BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc., commonly referred as BJ's, is an American regional membership-only

warehouse club A warehouse club (or wholesale club) is a retailing, retail store, usually selling a wide variety of merchandising, merchandise, in which customers may buy large, wholesale quantities of the store's products, which makes these clubs attractive ...

chain based in

Marlborough, Massachusetts Marlborough is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 41,793 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Marlborough became a prosperous industrial town in the 19th century and made the transition to high ...

, operating in the

eastern United States The Eastern United States, often abbreviated as simply the East, is a macroregion of the United States located to the east of the Mississippi River. It includes 17–26 states and Washington, D.C., the national capital. As of 2011, the Eastern ...

in addition to

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

and

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

History

The company was started by discount department store chain Zayre in 1984, on the Medford/ Malden border in

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. The company's name was derived from the initials of Beverly Jean Weich, the daughter of Mervyn Weich, the president of the new company. Weich announced his resignation as president in June 1987, and left on August 1. He was replaced by John Levy. When Zayre Corporation sold the Zayre nameplate to rival discount chain Ames in October 1988, TJX Companies was formed. In 1989, TJX spun off their warehouse division, consisting of BJ's and now-defunct HomeClub (later known as

HomeBase Homebase was a British Home improvement center, home improvement and garden centre retailer that operated across the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was founded by British supermarket chain Sainsbury's and Belgian retailer GIB Group, GB-Inno ...

, then House2Home), to form Waban, Inc. In August 1997, Waban spun off BJ's to become an independent company, BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc., headquartered in Natick, Massachusetts, while Waban renamed itself to HomeBase, Inc. In 2011, BJ's was acquired by two private equity firms, Leonard Green & Partners and CVC Capital Partners. It returned to being a public company in 2018. In 2019, BJ's expanded into Michigan, with a new store in Madison Heights. A second and a third Michigan location have since opened in Taylor and Chesterfield Township, respectively. BJ's has also since opened locations in Canton and Lansing.

Today

Many of BJ's clubs offer special services to members, such as

car rental A car rental, hire car or car hire agency is a company that rents automobiles for short periods of time to the public, generally ranging from a few hours to a few weeks. It is often organized with numerous local branches (which allow a user t ...

s, gas stations, home

heating oil Heating oil is any petroleum product or other oil used for heating; it is a fuel oil. Most commonly, it refers to low viscosity grades of fuel oil used for furnaces or boilers for home heating and in other buildings. Home heating oil is often ...

, an optical department,

propane Propane () is a three-carbon chain alkane with the molecular formula . It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure, but becomes liquid when compressed for transportation and storage. A by-product of natural gas processing and petroleum ref ...

filling, and vacation packages. These services vary from location to location. , there were 154 clubs with optical departments. BJ's operated 104 gasoline stations at their clubs. In February 2007, BJ's closed all pharmacies in its clubs. In March 2010, BJ's announced they would move their corporate headquarters from Natick to Westborough, Massachusetts in 2011. On January 5, 2011, BJ's announced it would close five underperforming stores in the

Southeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, Radius, radially arrayed compass directions (or Azimuth#In navigation, azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A ''compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, ...

, eliminate approximately 100 headquarters jobs by the end of the month, and restructure its home office and some field operations. Its restructuring moves would result in savings of 78 to 82 cents per share for its fiscal fourth quarter. On December 19, 2019, BJ's named Lee Delaney as its next CEO starting February 2, 2020. Delaney had been an executive vice president and chief growth officer of the company since 2016. Then CEO Chris Baldwin became executive chairman. Following Delaney's death on April 8, 2021, BJ's financial chief Bob Eddy took over as interim CEO. On April 20, 2021, Bob Eddy’s interim status was removed and he was given the permanent CEO position. In November 2021, BJ’s announced plans for its first store in Tennessee, to be located in La Vergne, a suburb of

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

. The store opened on June 14, 2023. The company has announced plans for at least two additional stores in the Nashville market, with confirmed locations being added in Goodlettsville and Mt. Juliet. , BJ's operates 250 BJ's clubs in 21 states and employed approximately 25,000 team members (both full- and part-time). Its major competitors are Costco Wholesale and

Sam's Club Sam's West, Inc. (doing business as Sam's Club) is a chain of membership-only warehouse club retail stores in the United States owned by Walmart. It was founded in 1983 and named after Walmart founder Sam Walton as Sam's Wholesale Club. , Sam's ...

Locations

, BJ's has 263 locations across 21 states: BJ's utilizes three cross-dock

distribution center A distribution center for a set of products is a warehouse or other specialized building, often with refrigeration or air conditioning, which is stocked with products (goods) to be redistributed to retailers, to wholesalers, or directly to c ...

s along with third-party warehouse space when extra storage is needed.

Finances

For the fiscal year 2023, BJ's reported earnings of $19.968 billion, with a net income of $523.741 million . On May 17th, 2018, BJ's filed to return to the public market. The shares opened at $21.25; in its IPO, BJ's sold 37.5 million shares, raising net proceeds of $637.5 million.

Brands

BJ's Wholesale Club regularly markets numerous products under its own

private label A private label, also called a private brand or private-label brand, is a brand owned by a company, offered by that company alongside and competing with brands from other businesses. A private-label brand is almost always offered exclusively by th ...

s—including products by

Richelieu Foods Richelieu Foods is an American private label food manufacturing company founded in 1862 and headquartered in Wheeling, Illinois. It was previously owned by investment group Brynwood Partners and owned by investment group Centerview Partners LLC ...

. Unlike its competitors (such as Costco's Kirkland Signature line and Sam's Club's Member's Mark brand), BJ's uses multiple private label brands depending on merchandise segment. Grocery products are primarily branded as Wellsley Farms, while general merchandise (including clothing, pharmacy, and home goods) items are sold under the Berkley-Jensen name (formerly 'Berkley & Jensen').

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bj's Wholesale Club Warehouse clubs Companies based in Massachusetts Economy of the Northeastern United States Economy of the Southeastern United States Discount stores of the United States Online retailers of the United States Hypermarkets of the United States Supermarkets of the United States Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange American companies established in 1984 Retail companies established in 1984 2011 mergers and acquisitions 1984 establishments in Massachusetts Companies that have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1988 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1990 2018 initial public offerings Companies in the S&P 400 CVC Capital Partners companies