As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’m moving back to the midwest. Among the many, many things that this means is that I will be able to take my car to a membership/warehouse club and buy pallets of toilet paper, fifty-five gallon drums of peanut butter, and so on. My family’s always had a Sam’s Club membership, back from when you had to have some sort of invite to get in, but I’m not sticking with them out of loyalty. But I’ve never had any experience with Costco, so I can’t really compare the two.
So, as usual, I turn to The Collective Wisdom of the Dope: What are your experiences w/ these stores? Prices, products, free samples on Saturdays? Let me know which you think I should pick.
Love my Costco. To me, it doesn’t seem as ‘cheap’ as Sam’s, but MO.
Check the other benefits of Sam’s vs. Costco as well…I know Costco has some great perks. One that I just discovered recently on a multi-family vacation, was that with my Costco membership we could add additional drivers on the rental car for no extra charge (through Budget).
And this is a “correct me if I’m wrong” but are the generic bulk items at Sam’s the “Sams Choice” brand? I’ve never been a fan of much of that brand. At Costco, they have their own store brand (Kirkland) and every single item with that brand has been great. I think for a lot of things they use branded items and just re-brand them for sale at Costo. They have a beer varity pack, for example, that’s brewed by one of the more popular “craft” beer companies but is sold under the Kirkland name.
I hadn’t even thought about location–it looks like Columbus has all of one Costco, and it’s way up past 270, a long haul from my place to be outside of Upper Arlington. Guess that pretty much settles it.
Costco is often not any cheaper than the other box stores for a given category of product, but pretty much everything they sell is high quality and IME they’re almost always the best value.
I’ve only been a couple of times, but my impression of Sam’s Club is that it’s basically just Wal-Mart with bigger packages. They do sell high quality stuff at good prices, but they also sell the same tier of ultra-cheap stuff you get at Wal-Mart so you have to be a little more savvy, especially in the quantities you’re buying. You don’t want to get stuck with 55 gallons of Sam’s Choice peanut butter that turns out to be inedible! At Costco I’m pretty confident that anything I buy is going to be a quality product, even their generic brand which is often better than the name brands. On the other hand, if I do just want the most peanut butter for the buck and don’t really care about the quality I’ll probably just go somewhere else.
We’ve always used Costco (Price Club before that), but we’ve also never lived within driving distance of a Sam’s Club.
If politics makes any difference in your shopping choices, Sam’s Club is part of Walmart, whose largest shareholders tend to support the GOP, while the people who made their money from Price Club/Costco are big supporters of liberal/Democratic causes. On the other hand, they’re both greedy corporations, so the differences are probably more in degree than kind.
It plays a role, but not a big role. (Besides, I consider myself a libertarian–I side with the Dems because the pubbies’ stance on social issues is far more repugnant than anything the Dems do.) I tend to be fairly “rational actor” on this kinda thing. Still, y’all are making some good points for Costco. Do they sell tires there? That was always a minor Sams perk.
I had one of each about a mile from my house for six or seven years, and shopped at them and the local grocery store in rotation. It made it easy to buy whatever each had the best deal on. That said, milk was pretty much the same from all three (if I didn’t buy the local premium brand at the grocery). I liked a lot of Member’s Mark (Sam’s) and Kirkland (Costco) products over the brand name stuff. The Sam’s paper towels are better quality and a better value than some of the big-name products, for example.
One thing you have to keep in mind is that both tend to carry store brand and somewhate upscale products, without much in the middle tier - that is, you can buy fairly generic shampoo and the ultra-pricey stuff, but not much in the middle. The prices on the fancy stuff are good if you have to have Ultresse or such, but a lot more than mid-tier grocery stuff.
About the only real difference between Costco and Sam’s is the color of the store-brand labels. While Costco does maintain a slightly higher quality level in both products and service, they are essentially the same solution to the same market. Costco generally carries a slightly “better” grade of some things, but not overwhelmingly so. I have only a Sam’s within driving distance these days, but there’s very little I miss from Costco.
Even beyond purely partisan politics, they also treat their employees really well with good pay and a benefits package that’s almost unheard of in retail. At least at my local store, I think it’s reflected in the quality of the service.
They do sell tires and the same thing with quality applies-- they don’t sell the cheapest tires in town, but everything they sell is good quality and usually well priced. They do have a somewhat limited selection of sizes, though, so there’s a chance if you drive something unusual they might not have 'em. (They also fill your tires up with 100% nitrogen. I’ve always found this odd since Costco usually presents itself as catering to savvy well-informed consumers, but the nitrogen thing is a total gimmick. But, hey, they don’t charge extra for it.)
I remember reading that Costco’s customer base is generally wealthier than the customer base at Sam’s Club. That may translate into a difference in the merchandise selection.
When Costco opened they stated their number one concern is their employee. Wall street told them that will never work, as the number one concern must be the customer. But what was discovered was that well paid employees (with benefits, etc) are happy. And they realize that if people don’t come in the door, there is no work for them. Hence they take care of the customer, because their job, which they value, depends on it.
A few points:
An employee, with over one year employment, is discharged, the CEO must sign his release paper.
CEO can make no more than 10% over the highest paid employee.
Goods are marked up 18% for resale.
Every employee starts by gathering carts from the parking lot.
Unsatisfied for something that was purchased there, return it.
This information can be verified by their website and Wiki.
No CostCos in my area but let me throw in a third alternative: BJ’s Wholesale Club. I have Sam’s and BJ’s locally and at one point I had memberships at both. But when my membership at Sam’s ran out, I let it go and I’ve renewed my membership at BJ’s. I can’t put my finger on any specific reason but I found I shopped more often at BJ’s.
I get my contacts at Costco. The savings on that purchase pays for the yearly membership. I use Costco for quality food products. Their olive oil is exceptionally good. Hearts of Palm, coffee, roast chicken, red velvet cake, milk, butter, cream, eggs. All are higher quality and lower price.
It helps that there is one two blocks from my place of work and another on the way home.
Oh yeah, their gas is 10-15 cents/gallon cheaper too. That all adds up.
I have had memberships at both, and eventually dropped the Sam’s club membership. Costco was just better, and when they finally built a Costco on my side of town, there was no longer a reason to ever go to Sam’s.
Checkout: Conveyers at Costco made checkout move faster. Sam’s club was still using plywood boxes supporting registers and checkers had to move things from one cart to the next.
Gas was typically a couple cents/gal cheaper at Costco than Sam’s.
Sam’s club pricing was about the same on “name” brands, but they seldom offered a house brand choice. The Kirkland branded Costco stuff has always been at least good and frequently excellent and a much lower price than “name” brands. Sam’s had Exide made car batteries, Costco sells Johnson Controls (JCI batteries are much better IME).
Biggest reason I like Costco better: I believe they treat their employees much better than Sam’s/Walmart. It reflects in how customers are treated, and they stick around long enough that they learn the answers to your questions.
Sam’s and Costco sell whatever brands, products and sizes they can get the best deal on. Period. They will switch tire, battery, bakery, soup and clothing lines at the drop of a penny per $100.
My vote’s Costco; you can also get items delivered from their website, which is quite comprehensive.
I’ve bought 2 sets of tires over the last decade at Costco, for 2 different vehicles. If you’re at the store for any reason you can ask them and if they have time they’ll check your tires for you on the spot - even if you didn’t buy them at Costco.
And as others have mentioned, their staff’s treated better so they seem a lot happier than the folks I remembered working at Sam’s Club; lower turnover as well which (to my mind) leads to better product and policy knowledge. We got their American Express card w/ the Executive Membership, so we get a rebate check from Costco for 2% of our annual purchases and a rebate check from AmEx for1-3% of our annual purchases everywhere we used the AmEx card.
Hope you have a smooth move!
So will almost any quality tire store. I can think of a dozen times a tire dealer did something entirely billable (checked balance, busted a tire off of a rim, etc.) and just waved off the charge with “Come back and see us.”
I think Costco is superior in many ways, but it never was a 100% replacement for Sam’s Club. Having both a very convenient distance away was a luxury I regret losing.
I currently belong to both, but am truly madly deeply more devoted to Costco; the lines aren’t as long, the employees are more knowledgeable, the merchandise is higher quality, and the prices are comparable on most items. (I see it as kind of the difference in Target and WalMart.)
That said, I recently moved and where I am now there’s a Sam’s Club next to the campus where I work while the nearest Costco is 20 miles away. If Costco would build a store here I’d gladly drive 5 miles out of my way to go to that instead of Sam’s, but it’s not worth driving 20 miles for, so I rarely go there at the moment. When Costco lapses I’ll probably just let it stay lapsed for a while until I need something big that’s worth the price of re-upping.
Let me know which you think I should pick.