BRANDON, Fla. – Employees of a Walmart in Brandon that abruptly closed Monday were among more than 2,000 employees nationwide who learned almost simultaneously they were being laid off.
In a nearly identical manner at every store, Walmart corporate officials visited the five locations, called an impromptu meeting in the back of the store and told employees that the stores would be closing that evening.
Besides Brandon, the affected locations were in Pico Rivera, Calif., Livingston, Texas, Midland, Texas, Tulsa, Okla.
“The issues mostly relate to clogs and water leaks in the plumbing – we’ve had persistent issues over the last several years,“ said a Walmart spokesperson said.
“These incidents impact the availability of water and create drainage issues for critical areas of the store which impacts our ability to serve customers,” she said.
“Normally, we do our best to avoid disrupting a store’s operations. However, given this particular store had one of the highest incidences of plumbing issues in the entire fleet and in order to reduce the costs associated with these incidents, we felt it was in the store’s best interest to invest in making the necessary improvements to resolve these issues,” the spokesperson said.
The I-Team has learned that none of the five affected stores have sought any plumbing permits for future repairs.
When you close a store for ‘plumbing issues’ it goes in a different part of the annual report than if you close it for ‘profitability issues’. Watch for a buyer/lessor for those properties to suddenly materialize who will rectify those ‘plumbing issues’…
No permits needed.
Those states are also involved in the Jade Helm operations this summer. Not saying there is a connection but I no longer believe in coincidences and think things like that are worth watching for multiple reasons. Jade Helm being only one of them. All part of gathering intel and then analyzing it.