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Walmart To Lay Off 2,300 Sam's Club Employees

TROUBLE AT WALMART?
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A store associate watches as a customer leaves with her purchases at Sam's Club in Jackson, Miss., Thursday, Sept. 9, 2010. Inventories held by wholesalers surged in July by the largest amount in two years while sales rebounded after two straight declines. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Walmart plans to lay off roughly 2,300 employees of Sam's Club, the retail giant's membership-only club, CNBC reported via Twitter Friday. A large number of those getting laid off will be assistant managers at stores with weak sales, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Sam's Club on its own is the eighth largest retailer in the country, according to the company's website. More from the Associated Press:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is eliminating 2,300 workers at its Sam's Club division as it reduces the ranks of middle managers in a bid to be more nimble.

The layoffs, which cut 2 percent of the membership club's employee count of about 116,000, mark the largest since 2010 when the Sam's Club unit laid off 10,000 workers as it moved to outsource food demonstrations at its stores.

Bill Durling, a spokesman at Sam's Club, says that a little less than half of the cuts were aimed at salaried assistant managers. It is also eliminating some hourly workers.

The cuts come as Sam's Club strives to compete with Costco Wholesale Corp. and online players like Amazon.com's Prime membership service.

Wal-Mart is based in Bentonville, Ark.

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Before You Go

People Who Hate The Minimum Wage
Rick Perry(01 of11)
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Texas governor and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry criticized the commerce clause for creating minimum wage laws in his book "Fed Up! Our Fight To America From Washington." (credit:AP)
Herman Cain(02 of11)
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Though Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain never outright advocated abolishing the minimum wage, he did argue that minimum wage laws prevent workers at the margins from getting their first jobs. Cain was an executive in the restaurant industry, which is one of the largest employers of low-wage workers. (credit:Getty Images)
Alaska Tea Party Senate Candidate Joe Miller(03 of11)
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When he was running for Senate in 2010, Joe Miller, a Republican Senate candidate, told ABC News that "there should not be" a federal minimum wage. (credit:AP)
Ron Paul(04 of11)
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Famed libertarian and former Republican Congressman and presidential candidate said during a presidential debate in 2011 that the country would "absolutely" be better off if the minimum wage was abolished because "it would help the poor people." (credit:AP)
Peter Schiff(05 of11)
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Frequent Fox guest Peter Schiff claimed in September 2011 that the minimum wage was "one of the most anti-poor people" rules in the country, according to Media Matters. (credit:WikiMedia:)
Republican West Virginia Senate Candidate John Raese(06 of11)
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When he was running for Senate in 2008, West Virginia Republican John Raese called the federally mandated minimum wage "an archaic system that has never worked," according to Politico. (credit:AP)
Michele Bachmann(07 of11)
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Minnesota Congresswoman and one-time Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann said in June 2011 that she supports abolishing the minimum wage. (credit:AP)
Las Vegas Chamber Of Commerce(08 of11)
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A spokesperson for the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce argued in favor of a 2011 proposal to repeal Nevada's minimum wage, saying that a minimum wage doesn't have to be locked into the Constitution, according to the Las Vegas Sun. (credit:Getty Images)
Rand Paul(09 of11)
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Republican Kentucky Senator Rand Paul said in 2010 that while Congress has the right to mandate a minimum wage, he's not sure it's such a good idea. "I think the question you have to ask is whether or not when you set the minimum wage it may cause unemployment, the son of Libertarian Ron Paul said, according to ABC News. (credit:AP)
Alan Greenspan(10 of11)
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The former Federal Reserve Chairman said at a congressional hearing in 2001 that he would get rid of the minimum wage if he had the power, according to a Wall Street Journal report at the time. "I'm not in favor of cutting anybody's earnings or preventing them from rising, but I am against them losing their jobs because of artificial government intervention, which is essentially what the minimum wage is," he said. (credit:Getty Images)
The New York Times In 1987(11 of11)
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In a 1987 editorial, the New York Times argued for eliminating the minimum wage saying that it's "an idea whose time has passed." (credit:Getty Images)
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