PriceSmart Inc: Kings of the warehouse club

Source: Retail Exec

Date :06/12/2007 09:37:06

PriceSmart brings the American membership warehouse club concept to Central America and the Caribbean.

Written and produced by Hailey Lynne McKeefry & Nick Ledue.

Visitors to America get to experience many things not found in other parts of the world, from apple pie to baseball.

PriceSmart Inc., however, has brought another unique American phenomenon — the membership warehouse club — to hundreds of thousands of shoppers in Central America and the Caribbean. The company is betting on a winning combination of low prices, unique products, smart logistics and efficient operations to succeed.

“Our clubs are less than half the size of a typical American warehouse club,” says Bill Naylon, chief operating officer and executive vice president of PriceSmart. “However, we keep the same principals of warehouse clubs — an annual membership fee in order to shop, a warehouse facility instead of a store, a limited number of items, unique and higher quality products, [being] a supplier to small businesses, and low prices.”

From the beginning

PriceSmart has its origins in the same family that developed and started the membership warehouse club concept in America in 1976, says Naylon.

“The whole concept started 31 years ago in San Diego by the Price family with the opening of the first Price Club. Today, they are the major shareholders in our company,” he adds. “Robert Price, the co-founder of Price Club, is our chairman and CEO.”

The San Diego, Calif.-based company has opened 15 clubs in Central America and eight clubs in the Caribbean since starting in 1995. Their roster of locations includes four clubs each in Costa Rica and Panama, two each in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Trinidad/Tobago and one each in Aruba, Barbados, Jamaica, Nicaragua and the United States Virgin Islands…

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