Sams's Club CEO: Our members 'started shopping quite aggressively' for the holiday season

In a new interview with Yahoo Finance anchor Alexis Christoforous, Sam's Club CEO Kathryn McLay discusses what consumer trends she's seeing this year, and how Sam's Club has prepared for the holiday season to meet increased demand.

Video transcript

KATHRYN MCLAY: Yeah, this is the fun time I think in retail, the lead up from now right through Thanksgiving into Christmas. I really feel like our clubs really sparkle at this period of time. And yeah, you're right. We have been surveying our members and they told us recently that 20% of them have already started filling their shopping lists. So members are getting out there early. They're buying up for Christmas.

And we had planned that people, like last year, might buy early. So we got Halloween in early and now we've got all of our what we call red and green, all of our Christmas event product in early as well, too. our members are enjoying it and truly have already started shopping quite aggressively.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: So it's not even Halloween, but you're just decked out for Christmas at this point at your stores.

KATHRYN MCLAY: Yeah. I think our model is one where we want to get it in early and sell through. And so a lot of our Halloween product has sold through, and we've transitioned to Christmas.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: So what are your expectations for holiday sales this year? And are you doing anything differently as you prepare for that holiday rush?

KATHRYN MCLAY: We are. So we want to be there for our members if they want to get together and gather in groups, if that is OK for us as a society to be able to do. So we're seeing at the moment that our members are both still participating and buying COVID-related items like masks and tests, et cetera. And the same time, they're also buying those celebratory kind of more gathering-type products like potty trays, and cookie trays, et cetera.

So we're seeing that as an early indicator that people this year are really want to get going to want to gather around the Thanksgiving table, or the Christmas table with family and friends. And so we're really leaning in big. We have more events as we lead into Christmas this year than we've had in any year prior. And we've also got some really big things around introducing new direct to home wine as well as looking at some special events as well for our members.