UPDATE: Oct. 30, 2020: BJ's Wholesale Club now offers pickup of fresh and frozen groceries through its curbside and in-store pickup services at all of its 219 club stores. The service, which launched in select stores in August when BJ's introduced its curbside service, is free to members and available through the BJ's app and website.

“With the expansion of our buy online, pick up in-club service, BJ’s members can do their weekly grocery shopping — and check off anything else on their list — in an easy, one-stop shop,” Jeff Desroches, executive vice president and club operations officer with BJ's, said in a statement. 

Dive Brief:

• BJ’s Wholesale Club has introduced curbside pickup service at all of its 219 stores, according to a press release.
• Customers can use the company’s mobile app to alert the store when they have parked in one of the parking spaces set aside for uses of the service. A staff member will then load the order into the customer’s vehicle.
• ​BJ’s is also adding fresh and frozen groceries to its existing in-store pickup service. The e-commerce option is available in some clubs now and will roll out chainwide by the end of October.

Dive Insight:

Among its key competitors in the warehouse sector, BJ’s is not blazing a new trail by adding curbside pickup, but neither is it last to the party.

Rival Sam’s Club brought curbside pickup to all of its locations in June, following a test at 16 stores. By contrast, Costco does not have curbside pickup in its repertoire of e-commerce options, although it does permit customers to pick up online orders in its stores.

Other grocers have also been investing in curbside pickup services during the pandemic. Aldi announced in May that it would allow customers at nearly 600 of its approximately 2,000 location to pick up orders without entering the store by July 31. Sprouts Farmers Market said in April that it would expand pickup service to all of its more than 340 stores by the end of May.

BJ’s is entering the curbside pickup arena at a time when the company, like many retailers, is seeing exceptionally strong consumer interest in e-commerce.

The company saw what it terms "digitally enabled" sales increase more than 300% during the second quarter. “We will move aggressively to add infrastructure in our clubs to handle these rapidly growing offerings,” Lee Delaney, president and CEO of BJ’s, said Thursday during an earnings call with analysts.

The warehouse operator’s overall sales for the quarter were up 18.4% compared with the same period in 2019, to just under $4 billion. Grocery sales posted a 25% increase during the quarter.