BJ's Wholesale Club toys with a different store structure of 85,000 sqft

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Last Wednesday BJ's CEO Laura Sen had a lot to mention regarding the 85,000 sqft prototype store in Pennsylvania. The store plans on serving a "less dense market", and allows the company to expand into area's which they wouldn't explore before. The city of Syracuse was listening to this closey, from Friday's Post Standard: 'With new size in mind BJ's could expand to Syracuse area'

Whether or not BJ's expands to Syracuse the fact is that BJ's is thinking, and thinking wisely we should add. As a 'big box' store, and a typical 100,000+ sqft operator they have seen the fruits of holding such an immense retail space, though they have also been held back on expanding to certain areas who craved a store like BJ's, but did not have the sufficient space for them.

In 2008, Wal-Mart also toyed with the idea of a smaller format in order to take on neighborhood stores they wouldn't usually compete with their usual supercenters. The 'Marketside' test hasn't worked out the way Wal-Mart planned, as the Wal-Mart hierarchy has put a halt on expansion citing the struggling economy. We'll see if BJ's will take the same turn, downsizing to comply to an area they aren't accustom to serving.

The question on our mind though is what the new 'prototype' stores will do for jobs at BJ's?, both current and future. Will there be an infrastructure change? Will there be a different benefit package? Will there be different job descriptions? Will there be more controversial promotions?

Only time will tell, but we'd like to know what you think now...

BJ's Sales Down Again...

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Another month, another dip in sales. For consecutive months BJ's sales are down, via Barron's.com

BJ's Wholesale Club (BJ) comparable-store sales have lost momentum for the second month in a row and the first time in several quarters as the company reported a below plan and below consensus comp store sales gain of 2.7%. The company believes bad weather may have pressured sales by 1%-2%. Despite a relatively low enterprise value/earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization multiple of about 5 times, we are maintaining our Hold rating given our concerns around a deceleration in sales and difficult comparisons ahead as other retailers face easier comparisons.

Thanks and keep sending in the emails on how these sales are affecting your working conditions.

Another BJ's Executive to another Retail Board...

Perry Kramer, vice president of sales operations, corporate and distributed solutions at BJ’s Wholesale Club, Natick, Mass., has been elected co-chair of the board of directors of the Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS), the standards division of the National Retail Federation in Washington. Read it here.

On Wednesday

Wednesday BJ's Wholesale Club will release fourth-quarter financial results....Rumor has it they will report a net income of 86 cents a share, compared with 81 cents last year, continuing to blossom.

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