thumb|225px|Exterior of a [[Sam's Club warehouse club store (with the old logo) in Maplewood, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis]]
thumb|Consumers pick most items directly off pallets in [[Shelf-ready packaging|retail-ready packaging (Costco).]]
A warehouse club (or wholesale club) is a retail store, usually selling a wide variety of merchandise but limited assortment (SKUs), in which customers may purchase large, wholesale quantities of products, which makes these clubs attractive to both ordinary consumers and small business owners. The clubs are able to keep prices low due to the no-frills format of the stores. They are distinguished from traditional cash-and-carry wholesale businesses in that their warehouses are substantially larger in size, and they do not cater purely to businesses but also allow some or all types of consumers to obtain memberships. They are also distinguished from warehouse stores in that they usually charge annual membership fees and require presentation of proof of membership to both enter the warehouse and complete a purchase. A warehouse club is a retail format within the club channel industry sector.
Membership in a warehouse club superficially resembles that in a consumers' cooperative, but lacks key elements including cooperative ownership and democratic member control. The use of members' prices without cooperative ownership is also sometimes used in bars and casinos.
History
thumb|A BJ's Wholesale club in Virginia
In 1976, Sol Price (who in 1954 founded FedMart, an early US discount store) and his son Robert Price founded Price Club in San Diego, as their first warehouse club. In a 1988 article, The New York Times Magazine credited Price Club as the "pioneer" of the warehouse club retail format. After his departure from FedMart, Sol Price realized that small businesses in San Diego either ordered directly from four or five large wholesalers or they bought locally from relatively small cash-and-carry wholesalers.
In 1983, James (Jim) Sinegal and Jeffrey H. Brotman opened the first Costco warehouse in Seattle. Sinegal had started in wholesale distribution by working for Sol Price at FedMart.
In 1983, Kmart's Pace Membership Warehouse (later sold to Sam's Club) started operations. That same year, Sam Walton opened the first Sam's Club on April 7, in Midwest City, Oklahoma.
In 1984, former The Wholesale Club executives founded BJ's Wholesale Club, owned by Zayre.
As of 1988, Price Club was the leader of the warehouse club industry, with over 40 warehouses operating across the United States and Canada. The four other major players were Pace (95 clubs), Costco (87 clubs), Price Club (80 clubs) and BJ's (31 clubs). Costco's business model and size were similar to those of Price Club, which made the merger more natural for both companies. The combined company took the name PriceCostco, and memberships became universal, meaning that a Price Club member could use their membership to shop at Costco and vice versa. PriceCostco boasted 206 locations generating $16billion in annual sales. a warehouse club chain in Central America and the Caribbean unrelated to the current Costco.
In November 1993, 91 of 113 PACE Membership Warehouse locations were sold by KMart to Sam's Club. The value of the sale was not disclosed. At the time, there were 326 Sam's Clubs. The sale was expected to close in January 1994.
In 1997, Costco changed its name to Costco Wholesale Corporation, and all remaining Price Club locations were rebranded