Sam’s Club Reaches 100% ‘Made Without’ Milestone, Setting a New Private Brand Standard for the Retail Industry

As a membership club, we listen carefully to feedback from members. So, when members started telling us they wanted products they could feel better about serving their families – products with simpler formulations and fewer artificial ingredients – we listened.

And in 2022, we set out to change the way we approach our Member’s Mark™ food and beverage products. The goal was ambitious. We decided to remove over 40 ingredients, including certified synthetic colors, artificial flavors, aspartame, and high-fructose corn syrup, without ever compromising on the taste or value our members expect. Today, I am proud to share that we have met that goal. All Member’s Mark food and beverage products* shipping to our clubs now meet our Made Without Commitment™ standards.

Why This Commitment Mattered

Because you asked for simpler ingredient lists, we made it our mission to translate those expectations into a new standard of integrity for the Member’s Mark brand. We did it because quality at Sam’s Club means more than just a great price. It means providing ingredients that members want and eliminating the ingredients they do not want, and being a brand that members can trust to listen to and respond to their feedback.

A Shared Success

None of these changes happened in a vacuum. This journey was made possible through a deep collaboration between our merchants, product developers, suppliers, and the Member’s Mark Community – Sam’s Club members who share feedback and co-create products with us. Their insights helped us prioritize which ingredients to remove first, ensuring these changes stayed aligned with what our members value most.

Innovation and Tough Choices

Rethinking hundreds of products required us to look closely at every detail. This process taught us that meeting a higher standard often requires unique solutions. In many cases, it meant innovating. In a few rare instances, it meant deciding that a product simply couldn’t carry the Member’s Mark brand.

• The Bakery Challenge: Reformulating our Bakery icing was one of our most significant hurdles. Removing specific certified synthetic colors and ingredients while maintaining the right consistency and vibrant appeal for our cakes took exhaustive development. We were unwilling to compromise on the visual experience members love for special occasions, so our product developers worked until the new recipe met our Made Without Commitment standard while still looking beautiful on the table.
• The Sports Drink: In an industry where vibrant blue is iconic, removing certified synthetic colors results in a more natural, purplish hue. To keep that iconic blue, we infused the color into the packaging instead of the drink itself. We brought our members along on this journey to make sure we maintained the look they love while still delivering the benefits of a reformulated product inside.
• Knowing When to Say No: Sometimes, a product simply couldn't be reformulated to meet our standards without losing what made it popular. Rather than compromise our commitment, we chose to remove the item from our assortment. We believe that keeping true to the standards our members asked for is more important than carrying any single product.

Leading the Way to Positive Change

Our shared success over the past three years helped us learn a lot about the hard work it takes to meet these important commitments, and how to bring together the experts to find ways to make products even better. Not only has that translated into better products for Sam’s Club members, but it has also given confidence to the rest of the Walmart enterprise that it can be done.

Given our size and scale, our hope is that we can drive change in partnership with our suppliers and make a positive impact across the industry – another reason for us to be proud of what we’ve accomplished at Sam’s Club.

Looking to the Future

While reaching this goal for food and beverage is a major milestone, it is just the foundation for what comes next. In 2026, we aspire to take this vision further by expanding our standards to other areas of the club, including cosmetics, health and wellness, laundry, and more.

Our mission remains the same as it was when we started: to prove that members don’t have to choose between high-quality, Made Without standards and the disruptive value they’ve come to expect from Member’s Mark products. Thank you to our members for being part of this journey with us.

*Excludes Sports Nutrition and OTC products. Products may contain ingredients such as ascorbic acid, citric acid, D-L malic acid, and phosphoric acid.