Bradenton, Florida – The Walmart-owned warehouse retailer is building in Davenport and has acquired a $15 million site along the Parrish growth corridor, part of a broader strategy that could eventually add approximately 15 new Sam’s Club locations each year.
Florida’s expanding population continues to attract some of the biggest names in American retail, and Sam’s Club is positioning itself for the next wave of that growth with new locations taking shape in two very different — but rapidly developing — parts of the state.
In Central Florida, construction is underway on a new Sam’s Club along the U.S. 27 corridor in Davenport near Holly Hill Grove Road, where the warehouse club will be part of a larger retail development that also includes a new Walmart. The City of Davenport has publicly welcomed both retailers and confirmed construction is underway along the increasingly busy Highway 27 corridor.
On Florida’s Gulf Coast, the next move is taking shape in northern Manatee County. Sam’s East Inc., the corporate entity associated with Sam’s Club, purchased approximately 16 acres at 8670 Moccasin Wallow Road for $15 million in May. The property sits in the Parrish-area growth corridor and had previously been approved for big-box retail development, including a gas station, parking and loading areas. Sam’s Club has not yet announced a construction schedule or opening date for the property, making the land purchase the clearest indication to date of its plans for another Manatee County location.
The company already operates a Sam’s Club at 5300 30th Street East in Bradenton. That location opened in 2002, meaning a Parrish-area club would substantially expand the retailer’s reach into the northern and northeastern portions of Manatee County, where residential development has accelerated over the past several years.
The choice of Davenport and Parrish is difficult to separate from the larger demographic story unfolding in Florida.
Polk County’s estimated population reached 874,790 in 2025, an increase of approximately 20.7% from its 2020 population base, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Davenport sits near the eastern edge of that growth, along a U.S. 27 corridor increasingly connecting residential development with the larger Orlando tourism and employment economy.
Manatee County has been following a similar trajectory. Census estimates put its population at approximately 468,200 in 2025, up 17.1% from its 2020 estimate base. Parrish has become one of the focal points of that expansion as development continues east and north from Bradenton and Palmetto toward the Interstate 75 corridor.
For Sam’s Club, however, the two Florida projects are pieces of a much larger national strategy.
At Walmart’s 2025 Investment Community Meeting, Sam’s Club outlined plans to double its membership and more than double sales and profit over the following eight to ten years. The company said it would move forward with 30 previously announced new locations while building a development pipeline capable of supporting approximately 15 new clubs per year over its planning horizon. It also plans to remodel its roughly 600 existing U.S. clubs.
That makes Davenport and the Parrish-area site particularly significant. These are not simply additions to an aging warehouse chain. They are arriving while Sam’s Club is attempting to redefine what a new Sam’s Club looks like — right down to the logo on the building.
A New Sam’s Club for a New Generation
The company began rolling out a substantial visual rebrand this summer, introducing a brighter blue palette, a heavier lowercase wordmark and a redesigned identity that gives the familiar Sam’s Club diamond an entirely new purpose.
The previous identity, introduced in 2019, used two intersecting bracket-like shapes to form an outlined diamond. In the new wordmark, that large standalone treatment has been simplified and the diamond has been moved into the name itself, becoming the apostrophe in Sam’s. The idea is intentional: the possessive mark is meant to reinforce the concept that the club belongs to its members rather than simply carrying founder Sam Walton’s name.
The visual system is part of a broader company campaign built around the message “Come Join Us.” Sam’s Club says the new branding, including its logo, typography and related visual elements, will move across its digital platforms and physical clubs as existing stores are remodeled and new locations are constructed.
The first look at what that can mean at full scale arrived this summer. A newly built Sam’s Club in Lebanon, Tennessee, opened July 30 with the updated branding and a more contemporary store design. The new generation of clubs places greater emphasis on mobile shopping and Scan & Go technology while expanding departments including fresh foods, prepared foods, floral and health-related services.
The changes also reflect who Sam’s Club believes its future customer will be. Company officials have said that more than half of the retailer’s new customers each year are now Gen Z or millennials — consumers who are increasingly forming families, buying homes and entering the stage of life where warehouse-club memberships can become part of household shopping routines.
That puts the Florida expansion in a different context.
Davenport and Parrish are both communities where rooftops have been arriving quickly and commercial development has been following them. Sam’s Club is not simply adding warehouses to mature shopping districts; it is positioning new stores in places where the population, residential footprint and retail demand are still being built around them. The national strategy calls for more clubs, the new brand is designed for a younger generation of members, and two Florida growth corridors now appear positioned to receive both.
For Florida, the bigger story may therefore be less about where Sam’s Club is opening next and more about what its site selections tell us about where major retailers believe the state’s next centers of population and consumer growth will emerge.
In Davenport along U.S. 27 and in Parrish along Moccasin Wallow Road, that future is already beginning to take shape.
