Price Club to Open Store in Canada, Expand in East
The Price Co. plans to open its first Canadian Price Club discount warehouse store in Montreal this summer, officials said here Tuesday.
Although the San Diego company “has no big celebration planned,” it will also open new warehouse stores in California and along the East Coast, President Robert Price told about 50 shareholders who attended the company’s annual meeting in San Francisco’s Moscone Center Tuesday.
Although Price declined to detail the locations of the new California and East Coast stores, he did note that on Monday the company was granted a zoning change needed to clear the way for a warehouse store in Sunnyvale.
The Montreal store will be operated by a newly created company that is half-owned by Steinberg Inc., a Montreal food and retail chain.
Price, which will begin its 11th year in business on Feb. 13, also will move from its original Morena Boulevard store to a new, larger store located just 200 feet away. The old building will be demolished and the land will be turned into a parking lot, Price said.
“We won’t miss a day of business, at least that’s how it looks on paper,” Price said.
Although the Price Co.’s recently introduced “Gold Star” membership program “slightly” stalled profits during the first quarter ended Dec. 22, Price said the downward move was “not unexpected. The program has increased volume and given a lot of people more value.”
Some market analysts have suggested that the Gold Card membership fee could hurt the company’s profit margin, but Price defended the practice. “We think it’s been a good program, and we’re going forward with it. I think the (stock) market has pretty well understood (the program).”
First-quarter earnings rose 33% to $18.3 million and revenues rose 50% to $815 million. Same-store sales increased only 22%, however.
Price said the company is moving forward with its planned publication, which will be aimed at the company’s 500,000 business members. Although the company has yet to select a format, Price described the publication as one that will be filled with “useful, interesting and valuable (business) information.”
After the meeting, Price Co. Vice President Giles Bateman said the recently opened Price Club in Baltimore is “doing nice volumes.”
That store has been competing for customers with a recently opened Pace Warehouse store, marking the first time that a Price Club has had same-city competition from another warehouse store chain.
