The Sam’s Club on the outskirts of China’s capital is not, technically speaking, a drive-through operation. But almost all of the customers at the Walmart-operated discount warehouse drive there to shop and are prepared to pay as much as Rmb175 ($30) for a bag of imported Massachusetts cranberries.
Walmart’s international expansion of its Sam’s Club chain, which in China targets increasingly affluent customers in the country’s largest cities, is an important part of the US retailer’s strategy to offset stagnant sales in its home market.
It is part of Walmart’s efforts to “reset” its business in China, where it has had a poor return on investment in recent years and made a series of missteps in its haste to grow.