Sam’s, BJ’s battle for Seekonk businesses

WARM WELCOME: Sam’s Club employees Natalie Rodrigues, left, and Carla Silveria look over a “welcome packet” that the store gives to its new small-business members. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL PERSSON
WARM WELCOME: Sam’s Club employees Natalie Rodrigues, left, and Carla Silveria look over a “welcome packet” that the store gives to its new small-business members. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL PERSSON

Eats owner George Mihailides looks forward to the periodic visits to the restaurant on 1395 Fall River Ave., in Seekonk, by staff of the nearby Sam’s Club.
“They keep almost everything in stock,” he said recently. “If we need anything and they don’t have it, they will try to get it for us. … If we run out of anything they will get it to us as soon as they can.”
And when Mihailides volunteered to help a soup kitchen in Fall River, it was Sam’s Club that donated the food. “Rachel [Dufault, the Seekonk store’s general manager] didn’t have to do that but it was great,” he said.
The relationship between the restaurant and Dufault’s store is part of an effort by Sam’s to reach out and provide the service of a local store and deliver it with the personal touch.
“We held what we call a [two-week] blitz program,” said Dufault. “We scheduled appointments to reach out to local small businesses that aren’t members of Sam’s Club. We go into their place of business and explain to them … how Sam’s Club, as a company, can help save them money.”
Sam’s also visits existing customers such as Eats in an attempt to save them more money.
“We like to stop and talk to them, to see how things are going; if they are a member of Sam’s Club we’ll ask how our company is working for them,” Dufault said. Owned by Walmart, Sam’s Club believes that understanding a small business’ day-to-day processes and practices can help the company make money-saving recommendations to customers.
With Sam’s Club’s Warwick location being rebuilt, the Seekonk store has a larger regional territory. Company representatives sit with the business and review the materials it uses. Recommendations are made if necessary and Sam’s Club will even order materials they don’t normally carry, if it helps the customer. In an effort to provide better service, the club also developed a service called “Click ‘n’ Pull,” where members submit their shopping lists online and pick it up at the club the next day.
Since May 2011, the Sam’s Club Step Up for Small Business project partnership has helped Enactus USA teams to empower small businesses with fewer than 75 employees. Enactus is an international nonprofit organization that brings together student, academic and business leaders who use entrepreneurial action to improve small businesses.
Companywide, Sam’s Club estimates it serves about 600,000 business members each day in more than 600 clubs across the country.
In 2011, Sam’s Club and its Giving Program made cash and in-kind contributions of more than $101.3 million to programs that assisted young people, families and small business owners.
In addition, Sam’s offers business members access to microloans and health and wellness plans through third-party providers; for example, loans are through the U.S. Small Business Administration through the Superior Financial Group.
Competitor BJ’s Wholesale Club also routinely makes community donations but has yet to officially declare a corporate focus on assisting small businesses.
A new BJ’s Wholesale Club that opened in Seekonk at 175 Highland Ave. in August may be heightening the local competition between the clubs.
“We have local members of the community that have business memberships with us,” explained Savannah Peltier, membership-acquisition manager for the BJ’s store. “As a new club, we had already started the process of attracting business members” before opening.
Both Seekonk clubs declined to say how many small-business accounts they have signed up. •

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