Walmart introduces new private label brand

[ClownLoach]

Sam Walton didn't curate a damned thing at Sam's Club. He literally stole the entire concept from Sol Price and was proud of it. He met with Sol Price and picked his brain about his Price Club membership warehouses then studied the stores out West and made his own version starting in the South.

This process was taken on almost in its entirety by Sam himself. He handpicked folks who went against the stream, so to speak, within the company. Folks who weren't afraid to speak their minds. Sam's still runs that way. The only real difference is that he's no longer alive.

They have been building all the components of a separate company for about a decade, and the change in the quality of the store, product, and employee is night and day.

There has always been a difference; I shopped in Sam's in the mid 80's when they were still fairly new and everything about it was different. They only accepted one credit card then (Discover). They did not have any of the same merchandise.

Sam's was literally lower end Walmart product in bulk quantity, usually next door to Walmart, and for years didn't have a membership fee for consumers (they would just get a free card and pay a 5% surcharge).

I don't know what clubs you shopped - Sam's always required a membership. There was only one kind originally.

They switched to their own sourcing entirely separate from Walmart and started designing and buying their own merchandise.

Sam's own autobiography says this happened at the beginning by him standing up in a Saturday meeting and telling folks that just because they were buying for that category for Wal-Mart did *not* mean they were doing so for Sam's club as they had their own merchandising team.

None of this costly work aside from the sourcing changes would be needed or a warranted expense if they did not have an ultimate goal of becoming a separate company.

So I guess by that logic that they are separating grocery too? Because it has its own distribution network already.

Sports Authority failed while Dick's Sporting Goods succeeded.

I would hardly call Dick's a big success - I see more empty stores of Dick's than open. And they fail to do a lot of things.

I have noticed ironically that Sam's features Helen Walton quotes instead of Sam Walton, another odd but key differentiator in their "family heritage" they like to discuss with their employees.

That is to prove that they support women in management, something they did not always do.

To quote you in another topic - let's agree to disagree on this one.

Sam's Club invented the consumer membership. It was free to consumers with a 5% markup. Price Club copied the model with the "Gold Star" membership which was not sustainable. The "Gold Star" evolved into what it is today, a consumer membership with the same prices but an annual fee. You can find this on the History channel amongst other places.

I agree Sam's and Costco had completely different mixes of product, and still do. The difference is that Sam's skewed more business and lower end while Costco figured out quickly after the merger with Price Club that consumers liked the stores too and skewed more to the consumer. Sam's has eliminated virtually all of the company's items in the last ten years and completely started from scratch one SKU at a time. I am one of their panel members and the amount of effort they put into addressing their quality issues is astonishing. Although I've never worked for them it provides an inside view into the inner workings as they show, and even send you upcoming products for testing and review. And I have seen specific comments I've made incorporated into the finished product so I know they actually listen. But the Sam's of today is nothing like it was 5 years ago, which is why I am seeing a divergence in their stores. Locations next to Walmart have slowed as they move further away from attracting their customers and move towards a more middle and upper class demographic of consumers. Stores away from Walmart that stand alone have never been busier. And the few stores that are adjacent to or across from a Costco I have been to are silly stupid busy, which is a problem as Sam's does not seem to be able to handle these levels of sales volume they've never seen before (see Torrance, CA for an example of this). They are going to have to figure this dilemma out or start moving warehouses away from Walmart locations.

And Dicks claims to have just completed the best quarter in the history of their company. I see empty stores too, old smaller formats that were relocated to bright, shiny, fancy new formats. I don't really buy much there but they are certainly nice stores to walk around and really took the bland, utilitarian, masculine, and boring sports retail industry to a whole new place.

[storewanderer]

Sam Walton didn't curate a damned thing at Sam's Club. He literally stole the entire concept from Sol Price and was proud of it. He met with Sol Price and picked his brain about his Price Club membership warehouses then studied the stores out West and made his own version starting in the South.

This process was taken on almost in its entirety by Sam himself. He handpicked folks who went against the stream, so to speak, within the company. Folks who weren't afraid to speak their minds. Sam's still runs that way. The only real difference is that he's no longer alive.

They have been building all the components of a separate company for about a decade, and the change in the quality of the store, product, and employee is night and day.

There has always been a difference; I shopped in Sam's in the mid 80's when they were still fairly new and everything about it was different. They only accepted one credit card then (Discover). They did not have any of the same merchandise.

Sam's was literally lower end Walmart product in bulk quantity, usually next door to Walmart, and for years didn't have a membership fee for consumers (they would just get a free card and pay a 5% surcharge).

I don't know what clubs you shopped - Sam's always required a membership. There was only one kind originally.

They switched to their own sourcing entirely separate from Walmart and started designing and buying their own merchandise.

Sam's own autobiography says this happened at the beginning by him standing up in a Saturday meeting and telling folks that just because they were buying for that category for Wal-Mart did *not* mean they were doing so for Sam's club as they had their own merchandising team.

None of this costly work aside from the sourcing changes would be needed or a warranted expense if they did not have an ultimate goal of becoming a separate company.

So I guess by that logic that they are separating grocery too? Because it has its own distribution network already.

Sports Authority failed while Dick's Sporting Goods succeeded.

I would hardly call Dick's a big success - I see more empty stores of Dick's than open. And they fail to do a lot of things.

I have noticed ironically that Sam's features Helen Walton quotes instead of Sam Walton, another odd but key differentiator in their "family heritage" they like to discuss with their employees.

That is to prove that they support women in management, something they did not always do.

To quote you in another topic - let's agree to disagree on this one.

There are some exhibits in the Bentonville museum/original store that explain Sam Walton and Sam's Club and how he got it going.

Back in the early to mid 90's and maybe even into the late 90's, on those "Sunday" newspaper coupon flyers, Sam's Club would often throw in a coupon for a "free day pass" or similar promotion. There were rules on the coupon- I think you had to pay with cash or credit (no checks). Otherwise anyone could shop at Sam's Club without a membership and there was a 10% upcharge. I think it is quite recent that they stopped allowing non-members to shop with that upcharge, like less than 5 years ago.

Sports Authority had too many stores and had financial issues with its debt. They had made a variety of questionable acquisitions. Dick's has done a lot of organic growth and established relationships with certain key important brands. Dick's is a lousy store that lost sight of many customers but they did a good job through their vendor relationships drawing new customers to their stores. Long term we will see how Dick's does... I have my predictions. But we will see.