RELATED: Walmart will convert 10 closed Sam's Club stores to online fulfillment centers

(Editor's note: This story was updated as new information became available.)

Employees at a reported 63 Sam's Club stores across the U.S. learned abruptly on January 11 that they'd lose their jobs as Walmart announced a wave of store closings.

The store told customers in a Tweet that it would "close a series of clubs" to better align the store portfolio with its strategy.

Reports developing in other states indicated initially that the total store closings could top 260, including all of the clubs in Alaska.

At least two Sam's Club stores are affected in Michigan: The store at 340 East Edgewood Boulevard in Lansing and the one at 32625 Northwestern Highway in Farmington Hills.

Documents filed with the state of Michigan offer insight on the number of employees affected:

Lansing: 172

Farmington Hills: 158

Those documents say the stores will close to the public on January 26. Hourly staff will be terminated as of March 16, and managers will be terminated as of April 13.

Employees told WILX-TV of Lansing that their store did not open on January 11 as staff learned it would close. Both affected stores will reopen to the public on January 12.

Walmart officials made news earlier in the day by announcing they'd raise their minimum wage to $11 per hour.

However, the Sam's Club closings is coming without an announcement. No information is available so far from the company spokeswoman; this report will be updated as information becomes available.

Walmart closed 154 stores nationwide in 2016, including two in Michigan: A Walmart in Hartland and Sam's Club in Waterford Township.

Since then, it's aggressively fought for both discount store and grocery market share in an increasingly competitive market. Walmart joined Target in battling for holiday dollars against online dominator Amazon.

Part of the competition prompted Walmart stores to upgrade technology and layouts, including adding options for online sales and in-store pickup. Twelve stores in Michigan were targeted for upgrades in 2017. It also opened a store in Whitehall.

But the Sam's Club division competes in many markets with Costco - and, in a different way, Amazon. It also had to upgrade digital capabilities as well as "scan and go" options.

Sam's Club net sales growth for the 2017 fiscal year, reported in March, was 0.9 percent. At that time, it operated 660 stores.