popularchazjr posted Dec 14, 2024 03:31 PM
Item 1 of 3
Item 1 of 3
popularchazjr posted Dec 14, 2024 03:31 PM
Costco Membership, or Sam's Club, or BJs Membership for $20 each
$20
$55
63% offStackSocial
Get Deal at StackSocialGood Deal
Bad Deal
Save
Share
Leave a Comment
133 Comments
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
i online chatted with someone who claims to be from corporate there is now a cash card policy that door people are supposed to send you to cust.serv desk to "register" before you can enter to use a cash card, that i have not heard being enforced at any location.
r/costco had a lively thread on this topic that costco employed mods completely deleted.
the conclusion i made from all this is that costco is far more concerned with too many randoms getting in and out on other members cards (a common practice at BJ's) than using cash cards which they have metadata on since they originated with a known member. that said, my experience in using them for 18 months between groupons 12 months is to avoid the store when it's insanely busy, because the floor managers over riding approvals at cash registers may get so busy that they will instruct cashiers that shift not to accept them at all. it's a rare occurrence, but it did happen to me a few years ago - even in nyc.
if member purists reading this wonder why i game the system, it's only because my total purchases as a single visiting costco are less than $600 per year, so having to pay full membership is like being sales taxed twice, so if they kept me out, i would simply buy everything i need (dairy meat fish starches vegetable fruit) better and cheaper from other local sources and stop making the discretionary purchases i may only do after walking thru a costco.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
Comparison: https://clark.com/shopping-retail...ompari
We've been a member of all 3. All pretty much the same. Buy in bulk, some things are usually more expensive than grocery stores, LOOOOONG lines at checkout, overcrowded parking lots.
Figure out which is closest and drop in middle of the day on a weekend. See how they operate.
I'd rank them as follows
1. Costco
2. Sam's club
3 BJs
Costco has the cheap food court hot dogs and pizzas. Their $5 chickens are awesome. I often go when they first open to avoid the crowds. If you want to be a Costco caller, have your tires balanced and rotated while shopping (need to buy tires from them). It's usually pretty easy to get an appointment a few days out. I also like that they treat their workers like humans and take good care of them.
Sam's club is a distant second. We've joined a few times now and any interaction with their customer service is just horrible. To the point where I almost cancelled my membership while standing in line to pick it up. Yeah, that bad! They also have a food court, but it isn't as good quality. It feels like a Costco copy cat thst doesn't quite live up to the original. They do have good sales at times. None of the regular items I buy were priced competitively so we didn't go as often making the membership not really worth it.
Bjs is last for many reasons. They ALWAYS had the longest lines and never seemed to care. Their tire center was often short staffed to the point where it would take weeks for an appointment. They closed down their food court near me. They kept trying things, but none of them ever took (Costco hot dog and pizza stand, dunking doughnuts, random cookie place). Last time I went in there wasn't anything, which was a shame. I picked up one of the free one day passes I mentioned buy couldn't find anything worthwhile to buy.
Leave a Comment