Less than a month after Amazon confirmed it was scaling back its China operations, archrival Walmart has announced plans to push its Sam’s Club store count to 40 in the country by 2020, including eight in Beijing, according to retail industry-focused news outlet Linkshop.
The Walmart-owned Sam’s Club is a retail warehouse, where customers must sign up for annual memberships to do their shopping. There are three Sam’s Club locations in Beijing now, with the newest one a little over a month old. The company also offers one-hour delivery to members in designated areas.
This expansion could be timely with the growth of China’s middle class, and its push towards a consumption-driven economy. Consumer spending reached RMB 9.78 trillion (USD 1.45 trillion) in the first quarter of 2019, up 8.3% year-on-year, according to data from China’s Ministry of Commerce.