Club & Warehouse

Bentonville, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores named Cindy Davis as executive VP Global Consumer Insights. In the position, she will lead the newly created Global Customer Insights team, helping both Walmart and Sam's Club understand broad consumer trends, provide insight into customers' needs across the world and create advanced analytical tools to support the business.

Davis most recently served as executive VP membership, marketing and e-commerce at the Sam's Club warehouse store division. A successor in that role will be named at a later date, Wal-Mart said.

Those who believe the world is on the brink of collapse may want to head over to Sam’s Club.com where the retailer is offering a one-year emergency food supply kit for $949. The manufacturer, Augason Farms, notes in the product description that large numbers of Americans all over the country are becoming more aware of their need of emergency food storage. The pitch continues, “storing food for your family is one of the most prudent actions you will ever take to protect your loved ones.

Natick, Mass. -- BJ’s Wholesale Club confirmed on Thursday that it will potentially put it up for sale.

WESTBOROUGH, Mass. — After months of speculation, BJ's Wholesale Club early Thursday morning confirmed the company has decided to explore and evaluate strategic alternatives. Coupled with that announcement was a positive sales story for the year.

BJ’s Wholesale Club this week formally announced that it planned to explore strategic alternatives and confirmed what had been speculated about in the market place for at least four years. The possible sale of BJ’s and its 189 clubs isn’t likely to have a meaningful impact on the marketplace and could potentially benefit the likes of Sam’s Club and Costco.

New York City -- Costco Wholesale Corp. reported a January same-store sales increase of 9%, topping Wall Street expectations and leading the performances of the discount retail category.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a smaller same-store sales increase of 6.1%.

Target Corp. didn’t show the same strength, missing expectations because of strong winter storms during the month. Same-store sales edged up 1.7% for the month, missing the 1.9% increase predicted by Wall Street.

LOS ANGELES -- Costco has engaged Creative Channel Services' CyberScholar Retail Network to increase in-store product knowledge and enhance shopper experiences, the company reported.  The warehouse retailer has integrated CCS' CyberScholar portal into its U.S. employee development strategies for consumer electronics (CE) product lines.

New York City -- BJ’s Wholesale Club has selected Premier Retail Networks to provide high-quality, 1080p video programming for BJ’s in-club television department.