Walmart Offers Store Managers Company Stock to Make Them Feel Like ‘Owners’

Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, is raising salaries and benefits for store managers as it looks for ways to retain them.

Walmart said on Monday that managers of its U.S. stores would be eligible for grants of up to $20,000 in company stock every year. The stock will vest over a three-year period, with a percentage vested each quarter.

Earlier this month, Walmart said it would increase the average salary for store managers to $128,000 from $117,000. The big-box retailer also said bonuses for store managers could reach up to 200 percent of base salary, with a store’s profitability becoming a bigger factor in the calculation.

Store managers are crucial in driving sales and profitability within their stores and keeping morale high in a dynamic business. The managers are also seen as an important pipeline for leadership at the company.

A store manager at a Walmart Supercenter oversees hundreds of employees who work across a variety of departments, including food, apparel, pharmacies and auto centers. These stores often attract scores of shoppers and bring in millions of dollars in sales each year. At the start of the Covid pandemic, store managers were given even more responsibilities as the company adapted to changing consumer behavior, including managing e-commerce abilities like in-store pickup for online orders and navigating goods that are out of stock as well as excess inventory.

“It’s fair to say that we’re asking them to act like owners and to think like owners,” John Furner, the chief executive of Walmart U.S. and previously a manager at a company store, said in a briefing with reporters.