The closure of three Sam's Club stores in New Jersey earlier this month resulted in potenital lay offs for more than 500 employees, according to a filing with the state Department of Labor.
The three stores closed by Sam's Club parent company Walmart are in Mount Olive, Linden and West Windsor.
The layoff notices filed listed the number employees affected at 187 for the Linden store, 196 for the West Windsor store and 144 in Mount Olive, for a total of 527 employees.
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The numbers were revealed in a WARN (The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act) notice published by the state department of labor this week. State law requires a WARN notice when a company plans a large-scale layoff.
Employees of the closed stores will be paid for 60 days and can apply for work at other Sam's Club or Walmart stores, the company said.
If associates haven't transferred at the end of the 60 days they will receive severance pay, if eligible. Sam's Club said it wasn't sure how many of the 527 will land at another store.
"Our hope is that many associates at the Club will choose to stay with the company via transfer and we'll begin working to make that happen," a Sam's Club spokeswoman said in a statement.
There are seven Sam's Club stores left in the state.
The pharmacy in the Mount Olive store stayed open until Friday.
Sam's Club owner Walmart shut down 63 stores across the country.
"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," Walmart said in a statement earlier this month. Closing clubs is never easy and we're committed to working with impacted members and associates through this transition."
The store closings were disclosed at nearly the same time Walmart announced that it would boost its starting wage for U.S. workers to $11 an hour, provide bonuses to certain associates and expand maternity and parental leave.
Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.