BJ\'S Wholesale Club, Inc. is a warehouse club operator in the eastern United States. As of February 1, 2003, BJ\'s operated 124 traditional-size \"big box\" warehouse clubs that averaged approximately 111,000 square feet, and 16 smaller-format warehouse clubs that averaged approximately 69,000 square feet. The Company has two types of members, Inner Circle members and business members. The Company had approximately 8.2 million members (including supplemental cardholders), as of February 1, 2003. BJ\'s services its existing members and attracts new members by providing a range of brand name merchandise at prices that are consistently lower than the prices of traditional wholesalers, discount retailers, supermarkets, supercenters and specialty retail operations. The Company limits the items offered in each product line to fast-selling styles, sizes and colors, carrying an average of approximately 6,500 active stock-keeping units