Gap will lay off 1,800 of employees as major retailers like Nordstrom, Whole Foods, and Walmart make cuts

People pass by a Gap store in Manhattan.
Reuters/Eduardo Munoz

Layoffs are hitting the retail sector, primarily impacting corporate employees.
Gap, J.Crew, Nordstrom, Walmart, and more have made job cuts since the start of the year.
Still, some retailers are trying to avoid laying off store employees as the "labor hoarding" trend continues in 2023.

Layoffs have officially arrived in the retail sector.

Since the start of 2023, major retailers ranging from department stores to direct-to-consumer brands have cut staff, the latest swing in a sector that's been hit hard by labor challenges and inflation.

Most of the cuts so far have impacted corporate retail employees. At a store level, many retailers are actually holding tighter to workers than usual, even seasonal employees, in a practice economists call "labor hoarding."

Still, over three months into the year, nearly two-dozen companies have already announced layoffs impacting hundreds, sometimes thousands of employees.

Here are the retailers who have announced layoffs in 2023:

Gap: The retailer will lay off 1,800 corporate employees, as well as members of its "upper field workforce," such as regional store leaders, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It's the second round of cuts at Gap in less than a year — 500 corporate employees were let go in September.
Nordstrom: An unknown number of employees in the department store chain's tech department, including software engineers and program managers, were laid off in April. Earlier this year, Nordstrom announced it would shut down its Canadian operations by late June, resulting in about 2,500 job cuts.
Whole Foods: The Amazon-owned grocer is laying off several hundred workers. The cuts, which will take place over the next two months, will affect employees on Whole Foods' global supports teams and those who manage regional operations.
Best Buy: Hundreds of store employees across the country will be let go from the electronics retailer, The Wall Street Journal reported, though it didn't specify an amount. The layoffs will affect specialized store associates, known as consultants, according to The Journal.
David's Bridal: The embattled bridal retailer will lay off 9,236 employees nationwide, according to a WARN notice filed in Pennsylvania, where the company is headquartered. A spokesperson told the Philadelphia Inquirer that the layoffs come as David's Bridal pursues a sale of the company.

Person walks by exterior of David's Bridal store — Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Blue Nile: The direct-to-consumer jewelry company will lay off 119 employees beginning in July. The company was acquired by Signet Jewelers in 2022, and a Blue Nile spokesperson told Retail Dive that the roles are being cut as a result of the integration into its new parent company.
J.Crew: Around 40 corporate employees were laid off recently, equal to less than 3% of the company's workforce, WWD reported.
Walmart: The big box store chain has cut hundreds of jobs at store and fulfillment centers in recent weeks. Hundreds were laid off at e-commerce fulfillment centers across the country, while 480 roles were cut due to store closures in Portland, Oregon, according to documents filed with the state. The company is also closing three tech hubs in Texas, Oregon, and California and offering those employees the option to relocate to its Arkansas headquarters or accept a severance package
Gopuff: The delivery startup laid off more than 100 employees, or about 2% of its workforce, Bloomberg reported. It's Gopuff's third round of layoffs in the last year.
Zulily: The online retailer cut an undisclosed number of its nearly 2,000 corporate employees in an effort to trim expenses, Puget Sound Business Journal reported.
Poshmark: Roughly two months after being acquired by South Korean web firm Naver, Poshmark laid off less than 2% of its US workforce. Its global workforce totals over 800, according to the company's LinkedIn page.

Tag attached to clothing that reads "The RealReal" — The RealReal, founded in 2011, sells secondhand luxury clothing.
Brian Ach/Invision for The RealReal/AP Images

The RealReal: The luxury consignment company cut 230 employees, about 7% of its workforce.
Lidl: Around 200 US-based corporate employees were let go from the German grocery chain.
Neiman Marcus: The high-end department store cut 5% of staff amid a "strategic realignment to accelerate high value luxury customer growth."
REI: 167 corporate employees were laid off from the outdoors retailer in February, roughly 8% of the company's headquarters staff and 1% of its total workforce.
Stitch Fix: About 20% of the brand's salaried workforce of 1,700 employees were cut in January amid slowing sales and a shrinking customer base.
Everlane: 17% of the direct-to-consumer clothing brand's corporate staff and less than 3% of retail workforce were cut in an effort to "improve profitability in 2023."

Wayfair: The online home goods retailer cut 1,750 jobs, or about 10% of its workforce in January. The majority of the layoffs, about 1,200 positions, were corporate employees in an effort to "eliminate management layers and reorganize to be more agile," Wayfair said.
Saks.com: At least 100 positions were eliminated at the e-commerce branch of Saks Fifth Avenue, or about 3.5% of its staff. Saks Off 5th's e-commerce site also conducted layoffs, though it's unclear how many workers were impacted.
The Bay: The e-commerce arm of Canadian department store Hudson's Bay laid off less than 2% of its employees.
Ruggable: The direct-to-consumer rug brand cut 100 corporate jobs in what the company said was a move to better position it for "today's challenging economic environment."
Amazon: About 18,000 employees were laid off in January, many of them focused on the e-commerce giant's brick-and-mortar retail business.
Zappos: More than 300 workers, or about a fifth of the workforce, were cut from the Amazon-owned online shoe brand as part of the January layoffs.