LUMBERTON — Sam’s Club officials aren’t talking, but there is evidence that commercial activity will return to its building on Dawn Drive.
The company is using the Internet recruiting site Indeed to advertise jobs at the Lumberton site. The ads are for jobs in management in shipping, receiving, human resources and operations in a “Sam’s Club fulfillment center.”
Attempts by The Robesonian to get information or comments from officials at Wal-Mart, which owns the Sam’s Club chain, were not successful.
There has been activity at the site in recent weeks. Signage and gas pumps at the site have been removed.
The empty 135,287-square-foot building is on an 18-acre site in Lumberton, where the retail giant operated for almost 11 years before it and 62 sister stores were closed early last year. About 100 people lost their jobs when the local store closed.
Company officials said at the time that 12 of the closed stores would be repurposed as distribution warehouses so the company could better compete with online and brick-and-mortar competitors such as Amazon, BJ’s, and Costco. The idea was to locate them for quick distribution to consumers who order online.
Local officials expressed hope at the time that the Lumberton site, which sits right off Interstate 95, would be among them. They consider the site, which is at Exit 22, for the city to have occupied.
The first e-commerce fulfillment center was announced for Memphis. About 50 people work in the Memphis center, according to the Commercial Appeal, a newspaper in Memphis, Tenn.
The local Sam’s Club had opened in May 2007 and offered memberships ranging from $45 to $100.
The store sold groceries and other regular department store offerings, and unusual items such as kayaks, swimming pools and whirlpool spas. It had a pharmacy, an auto shop, photo lab, bakery, cafe and floral department. It also sold gasoline.