May 13 (Reuters) - Walmart ( WMT ) is cutting hundreds

of corporate jobs and asking most remote workers to relocate to

three main tech offices or quit the company, a source familiar

with the matter said on Tuesday.

Workers at the U.S. retail giant's smaller offices in

Dallas, Atlanta and Toronto are being asked to move to other

central hubs such as Walmart's ( WMT ) corporate base in Bentonville,

Arkansas, as well as Hoboken, New Jersey, or Sunnyvale,

California, the source told Reuters. Walmart ( WMT ) will close those

smaller hubs later this year, the source added.

On a "business update" call with employees on Monday, remote

workers were given until July 1 to make a decision about

relocating or to quit with severance, according to the source,

who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Those who choose to leave will receive two weeks pay for

every year they worked at Walmart ( WMT ) as severance, the source said.

Walmart's ( WMT ) job cuts underscore its efforts to cut costs as

discretionary spending in the United States remains strained.

Spending among Americans has remained weak compared to 2021, at

least for non-essential, discretionary merchandise like

clothing, according to surveys by Deloitte.

The retailer is set to report first-quarter results on

Thursday. Walmart ( WMT ) employed about 2.1 million workers as of Jan.

31, most of them store and warehouse associates.

Walmart ( WMT ) shares were down 1.2% at $59.66 in midday trading on

Tuesday.

Walmart ( WMT ) is in the middle of building a new headquarters

complex just a few miles from its old one in Arkansas. Built on

a 350-acre (140 hectares) property, the campus will include 12

office buildings, a hotel, a childcare and fitness center and

multiple outdoor spaces dotted with restaurants and stores,

according to Walmart's ( WMT ) website.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for

comment.

"This is likely just part of a broader push towards

operational efficiency. The mandate that remote workers report

into the office is a closet way to get people to quit instead of

doing a layoff," said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex

Wealth Management, which holds Walmart ( WMT ) in mutual funds and ETFs

it manages.

"Giving people a choice to relocate to a hub isn't much of a

choice. It's more of a choice of whether to quit or not,"

Jacobsen added.

Walmart ( WMT ) last month said it would close all 51 of its health

clinics and shut its virtual healthcare operations, saying it

could not see it as a sustainable business model. The company

also said last year it expects about 65% of its stores to be

serviced by automation by the end of its fiscal year 2026.