BJ's Challenges Wal-Mart and Sam's for King of Summer Club Crown

With its 100 Days of Summer membership and a range of product promotions, Wal-Mart has positioned Its Sam’s chain as the king of summertime supplies among warehouse club chains, but BJ’s is launching a challenge with a new initiative to draw seasonal grillers, backyard nappers and staycationers in an economic climate that’s keeping folks close to home.

And it has more coming.

In launching its promotion, BJ’s cites a study from IHS Global Insights that indicates U.S. leisure travelers will spend $30 billion less touring from April to September 2009 versus summer 2008. In fact, IHS reported late last year that 2008 overall domestic travel already was falling off, with per-person trips declining 0.6% over 2007 and the leisure component peaking.

One result will be more opportunity for retailers who help consumer enjoy life around the homestead, and, in fact, BJ’s has developed themed sales promotions suggesting backyard pastimes that can substitute for travel activities. They include:

• Camping Close. BJ’s is offering Coleman’s Kohna eight-person, Evanston six-person and Cedar Grove four-person tents at prices ranging from $149.99 to $49.99 as the centerpiece of backyard camping parties with a $99.99 fire pit as a recommended accessory.
• Paradise at Home. A Deluxe Sunbrella Quilted Hammock — priced at $119.99, hammock stand sold separately – sets the tone for tropical-style leisure particularly when accompanied by a $399.99 natural bamboo tiki bar and accompanying stools.
• Backyard Beach. In a just-add-water pitch, the club operator is offering a Intex Easy Set pool with filter pump, ground cloth, pool cover, ladder, surface skimmer and how-to-maintain DVD at $199.99 along with a $89.99 Wet Set floating lounger and a $29.99 Poolmaster inflatable rocker so someone can generate a little authentic wave action.
• Play-arama. Or course, there had to be a trampoline, and BJ’s is offering one with an attached safety enclosure – certainly a better and less expensive accessory than a lawyer — for $299.99, and it can be supplement by a $99.99 Step2 All-Star Sports Climber that includes a slide, basketball hoop and football target all in one.

In the aftermath of the initial promotion, BJ’s plans a Barbecue on a Budget effort that offers ways of throwing a 20-guest cookout for under $120, and gets its food departments in on the summer action.

While the theme is fun, BJ’s intent is serious. People who are out of work may not be able to put down two hundred bucks on a pool, particularly if the property it sits on is about to be yanked out from under them, and the club chain does offer less expensive outdoor fun products, such as Star Wars kites priced from $11.99 to $17.99. Yet, a lot of people who are cutting back this year aren’t unemployed. They may have lost work hours or they may have decided to be cautious in the face of rising unemployment numbers, but many had budgeted vacations that they won’t use or will only use in part for lesser excursions, and kids disappointed by the abandonment of a thousand buck beach vacation may be cheered by that $200 pool. BJ’s, under the circumstances, can add sales and profits, or at least make up for the luggage it won’t be selling this year.