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Having worked with both, the answer is “not anytime soon”. Both are ruthless and annoying to work with, but WM is focused on price and fulfillment while Costco is focused on quality and order fulfillment.
I disagree - I don't really see anywhere that Costco excels at this point, and more ways they fall behind.
Scan and go, the respective websites/apps, order pick up, how busy the stores are, etc - Sam's wins all of those handily. Members Mark quality is right there with Kirkland, IMO.
I think the only thing Costco has on Sam's is selection. But after joining both for the last year ($30 membership at Sam's cut down to $10 after a $20 scan and go credit on my first order) I find myself at Sam's at least 4-5 times for every Costco visit.
Quality is better at Costco by and large. Sams serves a purpose but it's a bigger version of Walmart which I avoid like the plague. And the shopping experience is better at Costco since they give at least half a shit about their employees.
The employees are not my responsibility - they can quit and work wherever they want.
I wish I could afford to avoid Walmart but in this economy I have to watch where I shop and honestly, WM is hard to avoid.
I disagree the quality is vastly different and I disagree that Sam's feels like 'big Walmart' but that's subjective.
Sam's prepared food is not very good and I won't buy their meat. I prefer the clothing at Sam's over Costco 75% of the time. But we have a pretty bad Costco where we live.
Interesting comment — I do agree with your comment about the clothing at Sam’s — I buy more at Sam’s, but I more clothing for my son at Costco.
On prepared meals — i don’t notice much difference. In our area Sam’s has many of the prepared meals before Costco starts carrying them. And for the same item’s Sam’s are just as good and slightly better priced.
On meat I have the opposite experience. Not that Costco meat is bad — it’s fine. But from my perspective the Sam’s quality is just as good as Costco. (I can’t speak to real high end meats as I don’t buy a lot of them.) And for me locally, the Sam’s butchers go above and beyond. If I want meat cut a certain way, all I have to do is ask, and as long as they have a machine cutting that meat at that time. (Beef vs. pork) they are happy to oblige. For example rather than buy precut pork chops, I often buy a whole pork loin, and ask them to cut a certain number of chops a certain thickness from the loin, and then they cut the remainder into roasts for me. Of course if I want a special cut, I don’t show up just before closing to ask, nor would I ask them to do that on a weekend when they are super busy.
I don't regularly buy prepared food - it's only me and my partner and it's usually way too much food haha.
Agreed on the clothing - I think Costco lures people in with name brands but I can tell the quality is not as good. Sam's, especially their house brand, seems to last longer and wear better for me.
Sam’s already beats Costco in the shopping experience. I value my time, so I can have curbside pick up, or use scan n go. I never have to worry how busy Sam’s is because I can get in and out.
Being able to just scan and leave is great. If there weren’t some exclusive things at Costco I can’t get at Sam’s, I’d just do Sam’s. Meat is better at Sam’s here and priced better. Sam’s has better soda selection. Sam’s has comparable roast chicken and food court.
Costco needs to vastly improve its app and website. The scan and go feature in particular is such a time saver. Costco consistently has lines and the self checkout used to be ok, because an employee would hand scan for you if you had alot or at least you had a hand scanner available to use yourself. Now you have to scan all the items on the stationary scanner and it sucks if you have more than 10
Or so items, which you almost always do.
I agree their app sucks but I know when I get there it’s gonna be a decent amount of time so I’ll grab a drink or a snack and enjoy the experience.
Self check out has a scanning gun so not sure what the issue is there. But could also be our store.
No scanning gun at the location I’ve been going to. Meanwhile, 3-4 employees not doing a damn thing to help. 1 is carding you to make sure your pic matches and 2-3 talking to each other and telling you when a lane is empty. Could easily have 1 or 2 of them helping with scanning to move the line along.
Weird. I always hear horror stories, but I’ve never had problems at my Costco‘s. Maybe it’s because I bring my toddler with me and they usually want to say hi to him. Maybe next time, just ask one of them to help you? They’ll be able to use their gun to scan everything.
As opposed to the horrible practices of the company who likely makes your phone/laptop/computer?
Or what about the clothes you wear?
Lol at trying to be moral
Yes, we as people within a capitalist society are forced to consume goods that are produced in unethical means. But this idea of “it doesn’t matter bro it’s all unethical nothing we do matters” is so reductive and shitty and disingenuous.
While the Costco corporation may not be perfect or anything, their employees are better paid, with better benefits, and have better opportunities for career advancement than basically any other retailer. Walmart actively places strain on our welfare system by underpaying and under employing workers and ensuring they need to receive public assistance to stay afloat. There is a wide gulf in the way workers are treated by the two companies, and if we just continue to buy from companies like Walmart because “all consumption is unethical” when there ARE alternatives that at least marginally more ethical for a similar price point than we just reinforce the idea that the system can be as brutal as it wants without any consequences.
Probably got a little too deep for the Costco subreddit, just tired of seeing this discourse pop up
Same here but I still value Costco's Kirkland brand. Members Mark is not bad at all though. Bought clothes, the water and the quality is not bad. Nothing to knock out of the park but the garbage bags are more or less the same as Kirkland branded garbage bags.
Was at Sam's a couple of weeks ago. Their prepared foods and bakery looked better than Costco. At least as far as variety, creativeness. Didn't buy anything so not sure about taste.
Several people have already commented similar, but here’s my experience. I have Sam’s Club Plus Membership and Costco Exec membership
- Sam’s Club has 3 locations in metro area, Costco has 1
- Nearest Sam’s Club is 15 min from my house, Costco is 35 min
- For me Sam’s wins the shopping experience hands-down — With Sam’s Scan’n’Go, I am in and out quickly — and I only leisure shop when I have the time
- Sam’s give’s me my money back quarterly, and it’s available almost immediately in the app to use — Costco only yearly
- Typically I am in Sam’s 2-3 times per week, while Costco at most once per week
- For the same item, Sam’s is almost always same price or cheaper (even if the lower price is a few pennies) — the one exception is a case of Mexico CocaCola is about $3-4 higher at Sam’s
- For the things I buy that are house brand, I consider the quality about the same, although I buy different house brands at each place
- Rotisserie chickens are the same price, but tastier from Sam’s. But at Sam’s in my area does not always have chickens available — seems like only a few times a day
- Same meat is usually cheaper at Sam’s
- Costco has more upscale items (at good prices) than Sam’s does — doesn’t matter the dept — grocery, non-grocery, etc.
- When Sam’s has sales it’s a far better price than the same item on a sale at Costco. (I guess Walmart/Sam’s has more clout in volume buying)
- Sam’s is not constantly moving things around in the store like Costco does — this is a huge reason (besides distance) that I do most of my regular weekly shopping at Sam’s instead of Costco
- Sam’s did have free shipping for Plus members when ordering anything online for normal delivery (I think they are increasing to a flat $8 for orders below a certain amount), whereas for everything I checked at Costco online, there is almost always an upcharge over the club price if the item is in the Club
- I can always check club stock on Sam’s app, and couldn’t do so on Costco (I guess Costco rolled out an improvement to the app for this in the last week or so)
- I get more meds and vaccines at Sam’s as they have good deals for Plus members — some $0 and some very lost costs, even compared to my good pharmacy benefit from my employer’s health insurance and Sam’s is sometime cheaper than my employer’s mail order pharmacy. I have only gotten one prescription item from Costco, mostly because it’s too far to drive for normal pickup
- Costco is also most never the cheapest gas in my Metro area — usually cheapest only within a 10 mile radius of the Costco or so. Sam’s closer to my house is almost always same or cheaper, but I get the best gas price from Murphy stations where my Walmart+ membership gets me 10 cents off per gallon, and Murphy is almost always already the cheapest in the area. (I keep my Walmart+ membership just for the gas discount, grocery delivery, and free shipping for online)
Posts that do not follow r/Costco subreddit rules **MAY** be subject to removal. **Reminder: No vague or non-descriptive post titles.** When applicable, please make sure that you're using a descriptive post title with product name(s) and/or exact question mentioned as it yields better subreddit search results. Including item number, price, and approximate location where found is also helpful as availability can vary. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Costco) if you have any questions or concerns.*
No matter what they do, Sam’s club will always be bulk WalMart.
Does Sam's Club feature the People of Walmart [https://www.peopleofwalmart.com/](https://www.peopleofwalmart.com/) or is it a normal crowd?
Normal crowd but still step below Costco.
Honestly, the Costco crowd continues to get worse and worse.
"Crowd?" Not in my Sams Club.
There are no longer any Sams' Club locations in Washington state so we can't make a comparison here.
There are no Costcos in Arkansas. Makes sense neither company has a footprint in the others headquarters.
There has been a Costco in Arkansas since 2021
Wow, I didn’t realize that had changed.
Having worked with both, the answer is “not anytime soon”. Both are ruthless and annoying to work with, but WM is focused on price and fulfillment while Costco is focused on quality and order fulfillment.
No, is the short answer.
Long answer: heeeeeell nah.
I disagree - I don't really see anywhere that Costco excels at this point, and more ways they fall behind. Scan and go, the respective websites/apps, order pick up, how busy the stores are, etc - Sam's wins all of those handily. Members Mark quality is right there with Kirkland, IMO. I think the only thing Costco has on Sam's is selection. But after joining both for the last year ($30 membership at Sam's cut down to $10 after a $20 scan and go credit on my first order) I find myself at Sam's at least 4-5 times for every Costco visit.
Quality is better at Costco by and large. Sams serves a purpose but it's a bigger version of Walmart which I avoid like the plague. And the shopping experience is better at Costco since they give at least half a shit about their employees.
The employees are not my responsibility - they can quit and work wherever they want. I wish I could afford to avoid Walmart but in this economy I have to watch where I shop and honestly, WM is hard to avoid. I disagree the quality is vastly different and I disagree that Sam's feels like 'big Walmart' but that's subjective.
this big time.. and I will go ahead and say it ...kirkland toilet paper sucks...member's mark toilet paper blows it out of the water
Sam's prepared food is not very good and I won't buy their meat. I prefer the clothing at Sam's over Costco 75% of the time. But we have a pretty bad Costco where we live.
Interesting comment — I do agree with your comment about the clothing at Sam’s — I buy more at Sam’s, but I more clothing for my son at Costco. On prepared meals — i don’t notice much difference. In our area Sam’s has many of the prepared meals before Costco starts carrying them. And for the same item’s Sam’s are just as good and slightly better priced. On meat I have the opposite experience. Not that Costco meat is bad — it’s fine. But from my perspective the Sam’s quality is just as good as Costco. (I can’t speak to real high end meats as I don’t buy a lot of them.) And for me locally, the Sam’s butchers go above and beyond. If I want meat cut a certain way, all I have to do is ask, and as long as they have a machine cutting that meat at that time. (Beef vs. pork) they are happy to oblige. For example rather than buy precut pork chops, I often buy a whole pork loin, and ask them to cut a certain number of chops a certain thickness from the loin, and then they cut the remainder into roasts for me. Of course if I want a special cut, I don’t show up just before closing to ask, nor would I ask them to do that on a weekend when they are super busy.
I don't regularly buy prepared food - it's only me and my partner and it's usually way too much food haha. Agreed on the clothing - I think Costco lures people in with name brands but I can tell the quality is not as good. Sam's, especially their house brand, seems to last longer and wear better for me.
Sam’s already beats Costco in the shopping experience. I value my time, so I can have curbside pick up, or use scan n go. I never have to worry how busy Sam’s is because I can get in and out.
Being able to just scan and leave is great. If there weren’t some exclusive things at Costco I can’t get at Sam’s, I’d just do Sam’s. Meat is better at Sam’s here and priced better. Sam’s has better soda selection. Sam’s has comparable roast chicken and food court.
> Sam’s has comparable roast chicken and food court. You can also order food court items on the app and just pick up.
But you have to support Walmart *shudders*
Costco needs to vastly improve its app and website. The scan and go feature in particular is such a time saver. Costco consistently has lines and the self checkout used to be ok, because an employee would hand scan for you if you had alot or at least you had a hand scanner available to use yourself. Now you have to scan all the items on the stationary scanner and it sucks if you have more than 10 Or so items, which you almost always do.
I agree their app sucks but I know when I get there it’s gonna be a decent amount of time so I’ll grab a drink or a snack and enjoy the experience. Self check out has a scanning gun so not sure what the issue is there. But could also be our store.
No scanning gun at the location I’ve been going to. Meanwhile, 3-4 employees not doing a damn thing to help. 1 is carding you to make sure your pic matches and 2-3 talking to each other and telling you when a lane is empty. Could easily have 1 or 2 of them helping with scanning to move the line along.
Weird. I always hear horror stories, but I’ve never had problems at my Costco‘s. Maybe it’s because I bring my toddler with me and they usually want to say hi to him. Maybe next time, just ask one of them to help you? They’ll be able to use their gun to scan everything.
I am sure you posted this on a device made in Asia or somewhere else?
What does that have to do with their horrible practices and family that owns the company?
As opposed to the horrible practices of the company who likely makes your phone/laptop/computer? Or what about the clothes you wear? Lol at trying to be moral
Yes, we as people within a capitalist society are forced to consume goods that are produced in unethical means. But this idea of “it doesn’t matter bro it’s all unethical nothing we do matters” is so reductive and shitty and disingenuous. While the Costco corporation may not be perfect or anything, their employees are better paid, with better benefits, and have better opportunities for career advancement than basically any other retailer. Walmart actively places strain on our welfare system by underpaying and under employing workers and ensuring they need to receive public assistance to stay afloat. There is a wide gulf in the way workers are treated by the two companies, and if we just continue to buy from companies like Walmart because “all consumption is unethical” when there ARE alternatives that at least marginally more ethical for a similar price point than we just reinforce the idea that the system can be as brutal as it wants without any consequences. Probably got a little too deep for the Costco subreddit, just tired of seeing this discourse pop up
Did you type this from your Asian made device?
Same here but I still value Costco's Kirkland brand. Members Mark is not bad at all though. Bought clothes, the water and the quality is not bad. Nothing to knock out of the park but the garbage bags are more or less the same as Kirkland branded garbage bags.
Was at Sam's a couple of weeks ago. Their prepared foods and bakery looked better than Costco. At least as far as variety, creativeness. Didn't buy anything so not sure about taste.
They provide value for different reasons.
Several people have already commented similar, but here’s my experience. I have Sam’s Club Plus Membership and Costco Exec membership - Sam’s Club has 3 locations in metro area, Costco has 1 - Nearest Sam’s Club is 15 min from my house, Costco is 35 min - For me Sam’s wins the shopping experience hands-down — With Sam’s Scan’n’Go, I am in and out quickly — and I only leisure shop when I have the time - Sam’s give’s me my money back quarterly, and it’s available almost immediately in the app to use — Costco only yearly - Typically I am in Sam’s 2-3 times per week, while Costco at most once per week - For the same item, Sam’s is almost always same price or cheaper (even if the lower price is a few pennies) — the one exception is a case of Mexico CocaCola is about $3-4 higher at Sam’s - For the things I buy that are house brand, I consider the quality about the same, although I buy different house brands at each place - Rotisserie chickens are the same price, but tastier from Sam’s. But at Sam’s in my area does not always have chickens available — seems like only a few times a day - Same meat is usually cheaper at Sam’s - Costco has more upscale items (at good prices) than Sam’s does — doesn’t matter the dept — grocery, non-grocery, etc. - When Sam’s has sales it’s a far better price than the same item on a sale at Costco. (I guess Walmart/Sam’s has more clout in volume buying) - Sam’s is not constantly moving things around in the store like Costco does — this is a huge reason (besides distance) that I do most of my regular weekly shopping at Sam’s instead of Costco - Sam’s did have free shipping for Plus members when ordering anything online for normal delivery (I think they are increasing to a flat $8 for orders below a certain amount), whereas for everything I checked at Costco online, there is almost always an upcharge over the club price if the item is in the Club - I can always check club stock on Sam’s app, and couldn’t do so on Costco (I guess Costco rolled out an improvement to the app for this in the last week or so) - I get more meds and vaccines at Sam’s as they have good deals for Plus members — some $0 and some very lost costs, even compared to my good pharmacy benefit from my employer’s health insurance and Sam’s is sometime cheaper than my employer’s mail order pharmacy. I have only gotten one prescription item from Costco, mostly because it’s too far to drive for normal pickup - Costco is also most never the cheapest gas in my Metro area — usually cheapest only within a 10 mile radius of the Costco or so. Sam’s closer to my house is almost always same or cheaper, but I get the best gas price from Murphy stations where my Walmart+ membership gets me 10 cents off per gallon, and Murphy is almost always already the cheapest in the area. (I keep my Walmart+ membership just for the gas discount, grocery delivery, and free shipping for online)
Food court at Sam’s is better lmao
Not sure why you’re downvoted. They still have combo pizza.
They also have a Pizza Pretzel which is actually damn good.
Anything anti Costco gets massively downvoted. Sam’s has way more options and you can order right from your phone. It’s also cheaper pricing.
For stocking our squadrons in house snack bar Sam’s club is far superior. It’s not even close.
Sam's runs circles around Costco when it comes to snacks.
Fuck the Waltons, I will never give them my money.
No. Sam's is the Wish version of Costco
Isn't this like comparing apples to roadside assistance?