Sam’s Club turns 25, lets nonmembers shop 3 days
Posted on Saturday, April 19, 2008
Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. ’s warehouse club, marked its 25 th anniversary Friday by opening its doors to nonmembers for three days.
The last time nonmembers were allowed to shop the clubs without paying an extra 10 percent was in 2002 when Sam’s opened its 500 th outlet.
Sam’s Club has been a steady performer for Wal-Mart even as the supercenters and discount stores struggled last year with merchandising missteps that resulted in sluggish sales.
In February, the company reported sales for Sam’s Club at $ 44. 36 billion, up 6. 7 percent for fiscal 2008, which ended Jan. 31.
Since opening its first club April 7, 1983, in Midwest City, Okla. — an operation Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton described at the time as “strictly an experiment” — Sam’s Club has grown to 593 U. S. locations and 122 clubs in other countries, 83 of those in Mexico. Sam’s opened six clubs in Mexico in 2007 and plans to open five more this year.
Small-business owners have been key to Sam’s growth from the start.
“Our focus on business members has been strong over the years, but we also bring value to the individual member,” Greg Johnston, executive vice president for operations, said in a phone interview from Las Vegas, home to six Sam’s Club stores and four Costco Wholesale Corp. stores. The city is one of the few markets where the two largest warehouse club chains compete head to head.
Johnston, a 23-year veteran of Sam’s Club, said the first Sam’s Club in Midwest City opened in an existing building with a leaky roof, which meant workers had to put out buckets when it rained.
The newest Sam’s Club stores such as the one in Fayetteville feature some of Wal-Mart’s latest energy-saving and other environment-friendly features, including light-emitting diode fixtures in freezer cases, which also are equipped with sensors to turn them on and off as customers come and go; tanks to capture rainwater runoff from the roof to supply drip irrigation for landscaping and the store’s cooling system; and more than 200 skylights to reduce electricity use.
In Sam’s early days, it had no fresh meat or bakery goods — products that are now considered a big draw, especially for customers looking to stock up.
“You can’t always find everything you’re looking for, but you can buy in bulk and at good prices,” said Camille Schuster, a retail consultant and university marketing professor in Escondido, Calif.
The stores feature about 5, 000 items, compared with about 100, 000 in Wal-Mart’s supercenters.
Johnston says small-business owners remain the foundation of the club.
Sam’s spokesman Susan Koehler said business members accounted for a little more than half of the club’s $ 44. 5 billion in sales in the year that ended Jan. 31.
Nonbusiness members accounted for a little more than half of the club’s 47 million members, she said.
As higher gasoline and food costs continue to squeeze consumers, retail consultant George Whalin of Carlsbad, Calif., expects Sam’s to shine. He contends the nation is already in a recession.
“I think warehouse clubs generally are positioned to do well in the recession,” he said.
Johnston expects an economic downturn will lure more customers to Sam’s as they look for ways to stretch their dollars. “We don’t want people to have to change how they live,” he said. In Arkansas, Sam’s Club also has stores in Bentonville, Little Rock, North Little Rock, Jonesboro and Fort Smith.
To contact this reporter: spainter@arkansasonline. com
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