Wal-Mart Stores, the nation’s largest retailer, is cutting about 11,200 jobs at its Sam’s Club warehouses, the company told its employees in a memo on Sunday.

The chain is eliminating about 1,200 membership recruiting jobs, or two jobs in each of the more than 600 Sam’s Club stores. Wal-Mart is also laying off 10,000 workers who demonstrate products in its Sam’s Club stores. Those demonstrations, like food sampling, will be outsourced to Shopper Events, a marketing company based in Arkansas that already handles some demonstrations at Wal-Mart stores.

David Tovar, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, said the layoffs were not a cost-cutting measure in response to a bad economy. He said that the 10,000 Sam’s Club employees who demonstrate products could apply for jobs with Shopper Events, which plans to hire roughly the same number of workers being laid off.

Still, Sam’s Club has faced stiff competition from Costco and other warehouse club stores, which have thrived as frugal consumers seek out the best deals on necessities like food and other everyday essentials. Separately this month, Wal-Mart said it would close 10 underperforming Sam’s Club stores and lay off around 1,500 workers.