BENTONVILLE, Ark.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sam’s Club, a leading membership warehouse club, announces its participation in a San Diego-based supplier event, welcoming more than 100 regional small businesses to present their food and beverage products to be featured in Sam’s Clubs across the country. The supplier participants, including several women- and minority-owned businesses, were narrowed down from an application pool of more than 13,000 suppliers.
Sam’s Club is participating in the event to engage new suppliers, strengthen relationships with local suppliers, and identify new food and beverage products relevant to Sam’s Club members in the Southwest and Western regions. Predominant themes among participating suppliers include:
- Organic and all-natural snacks and beverages
- Health-conscious grocery
- Local beer, wine and tequila brands
- Specialty sauces, cheeses and meats
“Sam’s Club is focused on providing our members with savings, new and surprising products, and regionally-relevant items,” said Shawn Baldwin, senior vice president for grocery merchandise at Sam’s Club. “We’re a retailer with a highly focused offering of products, so while we know we can’t make every participant in the event a supplier, our merchants are ready to find the best products for our members and help the participating small businesses learn by increasing their knowledge of how to work with a big retailer.”
The event supports Sam’s Club Supplier Diversity program which aims to expand and advance the current pool of diverse suppliers with emphasis on small regional businesses and women-, veteran- and minority-owned businesses. Through education and mentoring new and existing suppliers, Sam’s Club supports capacity building for diverse businesses.
“Sam’s Club is proud to be more than a shopping destination – we are a club for our communities,” said Sean Mehranbod, regional general manager for southwest operations. “When Sam’s Club invests in new suppliers locally and regionally, those suppliers hire people to make products, and that creates jobs for small business owners and growth opportunities for their businesses, their families and their communities.”
The San Diego supplier event takes place at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina, August 26-27, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is sponsored and managed by ECRM, a retail marketing firm providing business solutions by integrating process, vision and technology, uniting buyers and suppliers of the consumer packaged goods industry at Efficient Program Planning Sessions, or EPPS® events. For more information, visit ECRM Marketgate Online.
About Sam’s Club
Sam’s Club®, a division of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT), is a leading membership warehouse club offering superior products, savings and services to millions of members in 640 clubs in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. To learn more about Sam’s Club, visit the Sam’s Club Newsroom, shop at SamsClub.com, and interact with Sam’s Club on Twitter and Facebook.
