Sam's Club is accelerating from the suburbs into the city center.

Image source: Lianshang Network

On May 18, 2023, the closest Sam's Club in Shanghai to the city center, Zhenru Sam's Club, opened. It is Sam's fifth store opened in Shanghai and the only Sam's Club store in the world located under a park, with the potential to become the "king of Sam's stores" in Asia.

On August 27, 2022, Shanghai Baoshan Sam's Club, the first "city store" in China, officially opened. It is also the first Sam's Club to be transformed from Wal Mart hypermarket. This store is accessible by subway and has a small area, highlighting its online layout.

In fact, in addition to taking land for self support, Sam is also taking the way of light assets and transforming Wal Mart stores to speed up opening more new stores closer to the city center.

In the near future, the first Sam's Club in the central urban area of China will come, which is the Tianjin Hongqiao Sam's Club.

The first store opened in the central urban area of the country

On November 14, 2023, Sam's (Shanghai) Investment Co., Ltd. was approved by the Sam's Red Bridge Member Store for US review. Two days later, the project site was publicly listed for sale at the Tianjin Land Use Affairs Center.

On December 18, 2023, Tianjin Tongda Construction and Development Co., Ltd. won the bid for the land with a transaction price of 220 million yuan.

On January 9, 2024, Hongqiao District of Tianjin City and Sam's Club officially signed a "Letter of Intent for Cooperation", planning to build Sam's Club Hongqiao Member Store and Sam's Cloud Warehouse Central Kitchen on the east side of the main station building of the old Tianjin West Station, with a total investment of 670 million yuan.

The Sam's Red Bridge store project, which was signed this time, has a planned usable land area of 18400 square meters and a building area of over 20000 square meters. The planned design includes a two-story warehouse style membership store on the ground and an underground two-level supporting parking lot, which can accommodate over 1200 exclusive parking spaces for members. Simultaneously implement ancillary projects such as outdoor roads, squares, greenery, and pipelines.

Image source: Lianshang Network

From a geographical perspective, the project is located on the northwest side of the intersection of Xiqing Road and Zengji Road in Hongqiao District, with Zengji Road to the east, Xiqing Road to the south, Zengrong Road to the west, and Beiyingmen West Road to the north.
Image source: Lianshang Network

To the west is adjacent to Tianjin West Station, with a straight-line distance of 900 meters from the northwest corner commercial district. It belongs to the core area of the Beijing Tianjin Hebei same city business district and echoes the Sam's Meijiang store, which has been open for 8 years, with obvious location advantages. It is the first store in the central urban area of China to open.

According to the local official statement, the project is expected to start construction in the first quarter of 2024 and officially open at the end of 2025. As of March this year, information shows that the official is planning and designing the project and surrounding road network, and temporary infrastructure construction has begun on site. All work is progressing in an orderly manner.

It is reported that the project will create a national model for Sam's Club's fourth generation stores and enhance the consumption level in the central urban area of Tianjin. After completion, it marks the completion of the first Sam's Club supermarket in Tianjin city, which will also be the largest store in Tianjin in terms of area. At that time, consumers in Tianjin and North China can also experience the charm of the first Sam's Club fourth generation membership store.

What are the advantages and functions?

In fact, leveraging the logistics advantages of West Station, Hongqiao Sam's Club will not only serve Tianjin consumers, but also serve as a distribution center for second - and third tier wholesalers in regions such as Shandong and Hebei.

From the perspective of transportation advantages, the surrounding transportation is well-developed. It is understood that the project covers multiple high-end communities and newly developed residential areas within a 3-kilometer 10 minute drive range; Within a 7-kilometer and 20 minute drive, it covers the most densely populated areas of Hongqiao District, Heping District, Nankai District, Beichen District, Hedong District, Hebei District, and Zhongbei Town in Xiqing District.

At the same time, relying on the comprehensive transportation hub of Tianjin West Station, it can reach cities such as Beijing, Shijiazhuang, Langfang, Tangshan, Dezhou, Jinan, etc. within one hour, better leveraging its location advantage as the "core node of Beijing Tianjin Hebei on the track" and serving the wider area of Beijing Tianjin Hebei and even the Bohai Rim.

The significance of the project is that it is the first transfer project within the scope of the "Beijing Tianjin Hebei Same City Business District". After completion, the project will form a linkage with the northwest corner commercial district of Tianjin, empowering the quality and commercial level of the Hongqiao area, and enhancing the overall commercial value of the region.

The relevant person in charge of Hongqiao District Government stated that the implementation of the Sam's Club project can better meet the high-end and diversified consumption needs of the city and even the Beijing Tianjin Hebei region, comprehensively enhance the consumption level of the central urban area, and provide strong support for improving the radiation and driving level of the Beijing Tianjin Hebei same city business district.

It is worth noting that Sam's Club Tianjin's first store, Meijiang store, has been in operation for 8 years and is loved by many citizens and consumers. In addition to the Hongqiao store, it is rumored online that there will be a third Sam's Club debut - Dongli Sam's Club.

It is reported that Dongli Sam's Club is still under planning and construction, and has not yet been implemented. In addition, Tianjin Binhai Economic Development Zone is also trying to introduce Sam. In the relevant government work points, it is also pointed out to support the Economic Development Zone in trying to introduce well-known commercial retail enterprises such as Kaikai and Sam's Club.
Why drive into the city center?

It is worth noting that when Sam's Club opened its Baoshan store in Shanghai, Sam's Club China Business President Wen Ande stated that the opening of the Baoshan store was a beneficial exploration of efficiency for Sam's Club. He hoped that Sam's Club could continuously innovate in e-commerce, replenishment, operations, supply chain management, and other aspects to continuously improve efficiency, and promote its experience to further promote the overall efficiency improvement of Sam's Club and create value for its members.

Why choose to enter the city? His explanation is: "With Sam's rapid development, we see more and more members hoping to experience a high-quality lifestyle in a more convenient way. The newly opened Baoshan store represents Sam's continuous exploration and experimentation to meet the needs of members. It not only connects us more closely with members, but also further enriches Sam's omnichannel shopping experience

In fact, there are three underlying meanings conveyed behind this: firstly, Sam is adopting various methods to accelerate store expansion, one of which is to lay out in the urban area; Secondly, the demand of urban consumers is still very strong, and Sam needs to constantly innovate to better meet consumer needs; Thirdly, Sam entering the city can achieve effective collaboration both online and offline, improving efficiency.

However, as Sam's Club enters the city center, there are also many challenges.

In the view of Lianshang.com, the first and foremost issue is the incompleteness of property management. Sam's is characterized by high sales volume and a wide variety of products, which may require significant storage and display space. For example, Sam's store has a 9-meter high ceiling space and a 3-meter aisle as standard, which is difficult for ordinary stores to meet this demand. In addition, having fewer parking spaces is also a weakness.

In addition, downtown areas often come with high rental prices due to their advantageous geographical location. For Sam's Club, which requires large-scale operation, this is a huge operating cost, unless the government provides a backup land, Sam's Club chooses to export light assets.

Facing smaller properties, what Sam needs to change is to reduce on-site product displays and expand the proportion of online products, so as to flexibly expand in this small and beautiful way.

By transforming the existing Wal Mart stores, Sam can effectively use the existing property resources and infrastructure to reduce the cost and time of opening new stores. At the same time, this transformation helps to redistribute and optimize internal resources within the group, improving overall operational efficiency.

Wen Ande previously stated in a media interview that in first and second tier cities in China, the density is high and it is difficult to find properties suitable for standard Sam's stores. Normally, building a Sam's Club takes 3-4 years. If there is already an available property, even if the area is smaller, the opening speed will be faster.

In fact, in the first and second tier cities, Sam has greater growth potential than Wal Mart. By renovating existing hypermarket stores, Sam's can quickly enter this niche market, test consumer reactions, and decide whether to further expand this model.

As Wen Ande said earlier, "When we analyzed Shanghai, it showed that the area where Baoshan Store is located is a very good choice. But since we can't find Sam's property that meets the construction standard here, we want to try to change the original Wal Mart store to Sam's Club, and we can also use this test to operate a Sam's Club with a smaller area in the city center."

10 commercial entities will open in Tianjin this year

It is also reported that this year, 10 large commercial complexes in Tianjin will open their doors to welcome customers, including 3 newly built complexes such as Longfor Tianjin Meijiang Tianjie, Aokangda (Tianjin) Mingche Plaza, and Tianjie Commercial Plaza, as well as 7 idle carrier revitalization projects such as Taidahui, Haiguang MALL, Longyue City, Kaiwenhui, Hangu Wanda Plaza, Dacheng Plaza, and Yuedong Plaza. The total newly added commercial area is 910000 square meters, and more than 800 merchants have settled in, creating 12000 job opportunities.

Among the newly opened commercial complexes this year, 70% are idle carrier revitalization projects. Projects such as Haiguang MALL, Kaiwenhui, and Hangu Wanda Plaza are all located in the traditional core commercial district of Tianjin. With the joint promotion of the city, professional operators have been introduced and renovated to promote the overall upgrading of the commercial district and provide consumers with a more comfortable shopping environment.

In addition, Tianjin is currently constructing or renovating more than 20 high-quality commercial projects, including the Guojin Shopping Center, which are expected to be unveiled from 2025 to 2027. At that time, they will inject new momentum into accelerating urban vitality, building an international consumption center city, and promoting high-quality economic development.

At the same time, Tianjin continues to activate local consumption and attract consumption from the Beijing Tianjin Hebei region. Longfor Tianjin Meijiang Tianjie, as Longfor Group's first commercial project in Tianjin, has a total commercial volume of 128000 square meters, innovatively creating a full circle sports gathering place, a full-time dining and social space, and a multimedia digital art atmosphere scene.

JD MALL, as the main store of Taida Hui, officially opened on March 16th, creating a new business model that integrates data and reality, bringing an immersive shopping experience centered on the "home scene". After the completion of the Aokangda (Tianjin) Famous Car Plaza in Wuqing District, it will become the largest used car trading landmark in North China, radiating to the Beijing Tianjin Hebei and even the entire northern automobile market.