海角大神

Even the world鈥檚 largest retailer can鈥檛 avoid the challenges facing brick-and-mortar stores. Wal-Mart will soon from its Bentonville, Ark., headquarters and its regional offices, as The Wall Street Journal first reported this week.

The announcement comes amid a downturn for some traditional retail stores. Macy鈥檚 and Sears听are cutting back, as 海角大神 reported last week,听as more consumers shop online or at discount-rack stores, although some segments, like fast fashion, have bucked the trend. Wal-Mart, which for its next fiscal year, is also feeling the pinch. 鈥淲e are always looking for ways ,鈥� spokesman Greg Hitt told Fortune, although he did not confirm job cuts.

But unlike other troubled chains, which have closed stores and laid off retail staff, Wal-Mart is cutting costs at the corporate level. Meanwhile, it鈥檚 continuing an expensive 鈥� 鈥� effort to improve its stores by paying workers more.

For years, labor groups criticized Wal-Mart for its treatment of retail staff, including its wages and a lack of unions.听A 听found that its employees earned an estimated 12.4 percent less than retail workers as a whole, and 14.5 percent less than workers in large retail in general.

Last year, the chain announced a "," in which all employees hired before January 1st, 2016 would receive at least $10 per hour; new hires' wages would start at $9 per hour, but increase to $10 after they complete a training program.

Amid rising concerns about inequality and low minimum wages, this pay hike at the world鈥檚 largest retailer sparked debate. Some saw the wage hikes as a smart business decision that听听and reversed years of customer complaints about poor service.

But others saw the wage increase as trouble for Wal-Mart鈥檚 bottom line, and dismissed some arguments in favor of it听鈥� such as the idea that better-paid employees , helping to offset the losses of paying higher wages.听

Other critics argued the wage hike didn't go far enough, as the Monitor reported in 2015:

But advocates for low-wage workers, while supporting the wage boost, say the pay increases will have minimal effect on workers' lives without a full workweek.

Companies like Wal-Mart have turned the scheduling of part-time workers into a science, says Tsedeye Gebreselassie, senior staff attorney with the National Employment Law Project. Computer programs used by Wal-Mart and other large retail outlets piece together employee schedules and are frequently programmed to keep employees' hours below the threshold where benefits kick in, she says.

鈥淭hese are super-sophisticated programs that work in real time calculating to the minute based on customer traffic, calling people in to work and sending them home accordingly,鈥� she says. 鈥淲orking there makes it nearly impossible to plan a stable budget, have another job, or go to schools.鈥�

This week's job-cutting news听comes as the latest of several which have left . In September, the company announced it would cut 7,000 back-office positions; last October, it eliminated 450 positions at headquarters, a move it said would make Wal-Mart more "nimble."

But unlike their counterparts at Sears or Macy鈥檚, the sales associates at your local Wal-Mart are probably breathing a sigh of relief.