Sam's Club is doubling down on fresh delivery and ready-to-cook meals after its top merchandising executive said convenience now drives the value equation for members.
FOX Business spoke with Myron Frazier, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer at the Arkansas-based warehouse retailer, about how members still want high-quality fresh food at a strong price. What changed is the way they expect to get it home and onto the table.
Frazier said shoppers now treat convenience as a core part of value. Delivery, curbside pickup, and ready-to-cook options are no longer extras. They are becoming the baseline for how many members want to buy fresh food.
He put the shift in plain terms.
"What has changed is convenience is becoming increasingly important to the value equation,"
That pressure is reshaping how Sam's Club builds its fresh business. The club is expanding ready-to-cook meals and giving members more ways to shop produce, meat, and prepared items without rearranging their day around a store trip.
Frazier described a full path from selection to dinner. Sam's Club is developing the items members want, narrowing the choices so shopping stays simple, then letting them finish the purchase in the aisle, at the curb, or at the front door.
He said the company is leaning into fresh food that travels well from warehouse to kitchen.
"We're really leaning in on this idea of offering high-quality, fresh foods in a way that's convenient from the club to your home, and then from the stove or from the oven to the table,"
One example he highlighted is "Marry Me Chicken," a ready-to-cook option that can feed a family of four in about 12 minutes. That kind of product speaks to households that still want a real meal without a long prep window after work.
It also tracks with demand already visible in affordable Sam's Club meal kits that families have used to stretch food budgets while saving time.
Frazier framed the model as choice without clutter. Members get curated options, then pick the fulfillment path that fits their schedule.
"For us, it's this combination of the Sam's Club experience, everything from developing the item they want, curating it down so that choice is easy, and then giving them the option to get it however they want,"
He added the practical menu of options.
"Whether that's in the club, whether that's curbside, or it's delivered to their home in under an hour."
Sam's Club is pushing Express Delivery on fresh items in under an hour, with no markup on those products, Frazier said. That pitch is aimed at members who will not trade quality for speed, and will not accept a surprise premium for the convenience either.
The timing lines up with broader grocery habits. A McKinsey & Company report titled "The State of Grocery North America 2026," cited in the coverage, found that roughly 70% of consumers prefer home delivery for online grocery orders. Most expect those orders the same day or within a few hours.
Warehouse clubs that ignore that expectation risk losing trips to whoever can move refrigerated goods faster. Sam's Club is treating the clock as part of the offer, not an afterthought.
Retail tech changes are moving on a parallel track, including work that could ease self-checkout friction at Sam's Club and peer retailers while members still handle some trips in person.
Digital demand inside the fresh category is already showing up in Frazier's numbers.
"Our digital business in fresh and [our] penetration of digital, it's doubled in the last couple of years,"
He tied that growth directly to giving members the fulfillment style they requested.
"And so I'm really excited about that, because we're offering fresh in a way that our members are asking us to do it."
Parent company Walmart's second-quarter earnings, released Aug. 20, put hard figures behind the same trend. Sam's Club U.S. e-commerce sales rose 26%, driven by continued growth in club-fulfilled pickup and delivery.
That is not a side channel anymore. It is a major growth engine for a membership retailer built on bulk value. When club-fulfilled orders climb that fast, the merchandising job shifts. Fresh has to hold quality through a last-mile handoff, not only under bright warehouse lights.
Frazier said Sam's Club will keep leaning into convenience as it expands the fresh business. The company is not asking members to reverse course and shop the old way. It is rebuilding the assortment and the logistics around the habits members already have.
That same operating mindset shows up in other club rules members watch closely, from strict limits on what Sam's Club will take back to how product selection stays tight enough to keep trips efficient.
The strategy also sits inside Walmart's wider push to make shopping faster. Warehouse clubs win when the membership fee buys both price power and time back. Fresh is where that trade becomes obvious, because produce and protein spoil, and dinner does not wait for a weekend stock-up run.
Frazier's comments echo an earlier read on the same pressure point, where convenience started driving the fresh-food value equation for club merchandising leaders.
Downstream tools are coming too. Walmart plans to extend new merchant systems into the club channel, including a later Scintilla platform rollout for Sam's Club merchants, as the parent company keeps wiring speed into everyday retail operations.
None of this requires a lecture about how families ought to cook. Members are already voting with orders: more digital fresh, more pickup, more delivery, and more meals that move from package to plate without a long project in the kitchen.
Sam's Club is answering with curated fresh items, Express Delivery under an hour at no markup on those goods, and ready-to-cook products built for short evenings. Frazier's point was simple. Value still matters. Quality still matters. Convenience now sits in the same equation, and the club that ignores it loses the next order.
When paying members say they want fresh food on their schedule, the retailers that listen keep the business. The ones that scold shoppers for wanting speed get left with emptier carts.