LATRIECE WATKINS - President and CEO, Sam's Club - U.S.

WALMART’S FORMER CHIEF MERCHANT NOW RUNS SAM'S CLUB, THE $96 BILLION WAREHOUSE CHAIN THAT HAS BECOME ONE OF RETAIL’S MOST POWERFUL PROVING GROUNDS. HER MISSION: TO SHARPEN THE CLUB’S IDENTITY—AND SHOW WHAT SHE CAN DO NEXT.

- EMMA HINCHLIFFE

MERCHANT QUEEN Latriece Watkins is saving her customers from decision fatigue.

ON A FRIDAY morning in April, Latriece Watkins stood before an array of pallets in Secaucus, N.J., pondering an existential question: How many fruit cups are too many?

Watkins was 12 weeks into her job as CEO of Sam’s Club, the $96-billion-in-revenue membership-based warehouse retailer owned by Walmart. Taking up half the jumbo-size aisle in front of her were cups of mangoes, peaches, pineapples, mandarin oranges, variety packs, and more peaches, stacked 15 tall.

She snapped a photo and sent it to Sam's Club's chief merchant, asking, “How many fruit cups do you need to sell in one club?”

This light quibble might seem in the weeds for a CEO, but Watkins is also the former chief merchant for Walmart U.S., and this kind of question—about what is enticing on the shelf versus overwhelming—is important to her.

It’s a shopaholic’s love of “items” that got her hooked on retail, Watkins told me later, with a guilty chuckle, at Walmart’s fashion office in Manhattan. Indeed, items abound at Sam's Club, from garden hoses to Lilo & Stitch-themed luggage to Starlink internet equipment—a “treasure hunt” for shoppers. The retailer named for Walmart founder Sam Walton was launched 43 years ago as a warehouse club for small businesses, and now draws families buying in bulk.