Wal-Mart to open first Sam's Club in Shanghai
Peking Opera characters battle it out for Sam's Club supremacy in Beijing, one of four Sam's Clubs in China.U.S-based giant Wal-Mart announced last week that plans more than two years in the making are finally coming to fruition as they will be opening the first Sam’s Club store, a membership-only retail warehouse club, in Shanghai by the end of 2010.
All those in need of a year's worth of toilet paper and an infinite supply of mayo can now rejoice.
The store will be located in Pudong, fitting in with other megastores like Decathlon and B&Q near the Longyang Lu Line 2 metro station, giving current bulk-sales resident METRO some stiff competition.
The three-story store, which is only open to membership card holders, will be a 30,000 square meter space, said He Wenying, manager of Wal-Mart China.
For those truly excited about the project, the store is already selling one-year memberships at RMB 150 a piece.
Although Wal-Mart in the United States isn’t geared towards high-end clientele, Sam’s Club Shanghai will be, according to He in an interview with Global Times. He said: “Targeting middle-and-upper class income customers by providing a variety of over 10,000 imported products, all of which are typically five percent cheaper compared to the prices offered by other retailers selling the same goods.”
Though it's the first store for the brand in Shanghai, this Sam’s Club will not be the first in mainland China. Wal-Mart opened the first of a current four stores in China in Shenzhen in 1996. But with a total investment of US$46 million, the new Sam's Club in Shanghai will be Wal-Mart's costliest store on the Chinese mainland.
There are now 500 Sam's Clubs worldwide.
Other major U.S.-based brands that have recently launched in Shanghai include Apple, Levi's and Gap.
