History
Sam Walton opened the first Sam's Wholesale Club on April 7, 1983, in Midwest City, Oklahoma, 21 years after he founded Walmart.[11]
In 1987, Wal-Mart Stores purchased West Monroe, Louisiana-based SuperSaver Wholesale Warehouse Club; the purchase expanded the Sam's Wholesale Club chain by 24 locations. Prior to the acquisition, the stores were owned by Alton Hardy Howard and his son John.[12]
In 1989, Sam's Wholesale Club opened its first club in New Jersey in a former Two Guys/Jefferson Ward store located in Delran. This was Walmart's first expansion into the Northeast.[13]
In 1990, Sam's Wholesale Club was renamed Sam's Club, dropping off "Wholesale". The same year, the first Sam's Club opened in Pennsylvania.[14]
In 1993, Walmart acquired PACE Membership Warehouse from K-mart and converted a majority of PACE locations into Sam's Club stores.[15]
Sam's Club entered the Canadian market in Southern Ontario (all but one in the Greater Toronto Area/Golden Horseshoe) in 2003.[16]
The latest flagship club opening as of September 13, 2007, was in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The largest Sam's Club store is located in Pineville, North Carolina, with 185000 sqft of retail space that was formerly an Incredible Universe.
On September 24, 2006, Sam's Club unveiled a new logo with an updated serif font.[17]
Starting in April 2007, there was speculation of a possible sale or spinoff of Sam's Club from parent company Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.[18][19]
On February 26, 2009, Walmart Canada announced that it would be closing all six of its Canadian Sam's Club locations.[20][21][22] This was part of Walmart Canada's decision to shift focus towards other superstores, but some industry observers suggested that the operation was struggling in competition with Costco and the non-membership The Real Canadian Superstore, that had a well-established history in the country. Sam's Club also rebranded the two as yet unopened locations as new Wal-Mart stores.[23] In January 2010, it was announced that ten clubs would be closing, including four in California. At the same time, Sam's opened six new clubs at various locations in the United States.[24]
On January 24, 2010, it was announced that approximately 11,200 Sam's Club employees would be laid off. The layoffs resulted from the decision to outsource product sampling duties to an outside company (Rogers, Arkansas-based Shopper Events, which already performs in-store product demonstrations for Walmart) and to eliminate New Business Membership Representative positions throughout the chain. Most of the laid-off employees were part-time and represented about 10% of the total Sam's Club workforce.[25]
Rosalind Brewer was named as the new CEO for Sam's Club, a change that came into effect on February 1, 2012.[26]
On January 24, 2014, it was announced that Walmart will cut 2,300 jobs at the underperforming Sam's Club locations.[27]
In 2016, Sam's Club rolled out a mobile application that allows users to scan items while they shop and pay for them, skipping the checkout line.[28] By December 2016, the app could be used at all locations in the United States. In 2019, the dedicated scanning app was deprecated, and its features were incorporated into the main Sam's Club app.[29]
On February 1, 2017, John Furner replaced Brewer as CEO of Sam's Club.[30]
On January 11, 2018, Walmart announced that 63 Sam's Club locations in cities including Memphis, Houston, Seattle, and others would be closing.[31] Some of the stores had already liquidated, without notifying employees, some employees learned by a company-wide email delivered January 11. All of the 63 stores were gone from the Sam's Club website as of the morning of January 11, 2018. Walmart said that ten of the stores will become e-commerce distribution centers and employees can reapply to work at those locations. Business Insider magazine calculated that over 11,000 workers will be affected.[32][33] On the same day, Walmart announced that as a result of the new tax law, it would be raising Walmart starting wages, distributing bonuses, expanding its leave policies and contributing toward the cost of employees' adoptions. Doug McMillon, Walmart's CEO, said, "We are early in the stages of assessing the opportunities tax reform creates for us to invest in our customers and associates and to further strengthen our business, all of which should benefit our shareholders."[34]
On November 15, 2019, Kathryn McLay succeeded Furner as CEO of Sam's Club.[35] McLay announced plans in 2023 for the company to build 30 stores.[36] She became CEO of Walmart International in 2023 and was succeeded as Sam's Club CEO by Christopher Nicholas.[37]
As of January 2024, Sam's Club used an artificial intelligence-based receipt-checking technology at 10 stores that required customers to move through a portal to verify purchases. The company announced plans to put the technology in all of its stores by the end of 2024.[38][39]
In April 2025, Sam's Club announced the nationwide implementation of its AI-powered receipt verification technology across all 600 US locations.[40]
