Sam’s Club coming to region

Wal-Mart’s answer to warehouse shopping is coming to North Spokane.

The world’s largest retailer plans to build a 153,000-square-foot Sam’s Club on the northeast corner of Nevada Street and Lincoln Road on 21.5 acres.

“This store will create at least 120 new jobs,” said Eric Berger, a Seattle-based spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which is based in Bentonville, Ark.

Similar to Costco Wholesale, Sam’s Club is a members-only warehouse store that offers deals on thousands of items and has more than 46 million members worldwide.

The company submitted plans for an $11.4 million project that includes the main building, gas station and small pad that could be developed into a retail site at a later date, said John Pilcher, director of economic development for Spokane.

This is the first Sam’s Club in the region, although there are two Costco Wholesale stores in Spokane and one in Coeur d’Alene.

Wal-Mart’s Web site said Sam’s Club’s stores provide no-frills shopping on cement floors, with more than 4,000 items to choose from. Merchandise includes housewares, auto and office supplies, brand-name clothing, jewelry, electronics, fresh foods and optical and pharmacy services.

According to Hoovers, a company that researches corporations and industries, Sam’s Club has about 550 stores in 48 states and some 90 stores that operate in five other countries. With over $34 billion in sales in 2004, Hoovers said the club stores provide about 15 percent of Wal-Mart’s annual sales, which were $256 billion that year and $285 billion in 2005.

Pilcher said the company is early in the permitting process, and must perform a traffic impact study and other requirements to gain approval for the project. Permitting could take two or three months, he said.

The company will hold a community meeting on Jan. 24 to determine how to deal with traffic issues for the mega-store, Berger said, adding, “I don’t have a timeline for when the construction would start.”