The biggest Sam’s Club outlet in the world opened on Sunday in Waigaoqiao of the Pudong New Area, a latest effort by Shanghai to turn the city into an international consumption center.
As the first flagship store of Sam’s Club in China, it covers an area of 70,000 square meters and has already set four records among all Sam’s Club stores in China in having the most new products, the richest experience area, the biggest cafeteria and the biggest intelligent parking lot with 1,100 parking spaces.
Take advantage of Pudong’s strength in system, function and location, Sam’s Club will further strengthen global resource procurement and supply chain integration, and select more than 4,000 differentiated products, and a thousand localized products. It will also introduce high-end products with international leading concepts, and bring consumers high-quality products and services that combine internationalization with local preferences and strict quality control.
The opening of Sam’s Club’s flagship store will contribute to promoting the upgrading of Shanghai’s consumption structure and accelerate the construction of an international consumption center.
Of note, this Sam’s Club outlet was built within just 16 months despite the COVID-19 pandemic, compared with the normal time of at least two years, thanks to strong backing from the Pudong government and the Waigaoqiao free trade zone administration.
From January to August this year, sales of regional investment enterprises reached 1.447 trillion yuan (US$224 billion), an increase of 30.0 percent year on year. Their imports and exports totaled 728.51 billion yuan, an increase of 14.7 percent year on year.
Sam’s Club is an American chain of membership-only retail warehouse clubs owned and operated by Walmart Inc and is the founder of paid membership retail in China. It aims to improve members’ everyday life by offering more than 4,000 select goods. It has 34 stores in China since entering the market in 1996 in Shenzhen.
