London will be one of six Sam's Club retail store locations closing in Ontario as owner's Wal-Mart announced yesterday.
According to Wal-Mart after dropping the Sam's retail store locations there focus will be on opening 26 of the Wal-Mart Supercenters similar to London's Hyse Park location.
Some of these Supercenters will be new while other's will just be added to existing locations. So far the only locations near London at this point are St.Thomas and Woodstock.
Sam's Club in London employs about 200 people and Wal-Mart hopes to find jobs for them at other store locations.
Like Costco, shoppers have to be part of the Sam's Membership Club in order to do business there. Membership fees were renewed yearly costing between $40-$50 depending on business or personal use. The Sam's Membership Club entitled buyers to better deals on bulk sizes of food and personal products and Sam's also had a wide variety of electronics such as TV's and Computers.
Speculation is that the building will not sit idle too long at Lowe's has expressed interest in opening at that location. Lowe's has opened 11 stores in Canada in a little over one year. Lowe's would be in competition with Home Depot and Rona.
The London Sam's Club location opened it's doors in 2004 as Wal-Mart rushed to open it before Costco opened the second location in the city.
It's just another sign of the times when you see a large chain like this calling it quits.
It's just another sign of the times when you see a large chain like this calling it quits.