Walmart challenges Amazon Prime with Sam’s Club Plus

On Feb. 14 Walmart announced a direct challenge to Amazon’s Prime. The company’s unit Sam’s Club will now offer free shipping on almost any item to shoppers who pay $100 a year for Plus membership, much like the $99 Prime membership fee.

The company also announced that it was reducing its membership levels to two: Plus membership and a Club membership that would give shoppers discounts on certain services at $45 a year.

With the recent closure of 63 of its stores and subsequent job losses, Sam’s Club executives informed the press that the company was converting Sam’s Club former store in Memphis into a fulfillment center for online orders. They added that other e-commerce facilities were planned in Florida, California, the Chicago area and the Northeast in the coming months. Some of the affected workers will be able to reapply to jobs at these centers.