Sam's Club closing stores, laying off 1,500

Warehouse clubs like Costco and BJ's are weathering the recession quite well, except for Wal-Mart's Sam's Club. The retail giant is closing 10 stores as it seeks to lower costs and rework merchandising and operations in the division.

Ten stores out of 600 may not seem like much, but that's 1,500 jobs lost and a very unusual move for a company like Wal-Mart to shutter stores without replacing them due to profitability issues.