Sam's Club
American membership-only warehouse club chain / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Sam's West, Inc. (doing business as Sam's Club) is an American chain of membership-only warehouse club retail stores owned and operated by Walmart Inc., founded in 1983 and named after Walmart founder Sam Walton as Sam's Wholesale Club.[4] As of January 31, 2019[update], Sam's Club ranks second in sales volume among warehouse clubs with $84.3 billion in sales[5] (in fiscal year 2023), behind its main rival Costco Wholesale.[6]
 | This article needs to be updated. (June 2021) |
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 Sam's Club in Onalaska, Wisconsin | |
| Sam's Club | |
| Formerly | Sam's Wholesale Club (1983-1990) |
| Company type | Division |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | April 7, 1983; 41 years ago (1983-04-07), in Midwest City, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Founder | Sam Walton |
| Headquarters | , U.S. |
Number of locations | 599 U.S. (as of October 31, 2023[update])[1] |
Areas served | United States Mexico China Brazil (Legally independent) |
Key people | Chris Nicholas (CEO) |
| Products | |
| Brands |
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| Members |  69 million[2] (2022) |
Number of employees | 2,300,000[3] (2023) |
| Parent | Walmart Inc. |
| Website | www |
As of October 31, 2023[update], Sam's Club operates 599 membership warehouse clubs in the United States across 45 states and Puerto Rico, with no locations in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Rhode Island.[1] Sam's Club offers car wash services at gas stations in 41 locations.[7]
Sam's Club also operates 168 locations in Mexico and 45 locations in China.[1] Grupo Big, formerly Walmart Brazil, which was de-consolidated from Walmart in August 2018, also operates Sam's Club locations in Brazil. Locations generally range in size from 32,000–168,000 sq ft (3,000–15,600 m2), with an average club size of approximately 134,000 sq ft (12,400 m2).[5] Sam's Club formerly had 6 locations in Canada from 2006 to 2009.
On January 11, 2018, Sam's Club announced the permanent closure of select stores. In a number of cases, employees showed up to work and found the doors locked and a notice saying that the store would soon be liquidated.[8][9][10] Walmart eventually told Business Insider that 63 Sam's Club stores would begin liquidating across the country, including in Alaska, Arizona, California, Illinois, New York, Ohio, and Texas.[11]
According to Business Insider, the closure of Sam's Club locations and plans to convert some stores into e-commerce fulfillment centers as announced in January 2018 are part of Walmart's growing commitment to online retailing that will allow it to better compete with rival Amazon.[12]