Sam's Club, specifically its Chinese operations under Walmart, has been subject to multiple penalties and investigations by Chinese regulators concerning food safety and compliance issues. In January 2022, a Sam's Club store in Beijing was fined 50,000 yuan ($7,896) for selling undeclared cheese products, where a specific product was found to contain unidentified black objects. This incident followed closely after other fines, including a 300,000 yuan penalty ($47,218) against Walmart China for using default five-star ratings on the Sam's Club app, deemed as false commercial publicity by the Guangdong Administration for Market Regulation (GAMR). Additionally, Sam's Club Shanghai was fined 10,000 yuan ($1,573.5) for non-compliant labeling of food and food additives.
Further food safety concerns arose in January 2022 when Sam's Club in Chengdu, Sichuan, was investigated after a consumer complained about being sold unqualified beef. Regulators found the beef to be discolored and odorous, leading to its removal from shelves and a recall of the faulty batch. Investigations also uncovered inadequate implementation of food safety rules and overly high temperatures in some meat operating rooms within the store. These incidents contributed to a broader wave of criticism against Sam's Club.
The retailer's challenges extend beyond food safety, including controversy over the alleged removal of products from China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in December 2021, which sparked widespread anger among Chinese consumers and led to significant membership cancellations. Further, in 2025, Sam's Club faced backlash for delisting popular products and received a fine in September 2025 for selling substandard children's products. The company's rapid expansion and supply chain management have been cited as potential contributing factors to these ongoing issues.
