Quick Take — China falls in love with American-style wholesale shopping at Sam’s Club (Walmart)

despite trade tensions in the US Walmart’s warehouse chain reaches the tipping point to become one of the fastest growing foreign retailers in the country…

Although economic momentum has slowed in China, Sam’s Club’s revenue grew more than 40 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter, as consumers flocked to the stores for their low prices and bulk purchases…

Walmart’s sales in China rose 17 per cent to $20 billion in the last fiscal year. Eight of Sam’s Club shops are each expected to record half a billion dollars in sales this year, Walmart China CEO Christina Zhu told investors in April…

Half of Walmart’s sales in China take place online, compared to less than 20 per cent in the US. To fulfill e-commerce orders, China CEO Zhu described Sam’s Club locations as “mother clubs” that accumulate goods for networks of eight to 15 delivery hubs serving dense neighbourhoods within a three-mile radius…

About Sam’s Club discounters read here.

Quick Take — Walmart and Amazon are considering adopting their stablecoins

potentially moving the high volumes of cash and card transactions they handle outside the traditional financial system and saving them billions in bank fees.

Stablecoin is a cryptocurrency whose value is tied to a ‘stable’ asset that can be a traditional currency or a commodity. If stablecoin were to be adopted, it would perhaps be the first entirely private-label payment methods (the others rely on banks). As Clara Mentasti points out, it would also be “a threat to monetary sovereignty” (of the US Central Bank).

Meanwhile : Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com tests stablecoins in Hong Kong

Compiled 13 June, updated 19 June 2025

US: inflation-weary consumers stock up on discount stores

As in France and Italy, inflation due to Covid – 19 in the US has left deep traces that have favoured the development of discount formulas, albeit with very different approaches and sales methods. US consumers are also experiencing the political uncertainty sown by the tariffs wanted by Donald Trump. Box stores (wholesale discounters) are depopulating in the US, driven by concerns about the high cost of living. Chris Nichols , CEO of Sam’s Club (Walmart’s box store chain) predicts ‘difficult times’ for the US economy

Quick Take — Amazon and the $100 billion grocery business

Amazon claimed to sell $100 billion of consumer packaged goods.

Two big problemsremain : fresh produce and the fact that it has not yet found an integration between all the group’s brands.

Here are the latest tests:

  1. Co-location of selections from Whole Foods Market, Amazon.com and Amazon Fresh in the same distribution centre, allowing customers to purchase items from all three brands and have them delivered in one order
  2. Open a small-format grocery shop under the same roof as Whole Foods Market in Chicago, allowing customers to purchase their favourite natural and organic products from Whole Foods and get a larger assortment of products from Amazon in one trip.
  3. Launching Whole Foods Market’s Daily Shop, a fast-food fast-shop format.

p.s.: the fact that there are ‘too many’ signs and too many tests is not a good sign. for the food industry: Walmart is definitely dominant and has much clearer ideas.

Quick Take — US: inflation-fatigued consumers stock up on discount stores (the ‘box stores’ where you enter with a subscription and membership card)

The Financial Times headline I took my cue from was: ‘US consumers, tired of inflation, queue up for toilet paper and cheap Bordeaux wine’:

“… inflation… has left consumer prices in the US 26% higher than in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Consumer surveys show continued concern about inflation as the US imposes tariffs on trading partners.

“In good times we do well, and in bad times we do even better,” said Chris Nicholas, CEO of Sam’s Club US who reported that like-for-like sales rose 6.7 per cent in the first quarter, excluding fuel, outpacing the growth of his parent company’s US namesake shops …” .

It is a division of the Walmart Group, which had sales of USD 92.6 billion in 2025 . “Sam’s’ is named after its founder, Sam Walton, and only buys large packages (‘bulk’) there.

Read the long version here.

Compiled on 30 May , updated on 3 June 2025

Quick Take — Walmart relies on pharmacies and invests in specialised distribution centres

Walmart opened one of its largest centralised prescription processing facilities to date in Frederick, Maryland. The 102,000-square-foot state-of-the-art site is designed to fulfill up to 100,000 prescriptions per day, supporting more than 700 shops in 16 states and Washington, DC… Earlier this year, Walmart expanded its same-day pharmacy delivery pilot test to offer that service to customers in 49 states. Walmart’s technology investments have enabled the availability of same-day pharmacy orders that can now be integrated with general merchandise and grocery orders…

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