on growing this popular one-stop format at a
time when Canadians are relying on Wal-Mart more than ever to help them save
money during challenging economic times."
Wal-Mart Canada confirmed it is in discussions with a major US retailer
to purchase Wal-Mart's interest in five of the Ontario Sam's Club locations.
The purchase would include all but the Cambridge location.
"Despite our best efforts and the commendable work of our Sam's Club
associates, our six Clubs have not met our expectations," said Cheesewright.
Wal-Mart is taking steps to try and minimize the amount of job loss among
the 1,200 Sam's Club associates. While the company does not have immediate
positions for the majority of the affected associates, Wal-Mart will hold
internal job fairs over the coming days to connect affected associates to job
opportunities in existing Wal-Mart stores in areas surrounding the Sam's Club
locations.
"We are hopeful many associates will obtain jobs in other areas of our
business and expect the number of associates ultimately affected to be
significantly less than 1,200," said Cheesewright. "Our goal is to ensure all
affected associates are treated with care, respect, and dignity."
In addition, Wal-Mart's supercentre expansion in Canada later this year
will represent an investment of more than $400 million in Canadian communities
and will generate an estimated 5,000 new store jobs as well as 5,000
construction jobs. Supercentre locations will be confirmed over the coming
weeks.
About Wal-Mart Canada
Wal-Mart Canada operates a growing network of 312 stores nationwide
serving more than one million customers each day. With close to 80,000
associates the company is Canada's fourth largest employer. Wal-Mart donates
and raises more than $400,000 every week to Canadian charities and is the
country's largest corporate donor to The Children's Miracle Network, The
Breakfast Clubs of Canada, and The Canadian Red Cross.
For further information: Andrew Pelletier, Vice-President of Corporate
Affairs, Wal-Mart Canada Corp., (905) 821-2111, ext. 4585
Company confirms opening of 26 additional supercentres in 2009
MISSISSAUGA, ON, Feb. 26 /CNW/ - Wal-Mart Canada will discontinue its
Ontario Sam's Club format in March to focus on its popular and expanding
supercentre format and discount-store business. Today's announcement will
affect the company's six Sam's Club locations in Pickering, Vaughan, Richmond
Hill, London, Cambridge and Etobicoke.
The company announced today the opening of a further 26 Wal-Mart
supercentres to be unveiled this year in Canada including expansions of
existing stores, relocations, and new stores. This will bring the number of
Canadian supercentres to 82 and Wal-Mart Canada's overall store count to 316
by the end of the year.
"Customer response to our supercentres has been very strong," said David
Cheesewright, President and CEO of Wal-Mart Canada. "Today's announcement will
allow us to focus our resources on growing this popular one-stop format at a
time when Canadians are relying on Wal-Mart more than ever to help them save
money during challenging economic times."
Wal-Mart Canada confirmed it is in discussions with a major US retailer
to purchase Wal-Mart's interest in five of the Ontario Sam's Club locations.
The purchase would include all but the Cambridge location.
"Despite our best efforts and the commendable work of our Sam's Club
associates, our six Clubs have not met our expectations," said Cheesewright.
Wal-Mart is taking steps to try and minimize the amount of job loss among
the 1,200 Sam's Club associates. While the company does not have immediate
positions for the majority of the affected associates, Wal-Mart will hold
internal job fairs over the coming days to connect affected associates to job
opportunities in existing Wal-Mart stores in areas surrounding the Sam's Club
locations.
"We are hopeful many associates will obtain jobs in other areas of our
business and expect the number of associates ultimately affected to be
significantly less than 1,200," said Cheesewright. "Our goal is to ensure all
affected associates are treated with care, respect, and dignity."
In addition, Wal-Mart's supercentre expansion in Canada later this year
will represent an investment of more than $400 million in Canadian communities
and will generate an estimated 5,000 new store jobs as well as 5,000
construction jobs. Supercentre locations will be confirmed over the coming
weeks.
About Wal-Mart Canada
Wal-Mart Canada operates a growing network of 312 stores nationwide
serving more than one million customers each day. With close to 80,000
associates the company is Canada's fourth largest employer. Wal-Mart donates
and raises more than $400,000 every week to Canadian charities and is the
country's largest corporate donor to The Children's Miracle Network, The
Breakfast Clubs of Canada, and The Canadian Red Cross.
For further information: Andrew Pelletier, Vice-President of Corporate
Affairs, Wal-Mart Canada Corp., (905) 821-2111, ext. 4585
JasonParis
Moderator
And Ontario gains six instant greyfields.
ShonTron
Moderator
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Thanks to its policy of shutting down its old Woolco stores, it is already a great contributor of greyfields. But don't worry - there'll be plenty of WM Supercentres to replace these Sam's Club stores on brand new greenfields!
RedRocket191
Senior Member
Highway 410 and Valleywood Blvd ho! Ironically it's this that will bring rapid transit to my community...
urbanfan89
Active Member
Yes! Because Wal Mart is such a big employment and activity hub it merits a railway line to it!
Redroom Studios
Senior Member
see ya, Sam!
Dan416
Senior Member
I don't think Sam's Club will be missed. Costco was already too well entrenched from it's Price Club days. I think they're making a good business decision to promote Supercentre instead.
DavidJamesTO
Active Member
Aloha!
The Wal-Mart at Fairview Park in Kitchener is still in the old Woolco, amazingly. Doubt it will last, though; there's talk of big box development on ex-industrial land across the street.
The Wal-Mart at Fairview Park in Kitchener is still in the old Woolco, amazingly. Doubt it will last, though; there's talk of big box development on ex-industrial land across the street.
junctionist
Senior Member
I generally found Sam's Club to be worse than Costco in terms of freshness of food and variety of products. Sam's was cheaper and less crowded, but the quality was generally worse. However, the American locations I think are vastly superior to the Canadian ones. The American stores were quite comparable to Costco in terms of selection.
From another angle, according to this, Costco pays its employees, on average, 42 percent more, so more power to them.
cdr108
Senior Member
Thanks for that link !
I never shopped at Sam's and haven't set foot in Walmart for years (and don't plan to in the future) because of their business practices and their prices aren't that cheap all things considered.
That article echoes my view about employment and retention; for that I will now join Costco.
ShonTron
Moderator
Member Bio
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- Apr 24, 2007
- Messages
- 12,416
- Reaction score
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- Location
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I've known about Costco's better employee wages and benefits which in my mind helps to cancel out their auto-centric business model. Kinda like the In-N-Out of big box retail. I still go to Costco with family and pick up the occasional bargain and don't mind going at all, partly as I know it treats employees well and encourages retention. I stand by my 11-year long boycott of Wal-Mart.
bAuHaUs
Active Member
Word is that Lowes will pickup at least 5 of the 6 locations...trust that Wal-Mart will do its best to take care of the 1,200 employees.
Admiral Beez
Superstar
Do you have a news link or source for the Lowes connection? I'm definitely interested in Lowes expansion and would like to hear more. Thanks.
bAuHaUs
Active Member
The Lowes connection has been mentioned in all of the press articles today; the story in today's Toronto Star - business section makes note of Lowes' plan and that they are not interested in the Cambridge location but are in talks with Wal-mart on the remaining 5 locations. Hope this helps.