Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Sam's Club vs. Costco

I currently have a Sam's Club membership and I use it quite a bit and do save a good amount of $$ during the year. My membership is expiring mid-March and I've been thinking about switching to Costco. I've never lived near a Costco until the one here opened this year, but I've heard that Costco is better than Sam's Club.

My Sam's Club membership currently costs $40 per year and a Costco membership is $50 per year. I am willing to pay the extra $10 if it's actually worth it.

I would love your input, especially if you have experience with shopping at both stores and can offer some insight into which you think has a better selection.

I know that Sam's Club offers a one day trial so you can go in and shop around to see if it would work for you. Does anyone know if Costco does something like that, also?

4 comments:

Seagrass said...

i love costco, for many reasons. i think the quality of their stuff is much better, we buy steaks from there that are better than any steak we've ever had. they also have the best dog food, for about $20 for a 50 lb bag. plus they experiment with offering eco-friendly products (like ecos laundry detergent). the only thing i don't like is the expensive membership fee and they don't offer trial periods (that i know of, and i have tried). some costcos have their own coffee roasting and it's the best coffee i've ever had. i haven't been to a sam's in years and i don't really miss it, even though i am curious as to what they have. unfortunately there's no costco where we moved to so we stock up whenever we get near one. i think it's worth a try even if it's $10 extra.

Nicole said...

I wish we had a Costco here but we only have a Sams so I stick with them. When we visited my FIL in Colorado and went to the Costco there I found it much cheaper and that they had a better selection.

valley view farm said...

I have never been into a Sams Club, but... have been a Costco shopper since I was a kid (and THAT was a few years ago!!)

anyway, there stuff is really high quality. The produce always top quality and cheap. They have many natural and organic things as Seagrass was saying really cheap. Organic juices, canned items and I do use and LOVE the Ecos laundry detergent, when I cant find a better deal using coupons that is!!

Everything I have tried there is great and always a deal

If I remember correctly you can get a free one day pass. Maybe call first...

kristy said...

We LOVED the Costco in Birmingham. Before we became members, we requested to look around and make sure they had the items we normally bought in bulk--they let us in no problem, and encouraged us to look around.
I like Sam's, but liked Costco much more. They also have a 100% satisfaction guarantee where you can bring ANYTHING back that you're not happy with and they'll refund the $ no questions asked. I was talking to a girl who worked there one time and she said people will even bring back open bottles of wine if they were not happy with them. Granted, I think that's taking the "satisfaction guarantee" a little far, but it's good to know they have a liberal return policy.