Wal-Mart Stores Inc. the world's largest retailer, is cutting about 1,000 management positions at its Sam's Club stores, a spokeswoman for the company's warehouse club chain said on Thursday.

Wal-Mart is consolidating about 2,800 salaried-manager positions at about 580 U.S. Sam's Club stores, spokeswoman Susan Koehler said.

The restructuring, which began in early March and is expected to be completed within the next couple of weeks, was done to improve customer service and gain more flexibility in managing the stores rather than to cut costs, Koehler said.

The retailer is trying to improve sales at its Sam's Club division as sales growth has slowed at Wal-Mart's more than 3,400 U.S. stores. A Sam's Club executive said earlier this year that the retailer was not satisfied with the club's January same-store sales gain of 3.4 percent.

To improve sales, Wal-Mart is trying to broaden Sam's Club appeal beyond that of small business owners and make its warehouses more relevant to women, who make most of a household's buying decisions.

The No. 2 U.S. warehouse club operator, which is trying to ratchet up the competition with larger rival Costco Wholesale Corp. is now offering more "affordable luxuries" such as premium wines and diamond jewelry.

Koehler said the company has created three levels of higher-paying positions to replace about 1,800 of the jobs and was offering affected employees other positions in the company.

"Our goal was all of those impacted associates would find other employment within either Wal-Mart or Sam's Clubs," Koehler said. "Most of those associates have found other positions."