Due to the sickly economy, San Francisco-based Williams-Sonoma plans on cutting a whopping 1,400 jobs. The gourmet cookware store -- where you can buy wildly expensive waffle irons, potato ricers, bowls, asparagus steamers, egg timers, frozen lobster souffles, and more -- will make the much-needed cuts by the end of the month, which will save the ailing company an estimated $75 million, according to reports.
Williams-Sonoma employees were told the bad news via email by company CEO Howard Lester. The missive told workers that "to bring our infrastructure in line with today’s level of business, we have made the difficult and painful decision to further reduce our workforce across all areas of our company ... It is our sincere hope and expectation that no further major reductions will be required.” After seeing almost a quarter of its store profits drop after the holiday season, the company plans to prune 18 percent of its full-time staff, shutdown a Pennsylvania call center, and close a distribution facility in Tennessee.