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"Can't say I'm surprised," one anonymous poster claiming to be a Lowe's employee wrote on Reddit. "Can't say I'm happy."
- Lowe's is cutting 207 jobs in the Charlotte area.
- The company is also shifting around 600 more full-time workers to its headquarters in Mooresville, North Carolina.
- Lowe's is increasingly coming to rely on third-party vendors to run its appliance warehouses.
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Lowe's is slashing and rearranging jobs in the Charlotte area, and the moves are poised to affect around 800 employees.
The Charlotte Observer was first to report that 207 full-time workers at the company's Charlotte area cross-dock terminal will be laid off, while around 600 full-time employees will move from Wilkesboro, North Carolina, to Lowe's headquarters in Mooresville.
A Lowe's spokesperson confirmed the report and also announced that 80 associates will move from Wiklesboro to Winston-Salem.
"This will bring teams that perform similar functions together, supporting greater collaboration and business performance," the spokesperson told Business Insider in a statement. "Wilkesboro continues to be a contact center and central production office, which employ more than 1,300 associates. Associates are being encouraged to transfer with their roles, and we will offer relocation assistance to qualifying associates and severance to anyone who elects not to work in the new location."
The company spokesperson called the shift of the 600 employees and the layoffs "unrelated." As for the laid-off employees, the spokesperson said that the company was "making every effort to retain associates in other positions at the company, and we are focused on making their transition as smooth as possible."
The company's human resources representatives are also on-site at the terminal to answer questions and help associates apply for open roles.
According to the Post and Courier, this isn't the first time that a Lowe's cross-dock terminal - a warehouse where appliances are stored - is taking a hit. In January, around 80 workers were laid off from a terminal in the Charleston region.
WBTV reported that the company switched to using third-party vendors in both Charleston and Houston. When it comes to staffing the facilities where employees stage and store appliances, Lowe's is signalling that it is set to rely on third-party companies.
Shifting around 600 employees to Mooresville appears to be a move that consolidates the workforce within the home improvement retailer's headquarters. The workforce at Lowe's 1.3 million square foot Mooresville campus will swell from 3,800 to 4,400 associates due to the move.
The reported layoffs are a topic of discussion on Reddit and on message boards on the Layoff.
