Sam's Club Members: Instant Savings: See Thread

I'll agree with everything you said except the premium quality part. Sams Club is anything but premium. Unless you consider the junk food section premium then you are right. They have every type of chips/twinkies/ding dongs imaginable.

Not sure what all the hate is about on Sam's Club. But I've had only great experiences when shopping there. Gas lines are short compared to the 30 minute wait at Costco. Scan n Go makes checking out a breeze! I look forward to going to Sam's, but Costco on the other hand I have to get mentally prepared for with the huge crowds, terrible parking, and long gas lines.

Reasons for me to visit sams over costco
- The store layout will be standard and they dont move around things which makes me finish my trip much faster
- bakery section allows to pick one pack unlike costco is mix and match 2 packs
- lately costco carries less variety of snacks ex: sams carry variety of Lays chips vs costco has very few varieties
- produce prices in costco is lot expensive compared to sams. This may be location dependent, again i am comparing local sams and costco.
- finally - sams offer veggie pizza vs costco removed from their menu.

Yes, but at both Sams and Costco. Sams checks receipts and products with scanner which randomly tells the staff to keep checking until a green light.

It is much faster than Costco trying to quickly count all the items in the cart and looking at the receipt to see if anything is missing.

I have both. In fact, I only had Sams until they closed the local club. Now, the closest one is half an hour away. I'm the type of going into the club to buy milk, bread and bananas once or twice a week.

Eventually I got a Costco membership mostly because of the cash back on travel (cruises mostly) which more than pay for the executive membership. So can continue going in/out for milk, bread and bananas.

I pushed the Sams membership after I got it extended for a couple of years after they closed the local one. Then jumped on a couple of better-than-free memberships and the last one was plus. In the last year, I only made up to cover the difference with plus, but consider extending the membership for another year, unless I find a free or better than free promo like the last few years.

Love scan and go and the ability to know the in store prices with the app (which 99% of the time are the same as online for shipping) - in fact, I compare prices when at Costco. They are usually higher at Costco unless they're on sale. But if Sams puts the item on sale, they win. This is for brand name products.

One of the biggest factors contributing to the cult-like Costco following, is their lifetime returns policy for most everyday items, with few exceptions. Compared to that, Sam's offers only 1 year returns window.

Costco store brand products also tend to be better quality in comparison.

Sam's leaves Costco in the dust when it comes to products selection and variety. Costco often will have a grand total of 2 options for some products, i.e. 1 store brand and 1 mainstream brand.

I also have both memberships and rarely go to Costco. Scan&Go might change my mind if Costco's dinosaur IT folks ever implement that.

Interesting comments to read for sure. That Costco doesn't have pickup like Sam's Club is a purely business decision (not IT). If you just ordered online and had it delivered to your car you would rarely go inside. Every trip like that costs Sam's Club lost "opportunity sales". Costco PURPOSELY does not label store isles to get you to wander the entire store (maximizing opportunity sales).

Member in both clubs.

It's always about IT (i.e. IT cost). I don't like lines at my local Costco, so I usually go to Sams. Those long lines are also lost "opportunity sales" (and lost memberships).

Isn't that like saying "I don't like crowds so I don't go see the good sports teams play and instead go to watch the crappy teams play because the crowd's are smaller. Or Disney World vs. the local mini golf establishment.

Sam's caters to the $60K household income demographic. Costco caters to the $120K household income demographic.

If that were true. Costco's historical growth over time wouldn't be thru the roof compared to other retail brick & mortar business's, the packed parking lots wouldn't be there and long lines wouldn't exist either. Sam's Club shareholders can only drool over Costco's stock performance.

"I don't like lines at my local Costco, so I usually go to Sam's"

Isn't that like saying "I don't like crowds so I don't go see the good sports teams play and instead go to watch the crappy teams play because the crowd's are smaller. Or Disney World vs. the local mini golf establishment.

Bottom line - crowds = success and desirability. And if you go at the right time, you can minimize the the effect of the crowds.