BJ’s Wholesale Club: Where values come to life…

October 8, 2022


BJ’s Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc., commonly referred to as BJ’s, is an American membership-only warehouse club chain based in Westborough, Massachusetts. The company has store locations on the East Coast of the United States as well as in Ohio and Michigan.


BJ’s Wholesale Club, Inc., has 243 store locations in the United States

Mervyn Weich started a discount department store chain called Zayre in 1984, on the Medford/Malden border in Massachusetts. Mervyn had a daughter named Beverly Jean Weich and that’s how the company came to be called BJ’s.



Mervyn Weich was the president of the new company, but announced his resignation in June 1987, and left on August 1. John Levy replaced him.

In October 1988, the Zayre Corporation sold the Zayre nameplate to rival discount chain Ames and TJX Companies was formed.

The TJX warehouse division which consisted of BJ’s and the now-defunct HomeClub was spun off in 1989.

In August 1997, Waban spun off BJ’s to become an independent company, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Inc. The company was headquartered in Natick, Massachusetts and Waban renamed itself to HomeBase, Inc.


BF’s Wholesale Club, Virginia

In 2011, two private equity firms, Leonard Green & Partners and CVC Capital Partners acquired BJ’s. It returned to being a public company in 2018.

In 2019, BJ’s expanded into Michigan, with a new store in Madison Heights, a second in Taylor, and a third in Chesterfield Township.


Today, BJ’s operates 243 BJ’s clubs in 17 states and employs approximately 25,000 team members, both full- and part-time.


BJ’s Clubs can now be found in 17 states: Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts,  Delaware,  Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Ohio, and Michigan. Its major competitors are Costco Wholesale and Sam’s Club.


BJ’s members can take advantage of the many special services offered by many of BJ’s clubs, including car rentals, gas stations, home heating oil, an optical department, propane filling, and vacation packages.


In 2011, BJ’s moved its corporate headquarters from Natick to Westborough, Massachusetts. 

On February 2, 2020, BJ’s announced Lee Delaney as the company’s new CEO. Delaney had been an executive vice president and chief growth officer of the company since 2016. Sadly, Delaney died on April 8, 2021 and on April 20, 2021, Bob Eddy was confirmed as permanent CEO.

In June 2022, BJ’s broke ground in La Vergne, Tennessee. This will be BJ’s first Club in Tennessee.

Gloria Sauvé
Communications and Marketing