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Walmart’s Chief Merchant Departing

Bentonville, Ark. – Walmart’s chief
merchandising officer John Fleming is leaving the company after 10 years.

Word of his departure comes days
after Walmart’s U.S. president/CEO Eduardo Castro-Wright was reassigned to
global sourcing and e-commerce duties.

In an open letter to employees, Castro-Wright’s
successor, Bill Simon, said Fleming “made a personal decision to leave the
company,” reportedly to spend more time with family. He said Fleming built a
strong team over the past decade, and described him as “the architect of
groundbreaking efforts to grow our e-commerce business, creative marketing
programs to communicate with customers and inventive merchandising initiatives.”

His role will be filled on a
temporary basis by two senior executives who oversee groceries and
replenishment.

Fleming’s efforts to upgrade
Walmart’s product assortment backfired in apparel, where more fashion-forward
looks and sizes fell flat with the chain’s customer base. More recently, the
company acknowledged it erred by cutting back SKUs to un-clutter stores and
drive efficiencies, which led to customer dissatisfaction.

This week’s changes in senior
management came as Walmart continues to struggle with weak same-store sales.
Analysts believe its core lower-income customers are spending less or spending
elsewhere, ostensibly at dollar stores and other cut-rate discounters, while
higher-income consumers who shopped Walmart during the depths of the recession
are returning to trade-up channels as the economy slowly stabilizes.

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