Sam's Club: Chongqing Customers Have Huge Passion towards Quality Products

Chongqing - Walmart’s chain of paid membership retailer Sam’s Club decided this August to open its second store in Chongqing at Jiulongpo District.

The new store in Jiulongpo District occupies four floors in an independent building, much larger than the one in Liangjiang New Area, according to Liu Jing, Regional General Manager of Cooperate Affairs of Walmart China.

“Chongqing customers have a huge passion for Sam’s Club. We’re really impressed especially during the first week of its opening up here,” she said, “the customers here pay much attention to the quality and to the brand”. She implied the optimistic evaluation of Sam’s Club towards the Chongqing market.

Chongqing has attracted international retail brands as it has kept opening up since the 1990s. Carrefour, Metro, and Walmart entered this market one after another nearly twenty years ago. Now, with the steps of Chongqing's further opening-up and the goal to build the international consumption center, the preferential policies ready to be implemented and the business environment that has been improving will keep attracting global supermarkets to settle in this open front of Inland China.

Since 1996 when Sam’s Club for the first time entered Asian markets by opening a store in Shenzhen, it has fast grown to be the largest chain of paid membership retailers in China with 34 stores. Its main world competitor Costco, which also came from the United States, has only one store operating in China. Up to the end of 2021, Sam’s Club in China has over four million paid members, roughly one-tenth of the total number.

The first Sam's Club in Chongqing opened at Lijia. where the government claims to build a smart and green community with high-quality modern services. (Photo/Liangjiang New Area Media Center)

As a high-end supermarket, Sam’s Club features large packages. This might let customers who never tried such shopping way feel the goods rather costly and unmeet of what they actually need. Yet, Sam’s Club is still expanding nationwide, proving with actions that it has the confidence to shape Chinese customers with the new shopping habit.

“Sam’s main profits actually come from the membership payments, instead of selling goods. This is quite new to many people, as well as to some other retailers,” explained Liu.

Sam’s Club claims to have a supply chain based on both international and domestic suppliers. The purchasing staff will travel around the world, taking a selective attitude for choosing goods to put on the shelves.

“We have driven down the prices on which we don’t depend to make profits. If you calculate by the unit price, it’s not so expensive. More importantly, we want our customers to recognize our ‘quality products', and truly believe that Sam’s Club is reliable,” said Liu.

Sam's purchasing staffs purchase over 4,000 products worldwide. In Chongqing, about 3,600 products are put on the shelves. (iChongqing/Kenny Dong)

Offline shopping is recently shadowed by e-commerce, though online shopping can’t leave with real-life support, such as modern logistics. In fact, many offline stores choose to open their online channel. Empowered by the strong logistic system that traditional retailers are good at, those stores find a new and fashionable way to compete with e-commerce giants.

Sam’s Club is a trier in combining offline stores and online ordering. Unlike many stores which only deliver goods in a short-range, it has one store yet meeting the whole city’s delivery needs.

“The key is that our goods are not just starting from this store in Liangjiang. We have plenty of storage in the city. Some are our own, and some are operated by our cooperative partners, which vastly boosts our accessibility,” Liu explained.