A warehouse club (or wholesale club) is a retail store, usually selling a wide variety of

merchandise Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative way that entices customers to purchase more i ...

, in which customers may buy large, wholesale quantities of the store's products, which makes these clubs attractive to both bargain hunters and small business owners. The clubs are able to keep prices low due to the no-frills format of the stores. In addition, customers may be required to pay annual membership fees in order to shop. Membership in a warehouse club superficially resembles that in a consumers' cooperative, but lacks key elements including cooperative ownership and democratic member control. The use of members' prices without cooperative ownership is also sometimes used in bars and casinos.

History

In 1971, the

Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, better known as A&P, was an American chain of grocery stores that operated from 1859 to 2015. From 1915 through 1975, A&P was the largest grocery retailer in the United States (and, until 1965, the lar ...

(A&P) opened their very first Warehouse Economy Outlet (WEO), a warehouse format that only lasted a few years. In 1976, Sol Price (who in 1954 founded FedMart, an early US discount store) and his son Robert Price founded

Price Club Price Club was an American warehouse club, warehouse store chain. It merged with its competitor, Costco, Costco Wholesale, in 1993 and adopted the Costco name in 1997. The original Price Club warehouse is still open, operating as Costco location # ...

in San Diego, as their first warehouse club. In 1982, the discount pioneer

John Geisse John Francis Geisse (September 1, 1920 – February 21, 1992) was an American businessman. He founded three successful retail chains: Target Discount Stores, Venture Stores, and The Wholesale Club (which merged in 1991 with Sam's Club). Early ...

founded The Wholesale Club of Indianapolis, which he sold to Sam's Club in 1991. In 1983, James (Jim) Sinegal and Jeffrey H. Brotman opened the first Costco warehouse in Seattle. Sinegal had started in wholesale distribution by working for Sol Price at FedMart. Also in 1993, Costco and Price Club agreed to merge operations, after Price declined an offer from Sam Walton and Walmart to merge Price Club with Sam's Club. Costco's business model and size were similar to those of Price Club, which made the merger more natural for both companies. The combined company took the name PriceCostco, and memberships became universal, meaning that a Price Club member could use their membership to shop at Costco and vice versa. PriceCostco boasted 206 locations generating $16billion in annual sales. PriceCostco was initially led by executives from both companies, but in 1994, the Price brothers left the company to form Price Enterprises, a warehouse club chain in Central America and the Caribbean unrelated to the current Costco. In 1983, Kmart's Pace Membership Warehouse (later sold to Sam's Club) started operations. That same year, Sam Walton opened the first Sam's Club on April 7, in Midwest City, Oklahoma. In 1984, former The Wholesale Club executives founded BJ's Wholesale Club, owned by Zayre. In 1997, Costco changed its name to Costco Wholesale Corporation, and all remaining Price Club locations were rebranded , the three largest warehouse club chains operating in the United States are BJs, Costco, and Sam's Club. BJ's Wholesale Club is one of the smaller competitors, with stores located primarily in the Eastern United States. Costco and Sam's Club are the largest chains. Costco has locations in seven other nations including Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. Sam's Club, a division of Walmart, claims a membership base of 47 million persons and 602 stores across the United States (as of June 2019). On July 16, 2020, it has been announced that Price Club will be returning to San Diego with new locations.

Examples

* BJ's Wholesale Club, operates in the U.S. only *

City Club A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be de ...

, operates in Mexico only * Costco, operates in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the UK, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Spain, France, South Korea, China, Japan and Taiwan *

Metro AG Metro AG is a German multinational company based in Düsseldorf which operates business membership only cash and carry stores primarily under the Metro brand. Until 2020 it was also active in general retail business through Real division, wh ...

, headquartered in Germany, majority control in different regions by multiple third parties, Metro AG has 674 wholesale stores in 24 countries. * PriceSmart, operates in Central America and Caribbean; previously operated in Asia-Pacific region * Sam's Club, operates in the U.S., Mexico and other countries * Selgros, operates in Germany, Poland, Romania and Russia * Wholesale Club, operates in Canada and Jamaica

Defunct

* American Wholesale Club (1986–1989) * Buyers Club, a Denver-based independently owned chain * Club Wholesale, turned into office supplies stores, then folded *

Fedco Federal Employees' Distributing Company, known as Fedco, was a membership department store chain that operated in Southern California from 1948 to 1999. History Beginning The chain was unusual in that it was a nonprofit consumers' cooperative. ...

, bankruptcy in 1999 (most stores were bought by Target Stores) * GEM & GEX Membership Department Stores (required membership like a warehouse club) * Gemco, 1959–1986, owned by Lucky Stores * HomeClub, a home improvement warehouse, later became HomeBase and then folded in 2000 * Max-Club, owned by

SuperValu (United States) SuperValu, Inc. was an American wholesaler and retailer of grocery products. The company, formerly headquartered in the Minneapolis suburb of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, had been in business since 1926. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of United Nat ...

* PACE Membership Warehouse, owned by Kmart, merged with Sam's Club *

, merged with Costco in 1993 * Price Savers Wholesale Club, merged with PACE Warehouse Club, then merged with Sam's Club * Sam's Club, in Canada 2003–2009 * SourceClub, owned by Meijer, from 1992 to 1994. Only had seven locations, all in Michigan, but helped loosen restrictions on who can become members industry-wide. * Super Saver, merged with Sam's Club (Southeast US) * The Wholesale Club, merged with Sam's Club * Titan Warehouse Club Inc., an early warehouse concept in Canada based in

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

with locations in Toronto/Kitchener/Stoney Creek areas in the 1985–1994 * Warehouse Club, was a public company

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Warehouse Club Retail formats Warehouses

History

Examples

Defunct

See also

References

External links