Sam’s Club locations across the country, including a store in Louisiana, abruptly closed Thursday without warning.
According to WBRZ-TV, shoppers found doors to Sam’s Club in Baton Rouge locked Thursday. The store’s phone went unanswered, and the location’s listing on the official website was deleted.
A spokesperson for Sam’s Club told WBRZ that the closure was announced Thursday morning at a meeting with employees. The company says it will work with employees to transfer them to other Sam’s Club or Walmart stores in the area.
Spokesperson Anne Hatfield said she was unsure about how many people worked at the store, but a typical store has about 150 employees.
Multiple stores in the across the country experienced similar closures. The closure does not appear to be impacting stores in the New Orleans area.
Employees tell KHOU 11 News in Houston that the stores closed without notice and they only learned about the closure when they arrived for work.
A voicemail message on a Metro Atlanta store says "This Sam's club is closed effective January 11" and points callers to their website to find an open location.
Sam's club issued the following statement about the closures on Twitter:
"After a thorough review of our existing portfolio, we’ve decided to close a series of clubs and better align our locations with our strategy. Closing clubs is never easy and we’re committed to working with impacted members and associates through this transition."
Some locations have already been removed from the store website. Existing stores can be found at https://www.samsclub.com/locator.
The news comes the same day that Walmart, the owner and operator of Sam's Club, announced that it would raise minimum pay for its employees to $11.