Dive Brief:
- Walmart opened a 1-million-square-foot distribution center in Jacksonville, Florida, this month, according to an April 17 press release.
- The facility will receive and process goods for delivery to 25 Sam’s Club locations across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Puerto Rico.
- Located less than 10 miles from the Port of Jacksonville, the site will also store and sort imported goods to be delivered to four other Sam’s Club distribution centers in the Southeast.
Dive Insight:
Walmart is reconfiguring the supply chain serving Sam’s Club as it continues to pursue growth for the membership-only retail brand.
The company plans to open 30 new Sam’s Club locations in 2025, while building a pipeline to add 15 locations a year “for the foreseeable future,” said Chris Nicholas, president and CEO of Sam’s Club, during an April 10 investor meeting.
Sam’s Club locations are currently served by more than 30 distribution facilities in the U.S., per Walmart’s 2025 annual report, with the overall Walmart brand operating more than 370 globally.
“We're not limited by our physicality; we're enabled by it,” Nicholas said.
Sam’s Club has also shuttered some facilities to optimize its supply chain, such as a New Jersey fulfillment center the retailer closed in March. The company planned to relocate operations from the Swedesboro center to other facilities within Walmart’s network, a company spokesperson told Supply Chain Dive in December.
“Over time, as our fulfillment network has grown and we have launched new buildings, we’ve been able to serve customers and members with better reliability and speed by shifting volume to these other facilities,” the spokesperson said at the time.
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