Sam’s Club, Walmart Inc.’s warehouse store, is raising its entry-level membership fee for the first time in nine years.
(Bloomberg) — Sam’s Club, Walmart Inc.’s warehouse store, is raising its entry-level membership fee for the first time in nine years.
The retailer’s basic Club membership will cost $50 as of Oct. 17, up from the current price of $45, Sam’s Club Chief Executive Officer Kath McLay said Wednesday in a message to members. The Plus membership’s fee will rise to $110 from $100, the first increase since it debuted in 1999.
Sam’s Club is raising the price of membership as customers flock to warehouse stores, which offer wholesale quantities of goods to everyday shoppers, amid the highest US inflation in four decades. To soften the blow, the retailer will return the extra cost to members in the form of Sam’s Cash, its rewards program, for renewals made through mid-October 2023.
“We are mindful of the financial pressure on wallets right now,” McLay said in the letter.
Comparable sales at Sam’s Club rose 9.5% excluding fuel in the fiscal second quarter, outpacing the 6.5% advance at US Walmart stores. By the same yardstick, Costco Wholesale Corp. has also been making headway, with a 5.8% increase at its US stores in July after double-digit gains the previous two months.
Speculation has abounded that Costco is poised to ratchet up its fees, which are currently $60 for basic membership, while the premium upgrade costs an extra $60. The company last increased the price in June 2017 and Costco has typically raised its fees approximately every five and a half years, Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti said in March. He didn’t say when company would raise the fee again.
Walmart shares were little changed at $132.46 at 1:43 p.m. in New York. CNBC reported the fee increase at Sam’s Club earlier.
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