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CNBC AI News, July 25th – Is Sam’s Club shortchanging its members? Allegations of cost-cutting on everyday items, despite the warehouse giant raking in nearly 300 million yuan daily, are sparking outrage among its loyal customer base.
A growing trend on social media sees members airing grievances about perceived declines in the quality of products at Sam’s Club.
One customer, a long-time user of Sam’s Club’s private-label purple facial tissues, claims the tissue’s quality has deteriorated, becoming noticeably thinner and less durable, despite the price remaining unchanged.
This individual weighed packages of the same tissues purchased in 2024 and 2025, reporting a decrease from 138g/pack to 132.9g/pack.
Another consumer shared their own weight records, showing a decline from 144.8g/pack in 2022 to 136.2g/pack in 2023 for the same product.
Meaning, the weight of the tissues has steadily decreased from 2022 to 2025. The 2025 package contains 11.9g less than the 2022 version, a reduction of 8.2%.
The customer questioned, “Why wasn’t the customer informed about this 11.9g reduction per package?”
After contacting Sam’s Club customer service, the customer was only offered a refund. While the representative stated the issue would be escalated, no further response was received.
The disgruntled shopper believes this behavior betrays member trust, stating, “I suspect secretly downgrading product quality is standard practice.” These subtle cost-cutting measures could potentially unlock significant profits for Sam’s Club annually.
Sam’s Club is a high-end membership-based retail brand under the Walmart umbrella.
At Walmart’s 2025 investment conference, Walmart China President and CEO Zhu Xiaojing announced that eight Sam’s Club stores had exceeded $500 million (approximately 3.6 billion yuan) in sales per store. In contrast, a traditional hypermarket only generates 300-500 million yuan per store.
Zhu Xiaojing projected Sam’s Club China’s 2024 sales to surpass 100 billion yuan, translating to a staggering 274 million yuan in daily revenue and comprising 70% of Walmart China’s total sales.
With a membership fee of 260 yuan per year, Sam’s Club generates a substantial 2.34 billion yuan solely from membership dues. The question now becomes: Are these revenue streams being reinvested in quality, or are members footing the bill for increasingly subtle cost-cutting measures?
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Original article, Author: Tobias. If you wish to reprint this article, please indicate the source:https://aicnbc.com/5600.html
