Recently, Sam's Club said that its healthy and high-quality snacks have proven quite popular with members, the category growing at a three-digit speed. The club has recently launched more snacks with “clean labels", namely made from natural ingredients instead of additives and synthetics. To ensure they taste as good, Sam's own Member's Mark brand maintains the balance by selecting ingredients of premium origins, improving manufacturing processes and exercising strict quality control.

Tina Zhang, Chief Merchandising Officer at Sam's Club China, says, "COVID-19 has changed the way of living, having fun and eating for our member families, boosting their need for healthier snacking choices. Drawing on years of member insights, strong global merchandising resources and stringent item selection standards, Sam's Club has introduced and developed numerous snacks that balance between taste and lightness. Several of our new items have been improved in terms of ingredients, recipe and process, breaking the conventional belief that "tasty snacks must be unhealthy". Going forward, we will continue to uphold our ‘Members First’ principle and be a champion of quality, showing members "Life is Better in the Club” with our differentiated items.

Snacks With Clean Labels For Your Peace of Mind

Premium ingredients, and no or low salt in children's snacks

Sam's members mostly come from middle and high income families, and they pay special attention to children's dietary health. When developing food for children, Sam's Club makes every effort to select ingredients from the best producing regions around the world and exercises extra care with the recipe  and the manufacturing process. For example, Member's Mark only selects seaweed harvested at its richest from December to February every year and uses a roasting method rather than frying to make its seaweed crunch. Most importantly, Sam's Club asks for no added salt. Similar standards apply to Member's Mark Fresh Corn Juice as well, a collaboration with the Crop Research Institute of Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Pressed from Yuetian 28 Non-GMO Sweet Corn, the juice retains  the right freshness.

Member's Mark Fresh Corn Juice

"Clean labels" to achieve "fewer ingredients but the same taste"

Recognizing members’ unwillingness to sacrifice taste for healthiness, Sam's Club has launched a product development strategy of "fewer ingredients but the same taste". Looking for best-in-class manufacturers and ingredients around the world, Sam’s attends to both taste and health. Several items are completely free of industrial additives. For example, the Sam’s-exclusive seaweed crunch developed by Sam's Club and Finute together has a recipe consisting of only seven natural ingredients including rice, seaweed powder, oil and corn powder. No chemicals and artificial additives. It breaks the conventional thinking that puffed food must contain artificial agents. The product instantly sold out at multiple clubs upon launch.

Seaweed Crunch Developed by Sam's Club and Finute

Tina Zhang said, "With ‘Members First’ as the starting point, Sam's Club curates the items best suited for different life scenarios. Take snacks as an example: if one blindly pursues ‘health’ and ignores members’ need for taste, the pleasure that ‘snacks’ ought to bring to members will get lost. However, as far as baby foods are concerned, safety and health must be the No.1 and sole criteria. Our work is to find a balance point between them with our professional skills and develop high-quality items. This is also the embodiment of Sam's uncompromising stand on quality."

Leading technological change and upholding quality

As a retail club, Sam's most important consideration is what kinds of goods are truly suitable for its members. This is something which Sam's Club must adhere to. In practice, however, the more difficult thing is to give up on certain things. The seemingly simple Member's Mark roasted and unsalted mixed nuts product well reflects Sam's "give-up principle" for healthy lifestyles. For this product, Sam's Club insists on roasting rather than frying and adding no extra oil. Members may feel that it doesn't smell as good as other similar products when they open the package. But, Sam's Club believes that according to Chinese members’ daily dietary and living habits, such supplementary snacks should reduce unnecessary oil and salt intake. While this means a longer time for members to gradually accept, it is nevertheless Sam's insistence.

Member's Mark Mixed Nuts Adopt Roasting Technology and Are Free of Any Extra Oil