Sam’s Club VP shares the people, product and digital changes that led members to ‘expect something special’
Early into a new role that took him from marketing to operations at Sam’s Club, one of Tim Simmons’ staff came up to tell him about a great idea about how to quantify ghost inventory.
“That’s fantastic!” Simmons said. “What’s ghost inventory?”
“Oh, that’s when an associate takes an item out but doesn’t scan it,” the staffer replied.
“Okay, I see,” Simmons said. “Now, takes it out of what, scans it with what, and puts it into what?”
This was the point when Simmons, now Sam’s Club vice-president of in-club product management, realized he would have to overcome a big learning curve to transform and improve the firm’s customer experience (CX).
Sam’s Club At A Crossroads
Speaking at the Cult Gathering conference that took place in Banff, Alta recently, Simmons recalled how, three years ago, 
