ELLICOTT – Big traffic jams, coupled with expectations of huge savings on discounted goods, prompted hundreds, if not thousands of customers to head to Sam’s Club less than 24 hours after its parent company, Walmart, said it was closing more than 60 stores nationwide.
A Walmart official said about 10 of those stores will be repurposed into e-commerce distribution sites.
The closures came on the same day that Walmart announced it would boost its starting salary for U.S. workers to $11 an hour and hand out one-time cash bonuses.
Several local business owners told WNY News Now that the closing, which will reportedly come on January 26th, would hurt them and cause a great inconvenience.
Sam’s Club was reportedly offering savings of twenty-five percent on goods except electronics.
An employee, who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity because he feared he would lose his job prematurely if he was revealed, said about 120 employees locally will be affected by the layoff here.
