Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will lay off about 2,300 Sam’s Club employees – 2 percent of the warehouse club division’s employees in the United States -- in a bid to streamline its work force.
"We're doing this to rebalance our resources more effectively across our clubs to align our structure more closely to the current and future revenue of each club," Sam's Club spokesman Bill Durling toldPG. "We are eliminating certain 
hourly positions, in some cases reducing the number of assistant managers, and in some cases creating new, more senior-level positions."
He added that the action was expected to affect "four associates per club, on average."
Other Opportunities
Durling also noted that affected employees would be paid their regular salaries for 60 days to give them enough time to apply for other jobs within Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart or Sam's Club, with those unable to find a new position eligible for severance pay. "We know this is a difficult time for some of our associates, and we're doing everything we can to treat them with the utmost care and respect," he said.
Despite the layoffs, Sam’s Club said in the Los Angeles Times it still planned to open 15 new clubs in 2014. It currently operates 630.