Sam's Club Adding 30+ New Stores in First Expansion in years

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mbz321
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Re: Sam's Club Adding 30+ New Stores in First Expansion in years

Post by mbz321 »

Again on a deal forum, there is another promo for a $25 membership and a supposed $10 credit back on your first purchase, and the commenters indicate you can make a new account just by using a different email address. It seems Sam's is unable to escape these promotional membership deals.
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Re: Sam's Club Adding 30+ New Stores in First Expansion in years

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: February 5th, 2023, 10:28 am
buckguy wrote: February 5th, 2023, 7:11 am Sams relies a lot on promotional pricing of their memberships and if they take that away, they'd need to be much better than Costco to sustain growth. They also have to compete with BJs in Eastern and Midwestern markets who seem to have their own loyal fans.

Costco has locations on this side of the country that I doubt Sam's/WM would be able to duplicate. A few examples--an empty mall anchor they probably got on very favorable terms in Wheaton MD, the last large area for retail construction in DC proper--right off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and and the main freeway through DC----and an inner ring location near Amazon's second HQ with a lot of new residential construction-----they got that when the area was somewhat in decline. Those stores do enormous volumes. The one near the recently closed Mayfield Heights Ohio Walmart is in an unusual location (next to a freeway surrounded by residential) in a prime big box area--again, enormous volumes in a first rate area with nothing like their space likely to be available in the future. I've seen some similar kinds of locations in other cities. Costco seems much more creative in its locations and knows how to reach its demographic.

Costco also seems willing to experiment with broadening their product line with things like Vitamix blenders at the high end and quality clothing lines toward the lower/middle end.
I don't think Sam's is ever going to beat Costco. It isn't going to happen. But they are going to be making some inroads and making their presence more felt. I also think this Sam's expansion will take some grocery marketshare from some parties. I am not sure which parties. Part of the challenge of a Sam's expansion is going to be to not take share from Wal Mart which I think a lot of changes they've made in the past few years will help them capture a different customer.

Sam's has significantly broadened its product lines in clothing and kitchen products in recent years. I suggest visiting some Sam's locations to see what they are doing and give the entire place a hard walk.
I agree they'll never beat Costco. But in many categories of retail it seems these days there is one leader and everyone else failing because all they want to do is try to chase the leader which is a failing strategy. Rare examples where a strong national second place store emerges with a differentiated brand have been Target to Walmart and Lowe's to Home Depot. I am willing to now put Sam's Club in that list compared to Costco. Until they reworked their business they were not a worthy competitor. I really can't think of any true, highly effective and innovative 2nd place players in any other retail sector besides Target, Lowe's and Sam's. These are important and valuable players because they can safely stand on their own but they constantly challenge the first place brand to keep innovating, keep prices competitive etc. which means everyone wins. Do you think Home Depot ever would have executed the massive cleanup of their dirty, messy warehouses a couple of decades ago if Lowe's hadn't suddenly built a strong national footprint with bright, clean stores? Would Walmart try at all if Target wasn't there?

Examples of the endless chase which leads to self destruction have included Borders vs Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority vs Dicks, Circuit City vs Best Buy, etc. If those stores had found a niche and built a model around it they would still be around.
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Re: Sam's Club Adding 30+ New Stores in First Expansion in years

Post by ClownLoach »

mbz321 wrote: February 7th, 2023, 8:06 am Again on a deal forum, there is another promo for a $25 membership and a supposed $10 credit back on your first purchase, and the commenters indicate you can make a new account just by using a different email address. It seems Sam's is unable to escape these promotional membership deals.
Frankly with how much better Sam's is today than just three or four years ago I would be sending out free visit offers to the whole country, including every lapsed member, just to get them back in the door and show them how much they have improved. They would undoubtedly make a fortune and get a lot of permanent sign-ups at full price.

Again if you play the cancel-new promo game you won't be able to use Scan and Go as it forces verification after a few visits/over a certain payment threshold, won't be able to get Sam's Cash back, won't be able to get the store credit card which has great cash back, won't be able to get merchandise delivered (as it does already catch same name and address), and the most important thing that gets missed is that they cut off their return policy. At both Costco and Sam's if you let your membership expire then you cannot make a return. If you bought something expensive and played one of these promotion games you would forfeit your return policy once the first membership ends. The new membership will not have the old items on the purchase record so they're now not eligible for a return. Costco has plenty of membership deals as well and usually offers them on Slickdeals and Groupon.

Anyone who is serious about shopping one of these stores who plays the membership discount game is ultimately going to wind up less satisfied and paying more. Between my Costco executive membership and my Costco Visa I will get about $1200 back this year. That's a lot more than I would save by screwing around and looking for a $25 off membership deal. When you look at it from that perspective they might as well keep doing the freebie deals because they don't have to give the customer any incentives and aren't on the hook if they're suddenly dissatisfied with their ten year old couch.
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Re: Sam's Club Adding 30+ New Stores in First Expansion in years

Post by storewanderer »

In the 90's, Sam's often had a free visit for a day pass included in coupon circulars in the Sunday newspaper (this was before Sam's was in my area) and I always wondered how that worked or if it was somehow tracked.

Costco can easily process a refund for a non-member. It requires a few keystrokes on the register, a manager override, and then it is supposed to be put onto a Cash Card. But nothing in the system forces the Cash Card... it is up to the employee following policy at that point. It gets a bit murky with online orders returned by non-members which are per policy supposed to go back to the original form of payment and explicitly NOT onto a Cash Card.

Sam's may have a way to process refunds for non-members but my guess is it is very difficult if not blocked entirely by the system. I suspect they have a no receipt return option though, but still need to scan a membership to proceed, then they print that weird store credit via the cash register. This makes it so you have to use that store credit there at Sam's inside the store (whereas a physical gift card you could just go use at Wal Mart or at their gas pump).
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Re: Sam's Club Adding 30+ New Stores in First Expansion in years

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: February 9th, 2023, 12:18 am In the 90's, Sam's often had a free visit for a day pass included in coupon circulars in the Sunday newspaper (this was before Sam's was in my area) and I always wondered how that worked or if it was somehow tracked.

Costco can easily process a refund for a non-member. It requires a few keystrokes on the register, a manager override, and then it is supposed to be put onto a Cash Card. But nothing in the system forces the Cash Card... it is up to the employee following policy at that point. It gets a bit murky with online orders returned by non-members which are per policy supposed to go back to the original form of payment and explicitly NOT onto a Cash Card.

Sam's may have a way to process refunds for non-members but my guess is it is very difficult if not blocked entirely by the system. I suspect they have a no receipt return option though, but still need to scan a membership to proceed, then they print that weird store credit via the cash register. This makes it so you have to use that store credit there at Sam's inside the store (whereas a physical gift card you could just go use at Wal Mart or at their gas pump).
Sam's needs a membership that is valid to start a return unless they use the single old fashioned register at the counter. They try not to use the register anymore and have an iPad app where they use the camera to scan the membership and then the item. It spits out a receipt that says "Express Returns" as the app tries to sort out what receipt was used. Lots of problems here, it automatically refunds the lowest price paid so in theory without your receipt present if you bought before at a higher price and bought again lower, then tried to return the first purchase it will refund the second one instead. Opposite if you tried to return an item where the price went up recently and you buy it regularly it'll refund off an older receipt. And it seems to take longer than any other retailer I've seen to refund to the credit card, a solid 5 business days. Only workaround for both is to bring your receipt and insist on it being scanned.

Costco has finally installed a new POS system which so far is only on the registers used for returns. It is a touchscreen system that has a lot of capabilities; right now what I have noticed is that they just scan the membership and item but never look at a receipt anymore. The system automatically looks up the receipt. I have seen them deny returns to expired members claiming that they can't complete the process.
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Re: Sam's Club Adding 30+ New Stores in First Expansion in years

Post by storewanderer »

I noticed the refund seemed very slow on that Sam's system. I have a habit of keeping refund receipts until I see them post to my credit card and lately some places refunds post immediately but the Sam's one I noticed I didn't see it for many days.

That is great Costco is finally upgrading their system. This will enable them to better monitor returns. It also will help get them better data if they ever determine a need of a tightening of the return policy.

I understand refunding the lowest price if there were multiple receipts.

At stores with a "no price adjustment policy" or with seasonal goods, I have dealt with people who would use an item, then if they saw it go cheaper, go buy a new one at the cheaper price, and return it using the older receipt with the higher price on it. What amazed me is these customers would literally tell me what they were doing, and then rub it that they did it since the "price adjustment policy was so few days." I consider that to be return fraud but at the end of the day what do you do if they want money back on a sell-able item; is it worth fighting? Nope. At least on some large ticket items where the serial number is captured on the receipt it shuts them down.
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