This isn't your typical RTO story. Walmart is asking their staff to move across the country to the home office in Bentonville, AR.
Bentonville is a company town with not too much nearby. It's a nice enough place, with good schools, a few surrounding towns, and a fantastic art museum, but above all it's Walmart town. If you move there from another state and ever decide to work somewhere else, you're probably going to want to uproot your life again and move your family across the country. It's a great retention strategy for Walmart, and the lower CoL doesn't hurt either. If you prefer a more cosmopolitan lifestyle and the option to work elsewhere without moving, the Bentonville deal is a pretty unattractive one.
At least they've put windows in some of the office buildings now, that's a plus.
I think the "layoff in disguise" aspect is true for sure. I'm saying there's a big difference between Amazon asking people who WFH to hoof it 10-40 minutes each way to their nearest office, versus Walmart asking people who might already commute to a Walmart office to move to Bentonville.
Some 20 years ago I was doing competitive intelligence on them. After finding the third or fourth affair/divorce/chicanery among executives in a week of digging I asked my veteran boss, like, wtf, why is this company so gross? "It's Bentonville. They recruit cosmopolitan MBAs and the only thing to do is each other."
I have to say I’ve driven nearby on the interstate and a side road, highway? That adjoins the Walmart distribution center and my goodness I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many tractor trailers in one place, let alone the sheer volume of the truck and trailer that I’m sure are constantly coming and going. Truly amazing. And I’d want to be at least 50 miles from there
Bentonville is a company town with not too much nearby. It's a nice enough place, with good schools, a few surrounding towns, and a fantastic art museum, but above all it's Walmart town. If you move there from another state and ever decide to work somewhere else, you're probably going to want to uproot your life again and move your family across the country. It's a great retention strategy for Walmart, and the lower CoL doesn't hurt either. If you prefer a more cosmopolitan lifestyle and the option to work elsewhere without moving, the Bentonville deal is a pretty unattractive one.
At least they've put windows in some of the office buildings now, that's a plus.