Sam's Club Takes Economic Recovery Into Its Own Hands

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2010-07-08 21:00:00 UTC
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Say what you will about Sam's Club (and parent Walmart), but it can be a pretty damn creative company.

According to a report by the Associated Press earlier this week, Sam's Club is set to begin testing a program through which is will make loans to its members who are small business owners. The loans will range from $5,000-$25,000, and will be offered in conjunction with Superior Financial Group, one of a handful of nonbank lenders licensed by the federal government.

In a survey conducted last November, 15% of Sam's Club business members reported having been recently denied a loan. That number was up from 12% in an April 2009 survey. Although growth is slowly coming back to the economy, there is still a major credit crunch, and the initiative aims to help address that continued challenge. Presumably, there is also an assumption that providing small amounts of credit helps return business members to normal consumer habits, which is ultimately good for the Sam's Club business. The program will initially target minority-, women-, and veteran-owned businesses.

What a fascinating conundrum the Walmart family of companies presents. On the one hand, they're derided for destroying the viability of local, family-owned mom and pop stores, and slammed for their treatment of workers. Yet on the other, they're one of the most aggressive and seemingly-sincere megacorporations to try to shift to a dramatically more green model.

Walmart's supplier Sustainability Index was of particular interest to this blog. The goal of the program was to actually assess the greenness and sustainability of the thousands and thousands of companies that supply products at Walmart. The sheer magnitude of Walmart's reach -- 1 out of every 3 dollars in the world touches a company that does business with Walmart -- means that anything they do on this front is a big deal.

How much impact the Sam's Club loans will ultimately have remains to be seen, but if the 21st century will be defined by companies trying new things that provide real value for people, I'm glad to see them give it a try.

Photo credit: ▌ÇP▐

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
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