BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings Inc (BJ)

How it makes money

Two streams, of very different natures. The larger one is merchandise: net sales of $20.96 billion in fiscal 2025, sold at deliberately thin mark-ups. Within merchandise sales the 10-K splits perishables, grocery and sundries at roughly 87% and general merchandise and services at roughly 13% for fiscal 2025. Gasoline is sold at low margin as a traffic driver, which is why the company reports comparable sales both with and without it (+1.0% including gasoline, +2.6% excluding it in fiscal 2025). The second stream is the annual membership fee — $499.8 million in fiscal 2025, up 9.5%, recognised over the life of the membership. It is small against $21.46 billion of total revenue but carries almost no direct cost, so it funds a large share of profit and explains why the whole model is built on renewals rather than on margin per item. Club membership costs $60 a year and Club+ $120, both raised in January 2025; Club+ and co-branded Mastercard members were 42% of members and 52% of merchandise spend excluding gas and fees in fiscal 2025.

The advantage is structural but regional rather than absolute. Buying a narrow assortment in very large volumes, selling it in a low-cost box and recovering a slice of profit through the membership fee lets BJ's price below conventional supermarkets, and the fee itself makes a member reluctant to shop elsewhere once paid. Private label at roughly 27% of net sales excluding gasoline deepens the price gap on staples. What keeps this narrow rather than wide: Costco, Sam's Club and Walmart all operate the same model at greater national scale, BJ's clubs are concentrated in the eastern states, and nothing stops a member from letting a $60 membership lapse. The 10-K itself lists competition and any harm to the membership relationship among its principal risks.

Most of what BJ's sells is food and household staples — perishables, grocery and sundries were roughly 87% of merchandise sales in fiscal 2025 — and that demand does not disappear in a downturn. Club formats often gain members when households start hunting for value, since the fee pays for itself on bulk staples. The cyclical edges are the smaller general merchandise and services piece, around 13% of merchandise sales, where televisions, furniture and seasonal goods are postponable, and gasoline, whose reported revenue moves with the crude price rather than with member behaviour: fiscal 2025 comparable sales were +1.0% including gasoline and +2.6% excluding it. The membership fee, recognised over the year, is the steadiest line of all, and the company notes 16 consecutive quarters of traffic growth.

Key risks

• Dependence on a large and loyal membership — The company states it depends on having a large and loyal membership, and that any harm to its relationship with members could have a material adverse effect on the business, net sales and results of operations. Since membership fee income carries almost no direct cost, a fall in renewals hits profit harder than it hits revenue.
• Competition may reduce profitability — The filing lists competition as a risk that may adversely affect profitability. BJ's competes with other warehouse clubs, supermarkets, supercentres, discounters and online sellers, all of which can match price cuts, and the 10-K also warns it may fail to identify or respond to consumer trends in time.
• Procurement prices and reliance on vendors — Results depend on procuring merchandise at the best possible prices, and on vendors supplying quality merchandise at the right time and the right price. The company also flags that disruptions in merchandise distribution could hurt sales and member satisfaction.
• Gasoline and changes in product mix — The filing warns that changes in product mix or in revenues from gasoline sales could negatively affect revenue and results. Retail gasoline prices are volatile and move with crude oil, so reported sales can swing for reasons that have nothing to do with how many members are shopping.
• Consumer spending, SNAP and the co-branded credit card — The company cites macroeconomic and market conditions affecting consumer spending, changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — its rules, administration or EBT systems — and economic and regulatory conditions affecting its co-branded credit card programme, as risks to its results.
• Technology, payments and digital experience — BJ's relies extensively on information technology to process transactions and run the business, and a failure or disruption of primary and back-up systems could hurt operations. It also discloses payment-related risks including the security of payment card information, and the risk of failing to keep a relevant digital experience for members.
• Weather, catastrophic events and labour organisation — Natural disasters, extreme weather and catastrophic events beyond the company's control could hurt results — a live concern given how concentrated the clubs are in the eastern states — and the filing separately warns that union attempts to organise its team members could disrupt the business.

There is no customer concentration in the usual sense: the 10-K states that no customer represents more than 10% of total revenues for any period presented. Revenue comes from more than 8 million individual paid memberships. The concentration that does matter is geographic — clubs are clustered in the eastern United States, with New York (50 clubs), Florida (43), Massachusetts (26), New Jersey (24) and Pennsylvania (19) the largest states — so a regional shock hits a disproportionate share of the business.