Sam’s Club

Sam’s West, Inc. (doing business as Sam’s Club) is an American chain of membership-only retail warehouse clubs owned and operated by Walmart, founded in 1983 and named after Walmart founder Sam Walton. As of 2012, Sam’s Club chain serves 47 million U.S. (including Puerto Rico) members and is the 8th largest U.S. retailer. As of January 31, 2008, Sam’s Club ranks second in sales volume among warehouse clubs with 56.828 billion in sales (in fiscal year 2016) behind Costco.

Sam’s Club had sales of 57.157 billion in FY 2014. It reported a 0.3% sales increase in 2014, 4.1% in 2013, and 8.4% sales increase in 2012. This is significantly higher growth than Walmart U.S. stores, which have not had higher than 2% growth since 2010.

Its major competitors are Costco and BJ’s Wholesale Club.

As of January 31, 2017, Sam’s Club operates 660 membership warehouse clubs in 47 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Oregon, Rhode Island (which that state’s only location closed in February 2016) and Vermont are the only states where Sam’s Club does not operate, as is the case for the District of Columbia. Walmart International also operates Sam’s Clubs in Mexico, Brazil, and China. It has 160 locations in Mexico, 27 locations in Brazil, and 15 in China. Locations generally range in size from 71,000–168,000 sq ft (6,600–15,600 m2), with an average club size of approximately 134,000 sq ft (12,400 m2).

There were also Sam’s Club locations in Canada, in which the last location closed in 2009.