BJ's expands to Tennessee in June
- BJ’s will open its first Tennessee club on June 14.
- The store will be the wholesale club’s 238 U.S. store.
- Wholesale club popularity has skyrocketed in recent years, though it’s shown signs of a slowdown in 2023.
BJ’s Wholesale Club has set an opening date for its first location in Tennessee, a store outside Nashville that will open June 14.
According to a June 1 release sent to Retail Leader, the new club is located in La Vergne, Tennessee, about 20 miles outside downtown Nashville. With the opening of the new location, BJ’s will operate 238 clubs in the U.S. As Retail Leader reported, BJ’s also this year opened new locations in Florida and Georgia.
A gas station at the La Vergne location will open earlier than the store, on June 2, the release said. The location will offer similar e-commerce options available at BJ’s other clubs, including curbside pickup, in-store pickup, same-day delivery and standard delivery. Shoppers can also use the wholesale retailer’s mobile app to scan items as they go through the store to avoid the checkout line upon exit, the retailer said. The location will contain an array of products familiar to wholesale club shoppers: fresh foods, produce, a full-service deli, household essentials and pet-related goods.
In addition to operating in Tennessee, Florida and Georgia, BJ’s operates stores in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia.
Shoppers who sign up to join the new club are eligible for BJ’s Club Card Membership for one year at $55 with a $40 welcome reward and $50 in coupons, or they can sign up for the premium Club+ Card Membership for a $110 annual fee with an $80 welcome reward and $50 in coupons, the release said. Those costs are comparable with competitor Walmart-owned Sam’s Club, which last year raised prices on its annual memberships to $50 annually for its standard membership and to $110 for its higher-tier membership.
Leading chain Costco Wholesale on an earnings call this month again said it would eventually raise the cost of its annual membership, though it would hold off for now, Retail Leader reported. Costco’s current prices are already higher than either BJ’s or Sam’s Club, with standard membership at $60 per year and its higher-tier membership at $120 annually.
Wholesale clubs surged during the COVID-19 pandemic when mission-driven shoppers looked for one-stop shops to purchase as many goods as possible, according to foot traffic analysis from Placer.ai. Traffic to wholesale clubs grew last year too, as shoppers looked to get more value at retail in the face of peak inflation. But growth at wholesale clubs has stalled in the first few months of the year, according to the latest data.
Traffic at BJ’s dropped 6.6% year-over-year (YoY) in April, traffic at Sam’s Club dipped 3.8% and traffic at Costco was down 6.2%, according to Placer.ai. While the frequency of visits has decreased, median dwell times at BJ’s, Costco and Sam’s Club have all increased YoY, according to Placer.ai data, suggesting that shoppers are doing more while at the stores.