Do you belong to Sam’s Club or some other club store? Which have you found to be the best of the lot?
I much prefer Costco. Their house products (Kirkland) are chosen for quality as well as price, and I’ve yet to run across a bad one. Their wine selection is outstanding, and the house-prepared foods are uniformly palatable.
Costco’s cakes are awesome, and very cheap: $15 for a half sheet 2 layer with filling, decorated with the colors and words of your choice (they have templates for the designs). Everyone raves about them at my parties.
Sam’s Club roasted rotisserie chickens are a little better, but honestly it’s not a huge margin. Both stores’ chickens blow away the grocery store’s chickens.
Overall, I chose to let the Sam’s Club membership lapse and keep the Costco one. Costco just has more of the stuff I want; they seem to have a steadier inventory than Sam’s.
But you should check out both of them to see if they have what *you *like. I’m pretty sure both will let you have a guest pass for one shopping trip to check it out, or you can do what I did and find a nice looking person outside and ask them to bring you in for a tour. (Yes, I can occasionally be forward. ;)) The little old lady was thrilled to have me tag along and lift the heavy stuff into her cart!
Costco. We dumped Sam’s when we discovered we hadn’t been there in a year, going to Costco instead. Great meats, great house brand items, and their you-bake-it pizzas are magnificent.
The local Sunday paper just did a piece on this exact thing.
Three out of the four private shoppers chose Sam’s Club based on price of membership, location, and trial offer. The fourth chose CostCo based on ethical issue of a “living wage” that CostCo gives. All four said that available products and prices were similar.
A vote for CostCo.
I went to Sam’s Club for years, but everyone I knew kept raving about how great Costco was. So this summer I switched my membership to Costco.
My opinion? They are about 85% the same. Really very similar. If anything, I think I liked Sam’s Club a little better. They just had more selection.
I still don’t get why everyone thinks Costco is so cool.
I also vote Costco. The only reason we let our membership lapse is because Costco is 45 minute drive for us, making it too hard to get out there anytime other than the weekends, when we’re usually not interested. Sam’s is just 10 minutes away, so I can stop by on my way home from work if necessary.
I liked Costco better because they had better store-brand diapers and wipes. Sam’s baby wipes are really hard and thick in comparison. Also, Costco carried Lean Cuisines and Healthy Choice in bulk - both the family-sized entrees and the individual portions - whereas Sam’s only carries one or the other of the individual sizes, none of the larger sizes (which are handy if you’re all eating, say, Lean Cuisine lasagna), and sometimes neither Lean Cuisine nor Healthy Choice. Costco also had better store-brand coffee.
CostCo pizza is the best. I look forward to shopping there just so I can get a slice on the way out. As a male, I really don’t enjoy shopping very much. But, man, that pizza makes it worth the trip.
Costco, no doubt about it.
ETA- even when we lived 25 miles from the nearest Costco, I made the trip. Totally worth it.
I have belonged to both Sam’s Club and Costco, and prefer Costco. Sam’s Club does carry a very few things that I can’t find at Costco, but it’s not like I can’t find that stuff elsewhere. The deciding factor was when Costco opened two (!!) locations much closer to my home than the only Sam’s Club in the area. I let the Sam’s Club membership lapse shortly after that, and haven’t missed it.
Price Club. I mean Costco.
I actually used to work at Price Club (unionized) from 1982-1993 (store #106 - Colton, CA) and got out just before it merged with non-unionized Costco. I still see some of my co-workers at the Victorville Costco, who are usually area managers or higher up in the chain. I like to shoot the shit with them and remind them of all the fun and devious stuff we used to do as stockers and lift drivers and we always laughed just at the sight of each other.
We use Costco. I want to second the diapers, they are really pretty good. I prefer them to Pampers for our son.
If it matters to you, I read somewhere that Costco’s target market is more prosperous than Sam’s Club, so that Costco has somewhat more luxurious goods. (And as you’re on the East Coast, you have a third option in BJ’s Wholesale Club.)
I was wondering why no one had mentioned BJ’s yet. Now it makes sense.
Yes, BJ’s Wholesale Club is only on the East Coast.
Me and my husband are having that for dinner tonight. :)We’ll buy two pizzas at 9.99 each and get anywhere from four to six meals out of it.
I find that, for me, Costco has more of the type of things I like to buy. They tend to be the more upmarket of the two. Think Sam’s Club = Walmart, Costco = Target. The store brand is better and they tend to carry things that Sam’s Club won’t. For example, I’ve gotten some excellent tzatziki and awesome pumpkin bisque at Costco. That’s a bit too adventurous for Sam’s Club. Costco usually has two or three flavors of hummus. Sam’s Club has none (that I’ve seen).
I also prefer the produce at Costco; it’s so much cheaper than at the grocery store, and the quality is better too. I stopped in this week and got 8 persimmons for $6.50. I’ve never had them before but they’re delicious.
Sam’s seems to be superior in baked goods - they always have a ton of different cakes. Costco still has some, just not as many.
Sam’s Club is closer to my house so I stop by on occasion if I need one or two things, since they do have a lot of similar items, but as I’m typically going for food, I take the trip to Costco most of the time. All in all, if I had to pick, I’d choose Costco.
This thread is a little old, but I thought I would share this with anyone who still cares:
costco crushes sams and bjs