[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

I think that this Sam's Club is here to stay. They are really the only game in town. It is one of the smallest stores in the chain so its operating expenses are lower than most.

The fact that there is no Costco or BJ Wholesale in the area means that they have the market cornered on this type of store. It's doubtful that Costco or any other store of this type will ever come to this area. If you notice all of the other shopping clubs, including Sam's in Ocala are all located near a major highway. That is one of the primary consideration for where to locate these stores. A community of 150,000 people with another 100,000 or so in surrounding communities is not enough for these corporations to build a store in that area. They want to locate near a major highway like route 4, route 95 or route 75 so that people can easily get to their location from 30 or 40 miles away. The Villages just does not have that kind of access.

The Villages is larger than Ocala, Summerfield, Bellevue, Fruitland Park and Leesburg all put together. But the Ocala Sam's Club is much larger than the one that we have here. It's because it's right off of 75.

The thing is that these types of stores were never meant to have great customer service. Product is stuck onto shelves still in boxes and employees are really just stock clerks. Shopping clubs are are popular because of buy in bulk for low prices with little or no service.