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

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.