The members-only warehouse, Sam's Club, is being constructed in Shijingshan, inside the city's West Fifth Ring Road.

According to Wal-Mart, Sam's Club will operate by selling high volumes of merchandise at low prices, offering exceptional value on name-brand products for business and individual members.

"The Beijing Sam's Club will boast a shopping area of 16,500 square metres plus ample car parking space and will carry around 4,000 types of goods, with membership available for 150 yuan (US$18)," said John Xu, director of external affairs for Wal-Mart China.

Experts say the viability of such members-only supermarkets is yet to be determined with alternative discount stores like Price-Mart and Makro offering no-charge cards to customers.

"But we have our targeted group of consumers, and according to our research that group is growing in Beijing," said Xu.

Wal-Mart has already started selling its Sam's Club membership cards for the Beijing store, with the retail giant also poised to launch three hypermarkets in Beijing in the future.

By the end of last year, the US-owned retail conglomerate had opened 25 outlets in China, three of which were Sam's Club member-only outlets.

Industry experts are taking a cautious approach to the launch of Sam's Club, while the retail giant has announced it will host a purchasing fair next month in Beijing, in a bid to give local manufactures a chance to enter the lucrative market.

(China Daily March 14, 2003)