Source | Yilan Business

What supermarket requires consumers to queue for an hour, squeezing through crowds comparable to Spring Festival travel rush? "Sam's Club," Li Chenchen answered without hesitation. During the New Year holiday, she experienced firsthand why Tianjin Sam's Club is dubbed a "5A scenic spot for the four provinces of Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan"—40 minutes queuing to enter, with crowds inside resembling a New Year's Eve countdown. A one-hour shopping plan ended up taking a whole day, and many items were even sold out. "I'll never go to Sam's on holidays again," she sighed. Image source: Xiaohongshu @小宝宝彤酱 Such scenes played out simultaneously across Sam's Club stores nationwide: Nanjing queues exceeded 80 minutes, Hefei required half an hour to enter the parking garage, Zhongshan's parking lot was filled with over a thousand cars, and Dalian Sam's Club had 45-minute queues... The surging crowds directly translated into impressive performance: According to Business Observer, in 2025, Sam's Club China's sales exceeded RMB 140 billion, representing a year-on-year sales growth of approximately 40%, with paid memberships surpassing 10.7 million. In the latest financial report, transaction volume continued to grow at double digits, and membership growth in China has become a key engine for Walmart International's membership fee revenue. Sam's Club's outstanding performance in China has been praised multiple times by global executives, and Zhu Xiaojing, President and CEO of Sam's Club China, became the first China CEO to speak at Walmart's investor conference in Walmart's 30 years in China. Achieving such high double-digit growth on such a large base may be inseparable from record-breaking new store expansion. 2025 was an unprecedented year for Sam's Club China's expansion, opening 10 new stores, bringing the total to 63. According to incomplete statistics by the author, in 2026, Sam's Club China will continue to accelerate, opening at least 12 new stores. The expansion throttle is being pressed again and again. Sam's Club's expansion history in China is a sports car that keeps accelerating. In the two decades before 2016, Sam's Club was in an exploratory and localization phase, cautious in approach, opening only 12 stores, including the first northern China store in Changchun on Qianjin Street in 2002, which closed in 2004 and was converted into a Walmart hypermarket. The turning point came in 2019—when global warehouse club giant Costco entered the Chinese mainland market. Since then, Sam's Club seemed to press the accelerator, opening 31 new stores from 2019 to 2024, surpassing the total of the previous two decades. In 2025, Sam's Club went all out, opening 10 new stores in one go, setting a new record for openings in its 29 years in China, bringing the total store count to 63. These stores are widely distributed, from Shenzhen to Beijing, from new first-tier cities to county-level cities, showing Sam's Club's strategic intent to fully expand in the Chinese market. At the same time, the number of Sam's Club front warehouses and cloud warehouses has reached over 500, with multiple cities achieving citywide coverage with just one store, offering 3-kilometer one-hour delivery and citywide half-day delivery. In 2026, the throttle is pressed to the floor. According to incomplete statistics by the author, there are currently 21 Sam's Club stores under construction, of which 12 are clearly scheduled to open this year, and 3 will open in late 2026 or early 2027. These new stores clearly show a trend of densifying existing markets and exploring blank northern markets. Specifically, in 2026, Sam's Club will enter Hebei Province for the first time, opening its first store in Shijiazhuang, filling the gap on the Hebei side of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city cluster and improving its North China layout; Shandong Province will enter two core cities at once, including Jinan and Qingdao, effectively covering the Shandong Peninsula; Foshan will enter two districts; and it will also sink into economically strong county-level cities and towns, entering Jiangyin, a national top-100 county, and setting up in Houjie Town, a strong economic town in Dongguan. At the same time, within cities where stores already exist, it will extend to emerging sub-centers or uncovered administrative districts to cover a broader local customer base. Following Changping, Shunyi, and Daxing, it will continue to expand in Beijing's outer areas, adding a Fangshan store; Tianjin's Dongli store will be located in Shangdong Jinmao Smart Science City, an area that, with industrial development, will attract a large number of high-quality, high-consumption-potential residents, offering long-term value; Wuxi will continue to expand in the main urban area. Interestingly, just as Sam's Club is racing ahead at full speed, Zhu Xiaojing, President and CEO of Walmart China, delivered a keynote speech titled "Continuous Evolution, Reshaping Value" at the "2025 China Retail Leadership Summit." She emphasized: "Compared to chasing external 'trends,' building internal 'foundations' is more important." On one hand, there is an aggressive posture of rapid expansion and eager land grabbing; on the other, there is a rational speech warning the industry and emphasizing solid foundations. Zhu Xiaojing's remarks contrast with Sam's Club's actual actions. What is going on with Sam's Club? 2025: The Year of Crisis for Sam's Club Contrasting with the brilliant numbers of store expansion is the unprecedented trust crisis Sam's Club faced in 2025. Andrew Miles, former president of Sam's Club China, once said: "Members are the lifeblood of Sam's Club." His three core principles were limited SKUs, high-value/low-margin products, and strict operational discipline. Undoubtedly, curation is the core of all product philosophy and also the reputation of Sam's Club. But this once-solid foundation is being eroded by a series of problems, and behind all this is closely related to Zhu Xiaojing's contradictory choice of emphasizing "foundation" while allowing expansion. First, the change in product selection logic. A large number of domestic brands have put on "foreign vests": Panpan was changed to "Panpan"; "Charcheer" is actually Qiaqia; childhood brands like Hsu Fu Chi, Strong Group, and Weilong have reappeared with labels such as high fiber, low GI, and imported flavors. Second, the foundation of product strength is shaking. 2025 became Sam's Club's "food safety crisis year," from live insects flying out of milk cartons to moldy strawberries and "yin-yang label" marinated dishes, with more than ten major incidents breaking out on social media. On the Black Cat Complaint platform, complaints against Sam's Club have exceeded 13,800. More ironically, in December, Zhu Xiaojing had just emphasized that "trust is earned," and then a consumer found a live mouse in a mochi box. This contrasts with her statement that "the soul of products is formed in sensibility, lying in insight into users' longing for a better life"—members clearly do not yearn for such "surprises." Most critically, experience and organizational capacity are under heavy pressure. At the end of 2025, the Sam's Club APP was revamped, coinciding with former Alibaba executive Liu Peng taking over as CEO, triggering a large-scale "petition" of complaints from users. At the same time, issues regarding the rights protection of riders and frontline employees frequently emerged. The "foundation" that Zhu Xiaojing speaks of appears particularly pale in these specific and subtle cracks. In the author's view, Sam's Club's frequent problems are directly related to its rapid expansion over the past two years. Sam's Club's core competitiveness stems from its control over scarce, high-quality products. But when the number of stores doubles and membership surges from 3 million to over 10 million, the capacity of those "small and beautiful" exclusive suppliers quickly peaks. Even if factories are built immediately, production takes one to two years to ramp up. To fill the capacity gap and keep up with the expansion pace, Sam's Club began introducing mass-market brands with large scale and fast supply, or lowering standards to increase the number of small and medium suppliers, objectively leading to a decline in product uniqueness and increased quality control risks. Moreover, rapid expansion is an extreme squeeze on organizational operational capabilities, and Sam's Club's experience and management systems are showing signs of fatigue. The APP revamp triggered large-scale user "denunciation," exposing its sluggishness and arrogance in communicating with consumers. Zhu Xiaojing emphasized that "the highest mission of technology is to extend our empathy to connect," but the reality is that basic operational empathy and management precision have been left far behind in the pursuit of speed. When Will the Foundation Be Laid? Zhu Xiaojing raised the question, but Sam's Club's body has honestly chosen another path. The plan to open at least 12 new stores in 2026 shows that racing ahead remains the only visible rhythm. "Building an internal foundation" cannot just be a pretty phrase left in a speech. It means making a choice: continue chasing store numbers, or invest heavily in repairing product quality, enhancing member experience, and consolidating organizational management, even proactively adjusting the expansion pace? Sam's Club's success began with its adherence to "curation" and "member value," and its greatest risk may come from deviating from this. The market will not indefinitely pay for blind expansion, and member trust cannot withstand repeated erosion. When will the "foundation" that Zhu Xiaojing speaks of move from the podium to Sam's Club's stores, supply chain, and management systems? The market and members are waiting for this answer. 【Moving Toward the C-End】The 11th China FMCG Conference Time: March 16-18, 2026 Location: Chengdu, China