A year or two ago, i purchased a Sam's Club membership on one of those Groupon deals and mostly forgot about it. I forgot to turn off auto renewal so I still have a membership until July. So I decided to go check it out since I needed to run to Costco today anyway, and the two stores are nearby in my area.
For context: Married, no children, apartment living. I am probably not the typical warehouse member, but we believe we get enough out of the membership to justify it. Its also a really easy drive from where we are, with other shops we go to regularly in the area too.
The Sam's Club, while nearby, isn't right off the Interstate so is a bit less convenient, and doesn't have stores we make weekly stops at. So to me, it seems like Sams is targeting a less desirable area to keep costs down. So that's the first thing I noticed.
Entering the store, I was hungry and went straight to the food court.
MULITPLE PIZZA OPTIONS. Sausage, pepperoni, SAUSAGE AND PEPPERONI on the same slice, I think I even saw a veggie pizza. I ended up getting a pepperoni slice
i also ordered the brownie sunday. The cup said "yogurt" but I'm pretty certain it was soft serve
not gonna lie, this food quality isn't amazing. BUT the portion sizes are smaller than Costco and honestly I felt the quality was a bit less terrible. Like last time I ate a Costco pizza, I felt terrible for the rest of the day lol. But this with the smaller portion size, was more bearable. I also felt like with less cheese, the slice was easier to fold.
General merchandise, I gotta say I didn't see a ton of difference. In a few cases I noticed a lot more selection. Like where Costco would have 1 or 2 Starbucks Whole Bean products, Sams had four. But for the most part, products were the same or similar and prices in line with what you would pay at Costco.
Overall store experience, I just felt like everything was a bit less clean than at Costco. Going back to the food court, it seemed like half the options were out of order. And the restrooms were more similar to a major city train terminal or airport rather than the clean standards of Costco.
Also my local Costcos are basically a madhouse unless you go first thing in the morning. But at Sam's, at 11am on a Sunday? Honestly it was not very busy at all.
Lots more gift card options, and a lot more useful ones. Costco's selection of business gift cards typically are more sit down and even fine dining restaurants, whereas Sam's had stuff like Starbucks, Dunkin, and other fast and fast casual restaurants.
Final thought, the one area where Sam's blows Costco out of the way, the website and the app. The website REMEMBERS ME and doesn't constantly log me out. You can link your credit cards to your Sam's account and get cash back at select online merchants and local restaurants/businesses to then spend at Sam's. Scan and Go seems really useful. Just the technology side is so much better.
Am I going to let this membership renew? Probably not. The location just isn't convenient, but there's definitely some bonuses to Sams that Costco doesn't have.