BJ’s Wholesale Club Just Announced a Major Price Change That Has Shoppers Upset

Ashia Aubourg
Ashia Aubourg
From the moment I started remixing ramen noodles into gourmet meals and spending hours watching cooking shows as a puny six-year-old, I knew I found a deep passion for food. While I realized — after taking on a two-year high school internship in an award-winning kitchen — that a…read more
published Nov 26, 2024
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BJ's is a membership only Wholesale Club with over 200 locations mainly on the East Coast of the USA.
Credit: Shutterstock/Helen89

It’s no secret that grocery prices have continued to rise. Despite the drop in inflation, many people living in the U.S. still have difficulty paying their food shopping bills. 

Similarly, many people who work in the food system are in the process of demanding higher wages so that they can afford to shop at the grocery stores they work for. Just this past fall, for example, nearly 45,000 union workers — responsible for processing about half of all U.S. imports, including staples like bananas and coffee — walked off the job to get pay increases. 

It’s a difficult time for workers and consumers alike. Just recently, in an earnings call, Bob Eddy, the CEO of BJ’s, announced that for the first time in seven years, the warehouse company would be increasing its annual membership fee due to rising operational costs. “We’ve raised average hourly wages by nearly 40% across our clubs and DCs,” Eddy explained as the main factor in this final decision.

BJ’s annual membership fee will increase by $5, making the plan $60 yearly. This new store policy will go into effect on January 1, 2025. 

Eddy hopes that the structural changes implemented at BJ’s, which include “better rewards and gas benefits,” will compensate for the membership price increase. But people on social media can’t decide whether this is enough. 

One person commented on a Reddit post highlighting this membership change, saying, “Not going to renew next year.” While another user called out, “It’s unlikely there will be any drastic change in membership numbers, tbh. BJ’s almost always has events/promos that provide cheap memberships as low as $15/year (or the occasional $20-$25/year or $20/year + $20 Reward bonus), typically to new members but also to returning members, although not as often.”

As grocery prices keep rising, both workers and shoppers are feeling the financial pressure. In the coming months, many will have to decide whether they can absorb these higher costs or need to cancel their memberships to save.