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Re: Multiple Sam's Club Stores to close

Posted: February 2nd, 2018, 8:08 pm
by arizonaguy
buckguy wrote: February 2nd, 2018, 7:50 pm The idea that they want to reboot is kindof funny and doesn't fit with closing stores in relatively upscale areas. The funny part is that moving upscale is very difficult to do and selling suchi at Sam's isn't going to do it. I also doubt that they do all that well with B2B. The norm rather than the exception with small businesses seems to be that you find all kinds of Kirkland products (i.e., Costco) in the bathrooms, behind the register, etc. WM has a chronically underpeforming operation that will never be dominant in its niche and the best thing they can do is quietly phase it out and that may be the real strategy here.
I agree that Costco's B2B operation is very dominant. I see Kirkland everywhere in small businesses in my area.

I don't think that Walmart is trying to phase Sam's Club out.

Many of the stores closed were in locations that suffered from the following:

a.) High cost of distribution (Alaska)
b.) Changing demographics hurt business
c.) Over stored for the market (Chicago West Suburbs, Cincinnati, others)
d.) Built for development that never materialized
e.) Couldn't compete with nearby Costco

Re: Multiple Sam's Club Stores to close

Posted: February 3rd, 2018, 8:24 am
by pseudo3d
buckguy wrote: February 2nd, 2018, 7:50 pm The idea that they want to reboot is kindof funny and doesn't fit with closing stores in relatively upscale areas. The funny part is that moving upscale is very difficult to do and selling suchi at Sam's isn't going to do it. I also doubt that they do all that well with B2B. The norm rather than the exception with small businesses seems to be that you find all kinds of Kirkland products (i.e., Costco) in the bathrooms, behind the register, etc. WM has a chronically underpeforming operation that will never be dominant in its niche and the best thing they can do is quietly phase it out and that may be the real strategy here.
I think I mentioned that the Sam's Club prototype for business customers crashed and burned in less than two years, so unless Walmart can actually fix that idea, they're up a creek for that one.

Re: Multiple Sam's Club Stores to close

Posted: February 3rd, 2018, 10:05 am
by jamcool
How does BJ’s Warehouse manage to thrive between Sam’s & Costco?

Re: Multiple Sam's Club Stores to close

Posted: February 3rd, 2018, 11:52 am
by BillyGr
jamcool wrote: February 3rd, 2018, 10:05 am How does BJ’s Warehouse manage to thrive between Sam’s & Costco?
Not sure how many areas this applies to, but most of this area (Albany NY and northward) has a limited amount of Sam's Club stores and BJ's but nothing from Costco so BJ's has the upper hand in this area.

Costco has been mentioned a couple places over the years but has never actually gotten a store opened.

Re: Multiple Sam's Club Stores to close

Posted: February 3rd, 2018, 10:37 pm
by storewanderer
I wonder if we could see a situation where BJ's takes over Sam's Club and anything that needs to be divested goes to Costco?

Re: Multiple Sam's Club Stores to close

Posted: February 4th, 2018, 8:21 am
by TW-Upstate NY
BillyGr wrote: February 3rd, 2018, 11:52 am
jamcool wrote: February 3rd, 2018, 10:05 am How does BJ’s Warehouse manage to thrive between Sam’s & Costco?
Not sure how many areas this applies to, but most of this area (Albany NY and northward) has a limited amount of Sam's Club stores and BJ's but nothing from Costco so BJ's has the upper hand in this area.

Costco has been mentioned a couple places over the years but has never actually gotten a store opened.
Niskayuna or Clifton Park would be natural fits for Costco. It is interesting how come they've never made it up this way. Gotta be a reason for it.

Re: Multiple Sam's Club Stores to close

Posted: February 4th, 2018, 10:54 am
by rwsandiego
TW-Upstate NY wrote: February 4th, 2018, 8:21 am
BillyGr wrote: February 3rd, 2018, 11:52 am
jamcool wrote: February 3rd, 2018, 10:05 am How does BJ’s Warehouse manage to thrive between Sam’s & Costco?
Not sure how many areas this applies to, but most of this area (Albany NY and northward) has a limited amount of Sam's Club stores and BJ's but nothing from Costco so BJ's has the upper hand in this area.

Costco has been mentioned a couple places over the years but has never actually gotten a store opened.
Niskayuna or Clifton Park would be natural fits for Costco. It is interesting how come they've never made it up this way. Gotta be a reason for it.
It could be that Costco recognizes the market would not support BJ's, Sam's Club, and Costco.

Re: Multiple Sam's Club Stores to close

Posted: February 4th, 2018, 5:58 pm
by pseudo3d
Drove past the former Sam's Club on South 610 today. It's shut up tight, still fairly well-lit but boarded up with no signs. Think I saw a fence around the building proper, probably for vandalism prevention purposes.

Re: Multiple Sam's Club Stores to close

Posted: February 4th, 2018, 6:42 pm
by storewanderer
The closed one in Sacramento is closed but no fence or anything is up. All signs are removed.

Re: Multiple Sam's Club Stores to close

Posted: February 4th, 2018, 7:38 pm
by Jeff
City Of Industry signs are down and its gated up. No fence or anything around it. There were a couple trucks in the loading docks, probably moving shelving out. Not sure what can replace this store. The center it is in is dead as a whole.