Chicago, IL-based Grainger, in its January sales results, reported that it would be cutting costs through a combination of reduced employee travel, eliminating merit increases for executives and salaried employees, not paying incentive bonuses for 2009 unless the company meets "aggressive sales targets," and not filling open positions.
 
The company is also reducing hours for part-time employees and eliminating 300-400 jobs across the company. Part of the job elimination is due to the merger of Lab Safety Supply and Grainger Industrial Supply, according to the distributor.
 
The announcement comes after the distributor reported that daily sales fell 9% in January from the January 2008, due to weakened demand across all customer end-markets and geographies.