WESTBOROUGH, Mass. — BJ’s Wholesale Club reported strong sales results in the third quarter. Comparable-club sales (excluding gasoline) increased by 5.7%, reflecting a two-year stacked comp of 24.2%. Digitally enabled sales growth was 44%, reflecting two-year stacked comp growth of 244%.

The company’s earnings per diluted share of 92 cents reflected a 4.5% year-over-year increase.

“We are proud of delivering another strong quarter,” BJ’s president and chief executive officer Bob Eddy said. “Our business accelerated during Q3 on broad-based strength, and we saw growth in all of our divisions, with acceleration in traffic and ticket, growth in digitally enabled sales and conventional sales, all underpinned by strong membership statistics in both new and tenured members. Our growth flywheel is spinning faster than it has in a long time, and we look forward to continue building on that momentum.”

In a conference call, Eddy noted that BJ’s strategic priorities “remain centered around growing and retaining members, delivering value with optimized assortment and services, improving convenience with digital, and strategically expanding our footprint.”

In the third quarter, BJ’s increased its membership by 3% compared to 2020 and 15% compared to 2019.

“This growth was primarily driven by record renewals,” Eddy said. “We continue to believe that we are on track to deliver all-time high renewal rates in both first year and tenured members for the year.”

Eddy added that more than 75% of members are enrolled in an easy renewal program, and that customers are moving up to higher-tier memberships, boosting membership revenues.

BJ’s has also made progress on its efforts to simplify its merchandise assortments, he said.

“For a few years, we have been making incremental progress on our simplification efforts. More recently, product constraints and inflationary cost increases have allowed us the opportunity to make more revolutionary changes to many categories. This is most evident in many household goods categories and our sundries division.

“In October we reduced SKUs in eight sundries categories by nearly 40%, significantly improving the clarity of our offering as well as operational efficiency. Our plan is to continue to drive these changes through strong partnerships with our suppliers and creative solutions to continue to enhance our assortment.”

Another strategic priority, improving its digital business, is also moving forward, according to Eddy, who pointed to strong sales growth and noted that BJ’s has signed a partnership deal with DoorDash (augmenting its existing partnership with Instacart), that is expected to go live starting in January.

BJ’s also expects to open five new clubs this year, including a move into the Pittsburgh market in December.