BJ’s Wholesale plans to cut 20% of its store items as members flock to clubs
BJ’s Wholesale is preparing one of the most visible changes to its stores in years: a broad reduction in the number of products on its shelves.
The club-chain operator said it plans to cut roughly 20% of its stock-keeping units (SKUs) over the next two years, paring back overlapping versions of similar items and using the freed-up space to add new, innovative items in untapped categories. The move is part of a broader effort to sharpen its assortment as customer visits climb and membership reaches a record.
“We find ourselves over-SKUed,” CEO Bob Eddy said on an Aug. 21 earnings call. “It has been a longstanding opportunity. We have had efforts to cut SKU count in the past, and I would argue we didn’t prosecute that opportunity in the right way. We just cut SKUs, which cut sales, and then we added some SKUs back.”
This time, BJ’s says it will be more deliberate. Rather than simply eliminating quantity, the company is concentrating sales among fewer choices and adding new, higher-potential products in categories where it has been under-represented. Eddy said the company has already tested the approach in beverages and active nutrition, with positive early results.
“Think about in traditional soda, we do not carry cans and 1-liter and 2-liters of the same product anymore,” he said. “We are adding in healthy soda, like Poppi and things like that. That is the idea around the building.”
The change will be gradual. The next waves are scheduled for September and toward the end of the year, with the full rollout expected to take a couple of years. BJ’s current legacy clubs carry about 7,500 SKUs on average; Eddy wants to bring that down to between 6,000 and 6,500.
“Our goal really is to take about 20% of our SKUs out over the next couple of years, and that will sort of happen ratably,” Eddy said. “That will largely get the chain down to where we find ourselves in new clubs, maybe a little bit lower than that.”
He said the company would be “sensitive” to members’ needs as it decides which items to cut, and described the ongoing effort as “powerful.”
The merchandising shake-up comes as BJ’s is enjoying a stretch of unusually strong demand. Comparable club sales, including gasoline, rose 11.9% year over year in the second quarter, and membership climbed to a record 8.5 million. Customer visits increased 4.9%, slightly ahead of Sam’s Club’s 4.7%, according to Placer.ai.
The chain has also been leaning into price. Using tariff refunds it received from the government, BJ’s has lowered prices on a range of items, widening its price advantage over traditional grocers.
“Traditional grocers have been raising prices, creating an even more favorable backdrop for our value proposition,” Eddy said. “We continue to gain share, and as our price gaps improve, unit share has become an even clearer signal of member preference.”
The combination of value pricing and assortment changes appears aimed at holding onto a broader and more affluent member base. Eddy said most of BJ’s growth in the quarter came from higher-income shoppers, a sign that the “K-shaped economy persists” even as the company saw sequential improvement.
“The vast majority of our growth continues to be driven by our higher-income members, which is consistent with what we’ve seen for some time now,” he said. “In an environment where consumers remain discerning with their dollars, we know our job is to make sure we’re putting the right products at the right value in front of every member who walks through our doors.”
The focus on higher-income shoppers has also led BJ’s to add more premium items to its shelves, a change Eddy first teased in May. That push is happening against a backdrop of declining consumer sentiment nationwide. The University of Michigan’s Survey of Consumers showed sentiment fell about 8% earlier this month, with older consumers, lower-income households, and those without a college degree reporting the largest drops.
“These groups are all particularly vulnerable to any erosion of purchasing power stemming from inflation,” said Joanne Hsu, the survey’s director, in a statement. Across all consumers, only 8% expect their income growth to outpace inflation in the year ahead, down from 18% in December 2024.
Bernstein analysts Zhihan Ma and Jeremy Miles warned in July that inflation will likely remain a strain on lower-income shoppers while middle- and high-income consumers stay value-conscious, according to Investing.com. “Although gas prices have started to moderate, inflationary pressure is likely here to stay,” they wrote.
BJ’s has also benefited from elevated gas prices, which drove members to its locations and lifted fuel sales. Comparable fuel gallon sales rose double digits in the second quarter, surpassing its first-quarter results, and the company leaned into gasoline discounts to keep those trips coming.
“Sales, membership, margin dollars, and the bottom line all came in ahead of our expectations,” Eddy said. “Adjusted EPS was $1.36, up 19% year-over-year. To put that in perspective, we earned more in this single quarter than we did in the entire year we went public back in 2018.”
Warehouse clubs have become one of retail’s main battlegrounds for inflation-weary consumers, and BJ’s push to simplify its aisles is an acknowledgment that more choices aren’t always better when shoppers want quicker trips and lower prices. If the SKU reduction works as planned, members will see a leaner store with a clearer point of view — and, BJ’s hopes, a stronger reason to keep coming back.
This article was originally published by TheStreet on Aug. 25, 2026, where it first appeared in the Retail section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source.