Sam's Club makes a controversial change Costco rejected
Both warehouse clubs have come to different solutions to the same problem.
Costco and Sam's Club serve the same audience. The two warehouse clubs have very similar business models where they promise customers low prices in exchange for them paying a membership fee.
when you visit both companies, their warehouses are very similar. They don’t call them stores as both Costco and Sam’s Club literally open up their warehouses to customers.
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There’s very little in the way of fancy merchandising and items are generally stacked on pallets and pretty bare shelving. Overall, the selection is also very small.
In order to get the best prices possible, each chain tries to limit its selection for every item it carries. If, for example, a warehouse club only carries one SKU of ketchup or Cheerios, rather than multiple sizes it can place a bigger order.
Both chains can leverage those larger orders to get better prices. In some cases, they can also go back to their vendors and ask them to make packaging changes or do other things that further lower the cost.
