Supermarket chain Whole Foods Market (WFM) is slashing 1,500 jobs, or 1.6% of its total employees, over the next two months, the retailer said. The company cited several reasons for the job cuts–to reduce prices for its customers, invest in technology upgrades and improve its cost structure. Co-CEO Walter Robb said in a statement, ‘We believe this is an important step to evolve Whole Foods Market in a rapidly changing marketplace.’ Additionally, he said that the job cuts will be managed through natural attrition and that the company will offer its employees severance, transition pay, or help them find other jobs within the company. All of this comes after the company saw weaker sales in its third quarter earnings. The company blamed the shortfall on negative publicity following allegations that it overcharged its customers for prepackaged foods. Back in June, the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs investigated 80 types of prepackaged products including vegetable platters and chicken tenders. The results showed that none of these products had the right weights labeled. In response, Whole Foods executives said that these errors were caused by ‘inadvertent human error.’ TheStreet’s U-Jin Lee reports from New York.
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