The Future of Retail Requires Creating Quality Opportunities and Investing in Associates
I owe everything to retail. I got my start at 14 years old in the backroom of a small shop where I zoned shelves and priced products for about £3 an hour. One of my earliest childhood memories was spending time in my nana’s grocery store when I was five years old, helping her prepare orders that were delivered by bike to customers’ homes.
Retail is one of those things that gets in your blood. These experiences turned into a 30-year vocation that’s taken me to nine countries on four continents to the helm of Sam’s Club. In the blue-collar town where I was raised, money was scant, and opportunity was scarce. Of the 350 students I graduated with, few went to college; for most of my classmates, the thought of a meaningful career plan wasn’t on their radar. For me, a job in retail was a first step. It gave me hope that I could pioneer my own path in life.
Three decades later, hope continues to pull me out of bed every morning and inspires me to find opportunities for every one of our associates across our 600 clubs to grow, evolve and pursue better lives. Now I'm putting the lessons I learned in my hometown to work again – to find ways to help our associates chart their own fulfilling career paths that can improve their lives and financial futures.
Today, I’m proud to share that we’ve made a pair of investments that do just that – reimagining our workforce compensation and providing longer-term financial predictability for nearly 100,000 hourly associates across our company. These include:
- A new compensation plan that expands pay increases to between 3% and 6% based on years of service
- An increase to our minimum start rate
This is just the latest milestone in what’s been a multi-year journey to improve our associate experience and provide more pathways to generational well-being. Since 2019, we have made a dozen wage investments, from starting pay increases to annual stock grants, that have impacted frontline associates at every level and in every area of our clubs. These complement other opportunities we’ve created for associates – such as block schedules to provide better work-life balance and new technology like the Me@Sams app that gives access to pay, learning and benefits details – to encourage growth, embrace ownership and bring greater simplicity and convenience to their roles.
More Predictable Financial Futures
A stubborn stigma persists around retail work: that it’s both temporary and transactional – roles defined by dollar-per-hour rates. It’s a tired narrative we’re eager to rewrite at Sam’s Club. Why? Because I’m a firm believer that providing good jobs translates to good business. Our hope and expectation for every associate who slips on that blue vest is to know there are opportunities for each of them to make our clubs the best place to shop; that our hourly positions aren’t merely stopgaps to better jobs elsewhere but steppingstones to fulfilling careers right here at Sam’s Club. Just ask our club managers, three of four of whom start in frontline roles.
We recognize the very real challenges many hourly retail associates face – and the unmistakable correlation between quality jobs, quality of life and quality of business. For many, quality of life translates directly not just in their take-home pay but being able to feel less pressured about the predictability of income looking into the future. This is why we’re introducing this new compensation plan for frontline associates, enabling them to reach key milestones in their pay range faster. At the same time, we’re also increasing the minimum start rate, which brings us to a nearly 30% increase in our average hourly rate over the last five years.
Once these new investments go into effect in November, here’s what the impact could look like for associates across our clubs:
Retail is Grounded in People
Sam’s Club isn’t a nearly $90 billion company just because we move a lot of products or sell a lot of memberships. It’s because we put people first, both our members and our frontline associates – the ambassadors of our brand – who are responsible for delivering unparalleled experiences for our members. In today’s competitive retail landscape, our ability to attract and retain the best people will distinguish our brand, our services and our clubs. This will continue to make intentional and authentic investments in everything from wages and incentives to comprehensive benefits that support the educational, financial and wellness goals of associates and their families.
Every day I witness how our investment journey has changed the trajectory of someone’s life. Like Julia, a merchandising team manager in Virginia who started as a part-time cashier five years ago. A single mom, Julia was working variable shifts across two jobs to support her son. Our move to block scheduling and a series of pay increases and promotions eventually gave her the work-life stability and financial stability to quit her other job and start a full-time, salaried career with us where she continues to thrive.
My early retail experience fundamentally shaped who I am, what I value and how I lead. When I say retail has profound potential to create lifechanging opportunities, it isn’t mere lip service – Julia, I and countless others throughout the Sam’s Club family are proof. There’s more we can do and more we will do, but I am optimistic these latest investments will continue to support our associates as they invest their time, skills and knowledge in us. And we will continue to build Sam’s Club as a place of hope to dream bigger, reach higher and transform lives.