Sam’s Club, which is operated by Walmart, has seen consumer behavior change in recent months amid continued economic uncertainty, prompting shoppers to focus more on value as they rethink their spending habits.
During the third quarter of 2025, Sam’s Club comparable sales increased 3.8% year over year, mainly due to sales growth in the grocery and general merchandise categories, according to Walmart’s latest earnings report.
Also, recent data from Placer.ai showed that foot traffic at Sam’s Club stores rose 3.2% year-over-year during the quarter. However, its foot traffic growth lagged behind its top two competitors, Costco and BJ’s Wholesale, which both saw traffic jump 6% and 5.9%, respectively.
The slight increase in consumer momentum comes after Sam’s Club made bold changes to its stores to gain a stronger competitive edge against its rivals.
For example, in April last year, the warehouse club expanded the hours of the petrol station. Most gas stations at Sam’s Club locations now open at 6 am and close at 10 pm Monday through Saturday, and 8 pm on Sunday.
That same month, Sam’s Club announced plans to phase out traditional checkouts in its 600 stores, replacing them with Scan & Go technology, which is essentially a mobile self-checkout for customers.
Instead of checking out items from a cashier or self-checkout machine, the technology allows shoppers to scan and pay for items via a mobile app on their phone. Sam’s Club stores with Scan & Go technology even have embedded “checkout arches” with computer vision that automatically detect customers’ receipts and items in their bags.
Sam’s Club has been making eye-catching changes to its stores to attract more customers.Shutterstock” loading=”eager” height=”720″ width=”960″ class=”yf-lglytj loader”/>
Sam’s Club has been making eye-catching changes to its stores to attract more customers.Shutterstock ·Shutterstock
In addition to the gas station and checkout changes, Sam’s Club was also removing certain ingredients its customers consider unhealthy from its Member Mark food and beverage products, an initiative it first announced in 2022.
Some of the ingredients that Sam’s Club has been cutting out of these products include artificial flavors, high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, phthalates, synthetic colors, etc.
“The Sam’s Club member is at the center of everything we do, and as we continue to evolve the Member Mark brand, we intend to develop items that reflect the ingredients, processes and materials they want — and don’t want — in their products,” said Prathibha Rajashekhar, senior vice president of private brands and sourcing at Sam’s Club, in a press release. 2022.
Sam’s Club aimed to complete this change by the end of 2025, and the retail giant recently announced that it has achieved this goal.
Sam’s Club has removed more than 40 unwanted ingredients and synthetic colors from its Member Mark food and beverage products, “without compromising taste or detracting value,” according to a recent press release.
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While the company successfully implemented this change on hundreds of products, some could not be changed, causing those items to be pulled from the shelves.
“Rethinking hundreds of products required us to look closely at every detail,” Sam’s Club said in the press release. “This process taught us that reaching a higher standard often requires unique solutions. In many cases, it meant innovation. In a few rare cases, it meant deciding that a product simply could not bear the Member Mark mark.”
Sam’s Club said reformulating its bakery ice was one of its “most significant hurdles,” as removing certain ingredients while maintaining “the right consistency and vibrant appeal” required “exhaustive development.”
The company also noted that it has removed vibrant blue synthetic colors from its sports drinks, replacing them with “a more natural, purple hue.”
Sam’s Club said that this year, it aims to “take this vision even further” by removing unwanted ingredients in “other areas of the club, including cosmetics, health and wellness, laundry, and more.”
The decision to remove unwanted ingredients from its Member Mark food and beverage products came after Sam’s Club surveyed its members and found that 72% are “actively seeking minimally processed foods.” In comparison, 90% said they “either live or aspire to live a healthier lifestyle,” according to a press release from last year.
In a statement to TheStreet, RTMNexus CEO Dominick Miserandino said Sam’s Club’s switch to cleaner ingredients in its products is a significant move that will result in greater customer loyalty.
“What Sam’s Club has done is not just on the surface,” said Miserandino. “It recognizes that shoppers care about what’s in their food, not just the price. As consumers push back on overly processed ingredients, cleaner labels become a real competitive advantage. It won’t drive immediate sales, but it builds trust. And in grocery, trust turns into loyalty over time.”
Consumers becoming more health conscious is a trend that has become increasingly popular across the country since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This shift toward food products with cleaner, simpler ingredients has significantly changed how Americans shop for food, according to a 2024 survey by the International Food Information Council.
More or less 79% of Americans said they consider whether a food product is processed or not when he decides to buy it.
A whopping 63% of Americans say that avoid processed food.
In addition, 1 in 3 Americans follow a vegan, vegetarian or plant-based eating pattern to be stronger.
Also, 36% of Americans rely on “Natural,” “Organic,” or “Seasoned” labels on food products to indicate that they are they contain no artificial ingredients or colors. Source: International Food Information Council
In recent years, food ingredients such as seed oils, including canola, sunflower and palm, have even come under fire from consumers on social media for being overly processed and contributing to inflammation in the human body.
Synthetic dyes such as Blue 1, Red 40, Yellow 6, etc., which are commonly used in processed foods and are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, have also been scrutinized for their links to health issues, including hyperactivity in children and even cancer.
In April of last year, the Secretary of Health and Human Services of the United States Robert F. Kennedy Jr. rebuked the use of these ingredients in food and even promised to ban artificial dyes from all food products of the United States by the end of 2025.
“For too long, some food producers have been feeding Americans petroleum-based chemicals without their knowledge or consent,” Kennedy said in a press release. “These poisonous compounds offer no nutritional benefit and pose real and measurable dangers to our children’s health and development. That era is coming to an end.”
Sam’s Club’s move to cater to changing consumer attitudes toward processed foods also comes at a time when it is seeing shoppers scale back their in-store spending as they battle economic pressures.
During an earnings call in November, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said Walmart and Sam’s Club are only seeing increased demand from high- and middle-income consumers.
“As we look at our customers and members here in the U.S., they’re still spending, with high- and middle-income families driving our growth,” McMillon said. “We continue to benefit from higher income households choosing to shop with us more often.”
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“Middle-income families have been stable, and while low-income families have been under additional pressure recently, we are encouraged by how our teams are meeting them with greater value across all needs and doing what we can to help them continue to stretch their dollars,” he continued.
The US economy has been grappling with low consumer sentiment amid concerns about tariffs, which have contributed to higher prices nationwide. Many Americans have been spending less and seeking greater value as they grow worried about the economy, according to a recent survey by Wunderkind.
Among tariffs and inflation, 59% of consumers feel cautious, pessimistic or panicky about the economy.
More or less 71% quoted higher prices as theirs main concernwhile 47% quote unpredictable price increases.
Also, 38% are looking for offers more often, while 34% they are spending less overall. Source: Wunderkind
“US buyers are proving more strategic than ever,” wrote Danny O’Reilly, senior content architect at Wunderkind, in a blog post. “What began as a short-term caution has now crystallized into a new retail reality: value is the priority, trust is the differentiator, and digital agility defines how, and where, consumers spend.”
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This story was originally published by TheStreet on January 17, 2026, where it first appeared in the Retail section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.