After 40 years in retail, Sam’s Club is rolling out a major refresh, and one of its first redesigned stores has now reopened in Tennessee.
The warehouse chain, which competes with Costco, began updating its brand toward the end of last year. Its latest revamped location is in Lebanon, Tennessee, becoming the fifth Sam’s Club site in the wider Nashville region and the first entirely new store to debut the company’s updated branding.
The 170,000-square-foot club welcomed shoppers on July 30. As part of the overhaul, the company has introduced a new logo, a new slogan – that being ‘Come Join Us’ – and a new ‘modern visual look’. This represents a broader modernization effort: Sam’s Club is also remodeling all 600 of its existing U.S. locations to feature updated branding and technology, with plans to expand to 15 new stores annually to more than double membership, sales and profit over the next eight to 10 years.
The first location to debut the updated format opened in Springdale, Arkansas, in October 2025.
In Lebanon, the membership-based store showcases the retailer’s updated branding throughout the site, along with several new features designed to change the shopping experience.
Among the biggest additions is a consolidated healthcare area. According to USA Today, the pharmacy, optical and hearing centers have been brought together into one suite so shoppers can take care of several health-related needs in a single trip.
The store’s Optical Center carries more than 200 designer frames, including options from Gucci, Ray Ban, and Tom Ford.
There is also a dedicated floral department. A Sam’s Club spokesperson told USA Today it was created so members can “watch associates create custom floral arrangements, bringing a little theater to the shopping experience while giving associates more time to focus on personalized service”.
A company news release says the updated location also includes an outdoor cafe, goods from local businesses, and “an expanded fresh department with product islands that are one-third larger than the ones in standard Sam’s Club location”.
It explains further: “These islands include more meat, seafood, deli and prepared foods options. One of the islands features sushi, allowing customers to watch trained chefs prepare sushi.”
Discussing the sushi island specifically, Sam’s Club said: “That visibility creates excitement and reinforces the freshness and quality of the product.” The sushi offerings have become increasingly popular with customers, with individual pieces starting around $7 for 10 pieces and a $25 sushi party tray offering 40 pieces. In 2026, Sam’s Club is expanding its sushi menu to include Korean Barbecue Chicken Spring Rolls, Spicy Tuna Mango Rolls, and regional variations reflecting local tastes. The sushi is made fresh daily in-club by trained chefs.
Another notable change is a reduced number of self-checkout stations compared with other Sam’s Club stores, a move intended to push more shoppers toward Scan & Go.
As noted by the New York Post, Scan & Go lets customers use their phones to scan barcodes, pay in the app, and avoid the usual checkout lines. Sam’s Club is phasing out traditional and self-checkout stands across all of its nearly 600 U.S. locations, with plans to replace them entirely with Scan & Go mobile shopping. The transition will be gradual and coupled with AI-powered exit archways that verify purchases automatically, eliminating the need for employees to manually check receipts at the door. A comparable fully reimagined store in Grapevine, Texas, opened in 2025 and does away with registers altogether, featuring seamless integration of Scan & Go technology with the exit verification system.
