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Sam's Club is a membership-only warehouse club owned and operated by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.. The first Sam's Club opened in April 1983 in Midwest City, Oklahoma in the United States.
Sam's Club is named after the founder of Wal-Mart, Sam Walton. To purchase items from Sam's Club one must purchase a membership. The marketing model differs from the typical retail model in that instead of the store marking up prices from its wholesale costs, the prices are designed to reflect the actual costs of doing business with no mark-up. This is the advantage of club membership. The cost of membership, the annual membership fees, is by design the only profit the company makes. Sam's Club has a little-known sales operation based upon marking up the price, and that is the daily pass. For no fee, a non-member may shop in the club and pay a mark-up (about 10%) over the club prices. This is used, for example, by an ex-member who has a gift certificate to spend, or anyone else who does not plan to shop enough to re-coup the cost of the annual fee. This extra revenue is in theory a membership benefit in that all costs and incomes go together to determine the low pricing in the club for members. Like other warehouse clubs, most merchandise sold at Sam's Club is sold in bulk and directly off pallets. Clubs are arranged much like a warehouse, with merchandise stocked in warehouse-style steel bins. There are currently 551 Sam's Clubs in the United States. Each club averages 128,000 square feet (3 acres) (12,000 m²) (1.2 ha). The Sam's Club division of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. had total sales revenue of States dollar|USD$" target="_blank" >*37.1 billion for fiscal year ending January 31 2005. There are also clubs operated internationally under the International Division of Wal-Mart Stores in Brazil, Canada, China, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. In 1993, Wal-Mart acquired Pace Warehouse Clubs and converted them into Sam's Clubs. Their current primary competitor is Costco. Sam's Club markets items under the private labels Member's Mark, Bakers & Chefs, and Sam's Club.
See also
External links
"Sam's Club"