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

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.