I've always thought Costco : Target as Sam's : Walmart.

We belong to both and have for many years. Some products we will buy at either place, but many items we prefer at one or the other. Each year we discuss dropping one of them, but always conclude it’s worth it to stay members at both.

Off the top of my head, we prefer all of the bath/toiletry items at Sam’s, as well as their paper towels/tp/napkins (all store brand.) Their bakery is far superior. And their gas lines are way shorter, at least at our location. Also also the aforementioned scan and go which our Costco does not have. I’m general, we find that if one of them doesn’t have or is out of something we need, the other one will have it. This helps because all of the stock is constantly being rotated in and out.

I don’t buy clothes at either Sam’s or Costco, so I look for bulk grocery convenience. Sam’s is fine.

OP. I agree with all the good points raised - Sam's self-checkout, Sam's exit scan sampling where they scan the receipt and scan 3 items in your cart, etc. Also, food items seem to cost less at Sam's.

However, their cafeteria services are terrible. I had to wait 30 mins to get a slice of pizza because they were short-staffed. Will never happen at a Costco. Rarely see any crowds and the quality of some goods (clothing especially) is quite bad.

My local is a mess because they’re remodeling. The workers are very nice though and I never have to sit in line because of scan and go. I would keep a membership just for that, and the 8am early shopping hours.

Clothes are a little more hit and miss than Costco, but when the quality is good, it’s very good. Their pasture raised eggs are a steal. The only thing I don’t like is they run out of whole milk way too often.

Anonymous wrote:I love Sam's because of Scan and Go. In, scan, out, no lines. My local store is never a mess.

Same here. It’s just so much less hassle. I don’t like Walmart so I was hesitant to give them a try but I love the convenience. I can never get out of Costco in under an hour but I can park, shop and be back to my car in 20 minutes. The only downside is that I do agree they don’t have the same quality for items like clothing and textiles so I still have a Costco membership.

The Sam’s I go to is fine. I don’t buy the processed food. I buy milk, eggs, fruit, vegetables, rice, sugar, oil, and meat. The prices are great and I use Scan and Go to avoid lines. My Sam’s is heavily Latino and I wish they would stop buying 3 cases of bottled water every week.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love Sam's because of Scan and Go. In, scan, out, no lines. My local store is never a mess.

My Costco has this.

Really? Not self checkout, but an app you can scan as you shop? Which one?

This is just snobbery. The Sam's Club store brand is every bit as good - probably sourced from the same factories - as Kirkland.

Anonymous wrote:I love Sam's because of Scan and Go. In, scan, out, no lines. My local store is never a mess.

My Costco has this.

I love Sam's because of Scan and Go. In, scan, out, no lines. My local store is never a mess.

Sams is owned by walmart.

Its the Costco for poor people.

I went recently and had the same reaction. The store was a mess, merchandise in disarray and there was so much junk / processed food that really nobody should be eating. I found it depressing.

We used to have a Sam's membership about 20 years ago. Subsequently moved to Costco since it was closer to my workplace. Recently signed up Sam's again because something spouse wanted was available there at a good price and they had a very good promotion which made membership almost free.

While groceries and food items seem to be cheaper at Sam's, there's literally no one there! Anytime I go! Also the quality of merchandise is so crappy (clothes, shoes, etc.). Huge decline in 20 years. What happened?