There are many large supermarkets in China, but when it comes to membership, Sam's Supermarket in the United States is particularly famous. As a branch of the US company Wal-Mart, this store will be paid special attention to as soon as there is a trace of wind and grass in China. Especially last year, Sam's Club was also required by a large number of domestic consumers to "return the card" because of illegal operations. Is Sam a little underestimating the power of the Chinese market?
Sam was "returned" by Chinese consumers
Although Sam's Supermarket is affiliated with Wal-Mart, it is still relatively low-key, but last year, Sam may be overconfident in his own company, and did not follow trade principles in his operation, but responded to some us bills, which immediately caused dissatisfaction among the Chinese people.
If it is only normal trade, our country is naturally very welcome, but when it comes to the issue of national image, Chinese consumers are still very sober.
When some consumers found that Sam's Club had removed some products from the shelves, it was a coincidence that these goods were all from Xinjiang, and Sam's official interpretation was that the inventory was not enough, but consumers did not buy it at all.
Although many people are members of Sam's family, but in the short term, there has been a large number of consumers queuing up to return the card phenomenon, Sam may not have expected the consumer response will be so strong, a time telephone and after-sales customer service are set as a message mode.
Later, many people publicly stated on Weibo that they would no longer renew the card or directly return the card, and strengthened their principles and national positions. Of course, the Sam's Club incident has also sounded a wake-up call for other American companies, and if they lose the market of 1.4 billion people because of the position problem, it is more than worth the loss for many companies. Sam's Club has been developing in China for decades and should better understand the truth.
Revenue from membership cards can reach 1 billion
Sam's Club came to the Chinese market in 1996 and was first settled in Shenzhen. During the 2016-2020 period, Sam's Club expanded wildly in the domestic market at a rate of 3 stores per year, and by November 2020, Sam said that their membership number had reached 4 million.
Looking at the whole country, they have laid 36 stores in 23 cities, and their membership fee is 260 yuan, according to this number, they can earn 1 billion gold in China every year by relying on the membership card alone!
This data not only shows that they have a large number of fixed customers and stable income in China, but also proves that once there is a problem in the Chinese market, their losses will be unimaginable. After suffering from the "return of the card", Sam's Club even warned the White House of the United States that it should be responsible for this matter, which shows that its loss has made the manager very sad.
In contrast to Sam's Club, a company is Intel, which has suffered heavy losses after it publicly rejected Xinjiang products, because Intel's revenue in China in the past three years can reach $582.2 billion, and it is clear that Intel cannot afford such a big loss, and soon publicly apologized.
So far, Sam's Club or Walmart behind him has not publicly expressed an apology letter, but Sam has previously publicly expressed his desire to expand the scale.
It is expected to open 4-5 stores per year
Previously, Sam's officials were full of hope for future development in China, and said that there were 23 new Sam's stores under construction in 2021, and it was expected to reach 33 by the end of 2021, and it was clear that the performance of 36 stores in 23 cities had been exceeded.
Before the "return card" incident, Sam also expected that in the future, it will maintain the speed of opening 4-5 stores per year for development, and it is expected that by the end of 2022, the number of stores will reach about 40, and in the next 8 years, the number of stores will increase to 100. Now it seems that Sam's prediction should be difficult to achieve. Having had Wal-Mart's "lessons from the past", Sam should have understood the consequences of losing the Chinese market.
And even if Sam publicly apologizes, it is difficult for Chinese consumers to "appreciate" because most people are sober and "nothing is irreplaceable", and the same is true of Sam's Club. In recent years, Hema, Yonghui, Carrefour, etc. have entered the membership system, and Sam is not the only choice, even if there are domestic JD.com and Taobao online.
What's more, Sam's behavior involves the overall image and interests of the country, and it is already very good to want to maintain the status quo and not have a large-scale store closure like Wal-Mart.