So a local Sam’s Club was closed for remodeling and is having a grand reopening event this weekend. To celebrate and bring in new suckers, uh, members they took out a full page ad in the local paper including a coupon that allows you to shop this coming Saturday without joining.
I was about to clip the coupon with a mind towards checking the place out. I went a time or two about 5 years ago, but it didn’t work for me. Perhaps if I had a family of 8 or something I’d go through the jumbo sizes of everything they sell before they went bad or I got sick of them.
Then I read the small print on the coupon - “Non-members will have to pay 10% more than the listed price for all items.”
That being said, I myself am a member of BJ’s Wholesale Club and there are advantages to it. Tissues, toilet paper, paper plates, coffee, garbage bags, and paper towels are what I buy regularly from there. Stuff that I like to have a lot of and don’t want to be buying every week, and need a lot of, that doesn’t go bad.
Granted, I could accept some sort of limitation, like no more than 5 of any one item, no more than 1 of any item >$100 value, etc. but a 10% premium for a one day event is insanity.
If I missed that fine print, I’d be pissed like nobody’s business.
Pretty sure you normally need a membership to shop there at all, which is ostensibly what makes the one-day pass valuable. I would expect them to make a strong push for membership once you’re there, but the 10% thing is pretty slimy.
Costco and BJ’s Warehouse do the same thing. I found that I did not use enough of the things I would buy in bulk to warrant the yearly fee. It’s not like the prices were that much cheaper…often, they weren’t cheaper at all.
Of course. The listed price is the discount you get when you become a member. It actually will attract new customers when they see the reduced costs they get as a member. Simply, it’s advertising.
I’d be all for shopping “just like a member” for 1 day. If it was a positive experience I might join. But to get a coupon that says we’ll let you be “just like a member” except you have to pay more than actual members. Meh
Seems kinda bogus to me. It would seem a little less bogus if they’d let you save your receipt as proof of how much surcharge they hit you with, and gave you say, three weeks to apply that amount toward a yearly membership.
I agree it’s kind of silly on both ends. Silly to expect to be able to go to a member-only store for a day and pay the member prices… but also silly to let people into your member-only store for a day and charge more than members.
I say fuck 'em, like you pretty much did. They obviously don’t need your business. But don’t get too hurt about it (not that I think you are).
So go to the store and just look at the prices without buying anything. If it looks appealing, pay the membership fee and come back. But I think many people never save enough to recover the forty or fifty bucks they pay for a warehouse club membership.
The point of having the store open to non-members is so that those non-members can see the selection and prices of merchandise. Back in the 80s, there were a lot of stores/showcases that claimed that members could save Big Bucks…but they wouldn’t let non-members in to see the products and prices. These stores supposedly sold big ticket items like furniture and such. And if you paid the membership fee and found out that a store didn’t carry the things that you wanted or needed, you were out the fee.
My husband was ready to join one of these clubs. I, however, was put off by the hard sell. When I mentioned that I would need to take the contract with us, so we could have the Air Force legal department look it over (and I had no idea whether the AF legal beagles would do this) the salesman turned white, and told us that we couldn’t take the contract out of the building, and that this was a one time only deal, if we left without signing the contract that we couldn’t get this deal. IOW, take it or leave it. We left it. Not too long afterwards, we saw a group of people picketing the store. We stopped and talked to them. Once again my nasty suspicious mind was correct, this store had a very poor selection and the discounts were minimal, if there was a discount at all on a particular item.
When our local BJ’s opened they not mailed everyone in the area a one-week free pass, but also had them in the local paper. Nothing about nonmembers having to pay more – everything was free and clear for everybody. Of course the catch was to purchase a membership after that free week was over.
We’re a household of two adults and one dog, and we split our shopping between BJ’s and Costco for bulk items and what I call Monthly Meat Stock-Up (it goes in our freezer). We buy everything else at the local supermarket because, frankly, we have no use to stock up on cases and cases of food.
Don’t big stores have better variety than small ones?
And yeah, pretty dumb marketing by Sam’s. I’m pretty sure you can go there and just tell them you are thinking about getting a membership but want to look around first. No fake coupon needed to attact people to come “see what great deals they’re missing.”
Yeah. I think I’d turn and leave, actually. Funk 'em. The 10% they charge the next non-member can pay the employees to put their products back on the shelf.
