SHENZHEN, China — Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club took a gamble in China almost two years ago. It changed the way it sells meat and fish, putting them in packages instead of letting Chinese shoppers physically inspect cuts of meat or live fish in tanks the way they’re used to.

The new approach is paying off.

The affluent Chinese customers Sam’s Club attracts are well-traveled and used to the way shopping works in the West.

“I really trust the store,” said Huang Liu, who shops here once a week. She doesn’t mind that the meat or seafood is packaged: “Even though it’s not live, it is very fresh.”

That move is counter to the rest of the Wal-Mart experience in China where its namesake stores highlight live crabs and frogs as well as piles of fish with bulging eyeballs. That’s because many Chinese want to touch and feel the products as a way to determine they’re fresh. That’s different from the U.S. where customers prefer products packaged. But in many ways, the world’s wealthy shoppers are perhaps more similar to each other than their own countrymen. And Wal-Mart sees this move to introduce more Western ways of merchandising in China as a way to attract high-income shoppers like Liu.