Sam’s Club is checking out of Swedesboro, New Jersey.
Walmart will close its Swedesboro, New Jersey, Sam’s Club fulfillment center in March 2025, it told state officials in a notice Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act) According to the WARN notice, the closure will affect 113 employees.
A Walmart spokesperson said the facility’s closure comes as the company evaluates how to provide the best service to its Walmart and Sam’s Club customers throughout the state.
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“We’re continuously evolving our fulfillment network to improve service for our customers and members as their needs change. We are relocating operations from our fulfillment center…in Swedesboro, New Jersey, to other facilities within our fulfillment network,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We’re grateful for the contributions our associates make to our customers and members every day and are hopeful they will continue their careers with Walmart.”
The spokesperson said Walmart and Sam’s Club will work with affected associates to transfer to other facilities, whether distribution centers, fulfillment centers, stores in the area or otherwise. As of last week, the Swedesboro facility had career counselors on site to help employees determine what their next step might be. Per its WARN filing with the state, any employee that does not secure a new opportunity with Walmart by March 7 will face permanent termination upon the facility’s closure.
In New Jersey in 2024, WARN notices filed by Walmart show that choices around reconfiguration of its distribution and fulfillment capabilities has been the catalyst for 621 layoffs or transfers.
What the next step looks like for those facing layoffs varies based on their career desires and location preferences.
The company has placed an onus on what it calls next-generation fulfillment centers, and will incentivize employees affected by the Swedesboro cuts to join one of those operations. It currently has four of those, in Greencastle, Pennsylvania; Lancaster, Texas; Joliet, Illinois and McCordsville, Indiana, with another facility planned for 2026 in Stockton, California.
According to Walmart, those facilities add “game-changing automation” to processes and use technology to aid associates in the picking, packing and shipping processes. They also provide “more comfort for associates, double the storage capacity and double the number of customer orders [Walmart is] able to fulfill in a day.”
If employees choose to relocate to one of those facilities—the closest being Greencastle, about a three-hour drive from Swedesboro—they will receive a $7,500 transfer bonus, as well as relocation costs, if they are eligible, the Walmart spokesperson said. They will also “receive on-the-job training to work with the most advanced fulfillment technology,” the company said in a statement.
However, Walmart will also enable employees to transfer to other facilities in the areas surrounding Swedesboro. Despite closing a facility in Pedricktown, New Jersey, earlier this year, it still has one remaining fulfillment center there. Other options include a distribution center in Smyrna, Delaware, about 40 miles South of Swedesboro or a facility about 40 miles North in West Hampton, New Jersey.
When Walmart closed its other Pedricktown facility earlier this year, it noted that it planned to move operations previously carried out there to the Greencastle facility. The Walmart spokesperson declined to disclose what percentage of the Pedricktown employees moved to the Pennsylvania-based next-generation fulfillment center, but said “a lot” of the associates took the company up on its offer to relocate.
While the Swedesboro facility closure is imminent, the spokesperson said Walmart remains interested in investing in New Jersey and its customers there. Earlier this year, the retail giant announced it would open a 700,000-square-foot perishable distribution center in Pilesgrove, New Jersey, by 2027. It expects that facility to create 400 jobs in the region.
