Mrs. Dewgrrl and myself are about to embark on an enduring relationship with one of these establishments.
Our landlord just got a “free month’s trial” for B.J.'s, but it has her name on it, so we can’t use it. I have not been able to access similar promotions for new members on their website.
My mom is a member of Costco, but I can’t seem to find any incentives or promotions for referals on their website.
Sam’s Club is the runt of the litter, as I try to avoid the WalMart conglomeration as much as possible.
We have memberships for both Sam’s Club and Costco. I’d have to give Costco the edge. Just a little bit more stuff we like and a slightly wider selection of brands in some areas. Hard to quantify, really. The two stores are within a block of each other, so travel time isn’t a factor. We are keeping track of visits this year, and dropping whichever membership isn’t being used.
I’ve been a member of Sam’s and Costco. I prefer Costco as it seems cleaner. The only thing I miss is that Sam’s members get a National car discount, whereas Costco offers Alamo discounts. I prefer the former. Nonetheless, I’d go for the one which is most convenient to you.
In any event, if your mom refers you, she’ll get a $10 gift card, as will you. And you might want to act soon, because I heard a rumor that the cost of membership will increase soon.
Another vote for Costco’s from a Sam’s and Costco’s member. Costco has a better selection - pretty much anything Sam’s has, Costco has, but not the other way 'round.
Costco also has more samples, and lots of people who coo over the baby and make my shopping happy!
If you are interested in such things, Costco is better to its employees than Sam’s Club (don’t know anything about BJ’s). The pay is higher, some workers are in unions, there is pretty good health insurance coverage, and the worker turnover rate is much lower.
In addition to the labor practices LilyoftheValley mentions, Costco supposedly has an amazing return policy. I’ve never had to take advantage of it personally, but they’ll supposedly take back or replace damn near anything for whatever reason you see fit. They are, IIRC, even pretty lenient WRT the amount of time that has passed between the purchase date and the date you’re returning things. (Disclaimer: All this is being reported secondhand, YMMV, and all that.)
I joined BJs a few months ago (back in the early 90s, I was the graphic designer who created the maps used in their brochures to indicate their location; they used these for a a few years). I’ve been quite happy with it: our grocery bills have definitely gone down and their prices are nearly always better than what I can get anywhere else. Considering I don’t like the idea of paying for a memebership, I was quite pleased.
Costco and Sams Club member here. We have let our Sams membership lapse.
The goods at them are so close to the same that it is a wash. Occasionally we see some different items, but not enough to push us one way or the other. I got our tires at Sams because they didn’t have them at Costco.
The one really good thing about Sams is that it has NEVER been busy when we have gone. Our lineup has always been less than 2 and it is always easy to get around the store. I can’t believe that they will stay open.
Costco is usually busy, and weekends are brutal. They’ll have all the registers open and still have a lineup of 5-6 ahead of you. We also have 5 Costco stores within a half hour drive, but only 1 Sams. The different stores have slightly different stock, so we’ll shop around to see if they have something we need.
Costco is useful for us as they have stores in Canada, US and UK. When we visit the UK we’ll stop in and stock up on chocolate (Galaxy!) and other goodies to bring home and to use while we’re there. Last time we picked up a case of 12 bottles of flavoured water that we kept in the trunk. Very handy for when we are driving across the Borders at 4PM on a Sunday.
RE: Return policy. I too have heard that it is very liberal. I have returned things, but usually unused within a month or so. I’ve heard people use things for a couple years and then return them.
Another vote for Costco here (with one exception). Overall they tend to have a better selection in the stuff that I want. That, and I prefer Costco’s in-house brand stuff to Sam’s Club’s house brands.
I can’t comment on BJ’s, since I’ve never seen one, much less been to one.
The one exception to my endorsement to Costco is the tire department. When I got a nail in my tire Sam’s Club patched/plugged the tire and rebalanced it for free, but the local Costco couldn’t because I didn’t get the tires from them. (Note: I don’t know if the policy of working only on Costco-bought tires applies only to my two local ones, or is chain-wide.) Ah well, that’s why I keep memberships in both.
I think you can have two cards on one Costco membership, so if your mother is already a member, you might be able to get a card without joining separately.
BJs is okay, but the closest one is more than a two hour drive for us; not very economical. Sam’s Club and Costco are both an hour away. We had a Sam’s Club membership for a couple of years, and it was OK. One day, we decided to browse at a Costco, liked the selection better, and let our Sam’s membership lapse and bought a Costco membership. We’ve found excellent selection of stuff there, plus the one we frequent is in Virginia, so they have a nice selection of wine and beer, at excellent prices.
I read recently that Costco has the highest customer satsifaction rating of the three, although it was ranked lowest in terms of customer service. But hey, you don’t go to a warehouse store for one-on-one service, imho.
Oh, forgot to mention our latest fave thing about Costco: our wonderful health insurance has crappy vision coverage; they’ll pay $43.00 for an eye exam. Whoop. Well, everywhere I checked that took our insurance, the cost for an eye exam, after the insurance discount, was $90.00-$100.00. Costco doesn’t take our insurance, but the eye exam is only $72.00. And the ophthalmologist gave my hubby four pairs of contacts, in slightly varying prescriptions for free, so he could try them and see which prescription worked best for him!