--FILE--Vista aerea del Sam's Club magazzino store, sua ventitreesima uscita in Cina, nella città di Nantong, est cinese della provincia di Jiangsu, 24 dicembre 2018. C
--FILE--Aerial view of the Sam's Club warehouse store, its 23rd outlet in China, in Nantong city, east China's Jiangsu province, 24 December 2018. Chefs from five-star hotels cooking fresh imported Australian steak, wine experts demonstrating direct imports from Napa Valley, and spacious maternity rooms offering spaces for breastfeeding and playtime, are all new experiences on offer at a recently remodeled Sam's Club in Shanghai, as part of a bid to increase visits and membership renewals. Remodeling the 8-year-old Shanghai branch of Walmart Inc's high-end membership brand cost about $6 million, a typical sum for new Sam's Club openings or upgrades, depending on the location. "Chinese consumers have become increasingly willing to pay for better services in the past one to two years, " said Chen Zhiyu, senior vicepresident of Sam's Club China. He predicted that the membership model would enter a phase of explosive growth in the years to come. Sam's Club first launched in China in 1996 and now has about 2 million members nationwide. In an era where small retail formats have been a leading trend, the company is bullish about its big format, and will continue to keep it that way, said Andrew Miles, president of Sam's Club China.
