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Wholesale Membership Clubs: Retail Success Through Subscription

With 130 million people willing to pay an annual fee, wholesale membership clubs have been using subscription-business best practices for decades, and they have some lessons to teach the Johnny-come-latelies.

Source: Bigstock

Before the first World Wide Web page was served, before Amazon Prime was a twinkle in Jeff Bezos's eye, brick-and-mortar retailers were founding companies based on the idea of selling exclusively to subscribers. The wholesale-pricing warehouse-membership business model, invented by the perfectly named Sol Price in 1976, made membership appealing with the idea that you had to subscribe annually to get the incredible bargains available at these stores. The market in the United S...

 

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Michael Moran Alterio

Michael Moran Alterio is Subscription Insider’s staff writer focused on subscription business trends and research. He is a journalist and data analyst with over 20 years of experience with a keen sense for the story behind the spreadsheet.
More Articles By Michael Moran Alterio

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