Sam's Club Packaging Principles

• Ensure safety. Make sure your pallet load is safe through the entire supply chain—strong enough to ship, store in the racks, and merchandise on the floor.

• Maximize operational efficiency. The objective is door-to-floor pallet design. “It comes in, goes to the floor, and members shop it,” says Zettlemoyer. “We want to limit the extra effort associated with packaging.”

• Create self-selling packaging by communicating value and making sure members can easily shop the product in the store and use it at home. “Many companies design packaging to run on their equipment and ship it through the system,” she notes. “That really isn’t enough. It is important for our suppliers to understand how a member is going to experience the packaging in our environment. Consumer packaged goods companies and their vendors who want to do business with us need to spend time in Sam’s Club, watching and understanding what is important to our members.”

• Optimize packaging financials. Make sure each pallet achieves the anticipated return on investment.

• Improve the sustainability of packaging and help Sam’s Club achieve its sustainability goals.