I agree that Costco's B2B operation is very dominant. I see Kirkland everywhere in small businesses in my area.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 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