Sam’s Club discounted its cake by a smidge to 98.9 yuan. Then Freshippo X sold its own durian cake cheaper at 99 yuan. Sam’s Club had a durian-flavored crepe cake for 128 yuan ($18). That explanation, along with answers to other frequently asked questions are plastered on the wall at the Sam’s Club store in English and Chinese.Ī price war recently broke out between Sam’s Club and Freshippo X and it was documented on Chinese social media. Whereas in Sam’s Club, most food, including fresh meat and seafood, are pre-packaged for convenience. Most families in China buy food almost daily at meat and vegetable markets, where shoppers can buy as much or as little as they want. Membership retail is outpacing traditional retail growth in China. and Australia, fresh salads, sushi and its baked goods.Ī Walmart store in Shanghai, which converted into a Sam’s Club store in 2022. She also lingers at the gift cards for boxes of hairy crab - a seasonal treat from eastern China.Īs we ride the shopping cart conveyor belt to the fresh food floor, Guo rattles off all the items Sam’s Club is known for: imported beef from the U.S. It takes a while for Guo to tear herself away from the instant noodle aisle, which stocked Vietnamese beef noodle flavor and a notoriously stinky snail rice noodle called luosifen. “Wow I need this!” Guo said while grabbing a big bottle of Thai chili sauce. “That is how single people like me can still shop at Sam’s Club.”Īs we go through two floors of Sam’s Club in Shanghai’s new Pudong district, Guo said she has not been back in a while and marvels at the selection of Southeast Asian food. “If the bulk item is too big, I will take a picture and send it into my friend groups and ask if anyone wants to split with me,” Guo said. Guo lives alone with her dog but she still enjoys shopping at wholesale retailers because she said there are many items she can not easily find elsewhere in Shanghai. Guo holds up her renewed Sam’s Club membership. Still, $36 is a bit expensive for Guo, so she will split that membership cost with a friend. This is lower than the $50 the membership retailer charges in the U.S. Guo renews her Sam’s Club membership, which costs 260 yuan ($36) for a basic tier. Grocery sales are down 0.5% in the first eight months of this year. At present count, Chinese supermarket chain Yonghui has shut at least some 437 shops since its peak in 2019. French retailer Carrefour, which sold 80% of its China operations to Chinese retailer Suning in 2019, has closed at least 160 stores since last year. Since 2020, Sam’s Club has gone from 26 to 45 stores in over two dozen Chinese cities.ĭuring that same period Sam’s Club’s parent company Walmart has closed 90 of its retail stores across China. But its members-only model caught on in a big way during the pandemic, when people were frequently trapped in sudden lockdowns. I was kind of interested to look into that.” “But it has really cheap and fancy foods.
Why should I buy the membership to buy something?” Guo said. Since I cannot step in without a membership, I have brought my good friend Daisy Guo, who has been a Sam’s Club member since last year. This was my first time shopping at a Sam’s Club. Sam’s Club in Shanghai is surprisingly busy on a Monday morning with its steady stream of customers.Īt one point, I had to turn the shopping cart without hitting five others, all headed in various directions in the spice aisle.
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