Retail giant Walmart (NYSE: WMT) is closing three of its tech hubs including its outpost in Portland, the company confirmed to the Business Journal.
The retailer is closing offices in Portland, Austin and Carlsbad, California, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal. It is offering employees relocation options to other tech offices in either San Bruno, California, where the global tech division is based, or at the retailer's headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Here's the company's statement on the move:
The unique culture and values of Walmart are at the core of who we are — to our customers, members, associates and partners. With this in mind, we’ve made the decision to focus our tech team’s presence within select locations. We are consolidating Walmart Global Tech’s U.S.-based hubs and will no longer operate out of our Austin, Carlsbad and Portland locations. All associates based out of these locations will receive the option to relocate to a hub aligned with our Global Tech location strategy. We hope to relocate all affected associates.
At the same time, the company is also ordering employees back to the office at least two days a week, according to a company memo seen by the Journal.
Last year, the company opened new offices and touted hiring across all of its tech hubs, including, presumably, Portland, although the company didn't specify that at the time.
Walmart Labs likely employs at least 45 workers in Portland, based on a 2019 headcount offered the last time the company reported its Portland office figures.
Walmart Labs established itself in Portland in 2012 when it acquired Small Society, an early mobile developer that worked on apps for such big brands as Starbucks, Whole Foods and Zipcar. At the time, Walmart Labs Portland had five employees, all of whom joined the 13-member Small Society team.
The Portland team works on tools that help customers shop in-store and online. Immediately before the pandemic, the company had planned to double the size of its Portland footprint.
The move is the latest big company to cut or restructure its workforce coming out of the pandemic economy. Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), Oregon’s largest private employer, laid off an unspecified number of employees as it grapples with a drop in demand. Google, Amazon and Microsoft have also announced big cuts. All three of those companies have outposts in the Portland metro.
Homegrown companies have also been cutting, Vacasa (Nasdaq: VCSA) announced it is slashing 17% of its global workforce. Last summer, software maker Puppet announced layoffs following its acquisition by Perforce. And last month Zapproved laid off employees following its acquisition by Exterro.
