Real-Time Loyalty: A Conversation with Evan Gaetano, Membership Strategy & Innovation at Sam's Club

Walmart sources produce from 10,000 American farms. Many shoppers who relied on Walmart for cereal and coffee had no idea, and crossed the street to buy fruit and vegetables from grocers they saw as more local.

Evan Gaetano, helped close that gap at Walmart and now works on membership strategy at Sam’s Club.

He joins Lavina Suthenthiran on this week’s Global Lens to discuss how retailers can prove they deserve trust, keep earning it, and carry that approach into markets where “local” means something different.

INSIDE THE EPISODE:

Start with what’s already true

Retailers often hold the proof that would earn customer trust without realizing it. That proof lives with sourcing teams and suppliers, not in front of shoppers. At Walmart, it took asking the sourcing team a simple question: how many American farms supply our produce? The answer was 10,000, a number Walmart had never shared with customers. The first story built on it featured Kate Thornton, a fourth-generation apple and pear grower in Tonasket, Washington, whose family anchored a shoppable fall apple shop on Walmart.com.

Let the people closest to the work tell it

A farmer talking about her family’s orchard carries more weight than a corporation talking about agriculture. Thornton had full creative control, and her video of her father seeing their story on Walmart.com for the first time became the campaign’s defining moment.

Paid members keep score all year

At Sam’s Club, members pay before they buy anything, and that raises the bar. American households juggle 12 to 14 memberships and subscriptions, according to Deloitte, but usually only one or two paid retail memberships. Sam’s Club keeps earning its spot by bringing members into the process, with more than 150,000 members testing ideas and products, and by acting on what they say, like removing more than 40 ingredients, including synthetic dyes, under its Made Without commitment.

Listen above to hear why a retailer’s best story, in any market, is often already sitting in-house, waiting for someone to ask.