Sam's Club, Costco prices?

C

CharlesW

The Rainmaker
The comments about buying products at Sam's Club or Costco made me curious about the possible merits of belonging.
Do a lot of you belong?
Do those that do have memberships really save enough money to justify the membership?
In our area, Sam's Club memeberships are $35 a year, Costco is $45.
Having never been to Costco, I can only comment on Sam's Club.
Seems like you need to save quite bit on purchases just to break even.
Many of the items we looked at were available for either the same price or less at Target, Wal*Mart, Menards, Best Buy or Home Depot.
We figured that based on the things we looked at it would take at least three years of purchases to recover the one year membership.
Considering the fact that the stores we do shop at often have sales, the price difference all but disappeared. We go to Sam's Club about once a year just to check and see if anything has changed. It hasn't.


Charles
 
My employer pays for the memberships, so I don't have to worry about recouping the cost. But that said, I do find savings on many things, but they must be bought in large quantities - not a problem for me with a teenage son to feed!! ;)
On a side note, I heard from a "reliable source" that the "busiest Sam's" is here in the valley, and it is not unheard of for them to have a "million dollar Sunday" - kind of staggering when you think about it!!!
 
You get some good deals, but you have to look at what the stores offer. They can save you a fortune if you buy items in bulk. Toilet paper, Paper towels, case of beer 5lbs of ground beef etc....... If your not interested in bulk then its not worth spending the money on a membership. Our Costco just expired, but we still have ours sam's. We really don't go their much, but I buy most of my MF's bulk from Sam's and I get my nice ones from Autogeek.
 
lonewolf0420 said:
You get some good deals, but you have to look at what the stores offer. They can save you a fortune if you buy items in bulk. Toilet paper, Paper towels, case of beer 5lbs of ground beef etc....... If your not interested in bulk then its not worth spending the money on a membership. Our Costco just expired, but we still have ours sam's. We really don't go their much, but I buy most of my MF's bulk from Sam's and I get my nice ones from Autogeek.
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If you have need of large quantities of a product, they might have good prices. In fairness to Sam's, we didn't price any 25 lb. boxes of Cheerios or 50 lb. boxes of laundry detergent. As far as meat products go, that is one area where I really do think you get what you pay for so I wasn't interested in their meat products. Here again, if you watch the sale prices, we pay less for paper towels and toilet paper at Wal*Mart than they are at Sam's.

Charles
 
Well I belong to Costco but do not pay for my membership and even if i had to i would.
I buy a good amount of product there from coffee to dog food, garbage bags to Towels, Mobil 1 oil to Shampoo. And it is far less than i would spend at a grocery store for these items or even Target. I refuse to shop at Wally World so have no idea if the prices compare to them. I know i can get 3lbs of coffe for like 5.99 and in most store it is close to 5.99 for 1 lb So i save a good amoount by using them.

Richard
 
:stuart: My employer also pays my annual fees. I think it depends on the person and the needs of each one to decide who benifts. If I happen to be there and see something I think I will benift by getting in bulks I do so, but if not I don't. On another thread I posted about their cheap MF; IMO $9 for 25 MF is a good deal. There great for things like windows. My go to window cleaner is Stoners Inv Glass and a four pack at Sam's goes for $8 and some change. Everywhere else the price runs $4 dollars and up for 1 can. The Wal-marts in my area do not carry those items in bulk or for that price. I don't have enough people in my family(at this moment) to buy food from Sam's in bulk, so food is not a reason I shop there. With all that said, If I had to pay an annual fee I probably wouldn't save much money, so CharlesW you may have a good point.
 
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A little off topic, but it's my topic so what the heck.:)
Why would employers pay the membership fees for people at Sam's Club or Costco?

Charles
 
My company has a buisness account, so extra members are free. I don't know Sam's would benift from this, but I'm sure they get ther money one way or another. This is not rare in my area and I'm sure this is a way to generate more buisness which=more money for them.
 
Just to add to what was said about Sams making big money. A few years back here in Augusta,Ga. the local Sams was robbed after hours. The robbers made off with 80,000 from just one day of buisness. The sad part was they kidnapped the GM of that store and took him over the river into South Carolina put him into the trunk of his car and burned the vehicle. All this took place on fathers day and he was a father himself. The robbers were not caught until a year and half later, and are now serving life in prison. Every since then Sam's here has had police presence. Didn't mean did get off subject, but just thought I would let you know.
 
i belong to costco here in canada and i find a i save alot on the items i buy. i buy protien bars and food items there, besides books and shop supplies and tools. you have to know your prices before you go in there to make sure you are saving. the biggest problem is the size of an item may make it a good deal but will you use it before it goes bad? with only my wife and i, we can't always benifit, but a family of 4 or 6 could.
 
CharlesW said:
If you have need of large quantities of a product, they might have good prices. In fairness to Sam's, we didn't price any 25 lb. boxes of Cheerios or 50 lb. boxes of laundry detergent. As far as meat products go, that is one area where I really do think you get what you pay for so I wasn't interested in their meat products. Here again, if you watch the sale prices, we pay less for paper towels and toilet paper at Wal*Mart than they are at Sam's.

Charles
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We are total foodies and get 90% of our meat there I reall think that you should try before judging. We went out to a place for dinner last night a very well known steak house and for my fiance and I it was $80 for two steaks and my Sams Club steaks that I make were 100% better.
 
DocHoliday said:
We are total foodies and get 90% of our meat there I reall think that you should try before judging. We went out to a place for dinner last night a very well known steak house and for my fiance and I it was $80 for two steaks and my Sams Club steaks that I make were 100% better.
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You are probably right.
Do you suppose the steaks you ate last night could have come from Sam's Club?:)
Maybe the steak house needs you to cook for them. :bigups


Charles
 
The Costco meat is excellent. The filet mignon there beats the hell out of the other local supermarkets, and also many steakhouses.
 
Sherman8r44 said:
The Costco meat is excellent. The filet mignon there beats the hell out of the other local supermarkets, and also many steakhouses.
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Although i shop at neither costco/sams club many of my coworkers do ,and the one thing they have in common is they all brag about the quality of steaks at both of the stores i mentioned above.
 
When I lived in Missouri, a buddy of mine was owner of a Hotel. We bothwould go to Sam's, which was an hour away. Of course, I got a free membership under the business itself. He had a few vending machines that we had to fill on a regular basis. I purchased 2 phone card vending machines, and bought the phone cards from SAMS. For me, buying at SAMS was profitable, even if I had to pay for a membership, I recouped my money the first day. Since I had moved, I have not been to a SAMS. I've driven past, but never stopped. My membership since has expired, but I am thinking of renewing. Since I have a house full of "tricycle motors" :bump :bump :bump :bump , buying in bulk would probably save me more in the long run. IMO
 
I'm a member at Costco, I probably don't use it as much as many other people do, I know my friend's parents are there at least once a week stocking up. It's definately worth it if your buying in bulk; I would get cases of Gatorade, water, etc. for a pretty good price. They are also really nice because its an "all-in-one" store, meaning you can get food, clothes, books, videogames/movies, electronics, automotive stuff, tools, etc. While the prices might not be the best for non-bulk items, its nice that you can get it at all in one stop. I personally would rather find the cheapest prices online for electronics or car tires, but to some people having it done all it once, at one place is a huge time saver.

I would see what they offer, and determine whether or not to join. Costco's stock is pretty much the same, they rarely change stuff around aside from seasonal things.
 
Sherman8r44 said:
The Costco meat is excellent. The filet mignon there beats the hell out of the other local supermarkets, and also many steakhouses.
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I agree with that 100% there meats are top rate and it is the only place i will now buy my baby back ribs. I know the ribs they sell at Costco cannot be beat by any grocery store. I try not to buy food products at Costco mainly becasue my wife works for Safeway so i support that. They do however have great meat. I also buy cases of bottled water as it is so cheap like 4.99 per case. In fact i am going today to stock back up with about 5 cases.

Richard
 
97F1504x4 said:
I agree with that 100% there meats are top rate and it is the only place i will now buy my baby back ribs. I know the ribs they sell at Costco cannot be beat by any grocery store. I try not to buy food products at Costco mainly becasue my wife works for Safeway so i support that. They do however have great meat. I also buy cases of bottled water as it is so cheap like 4.99 per case. In fact i am going today to stock back up with about 5 cases.

Richard
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Richard:
On your way, stop by K-Mart.
Three 24 pack for $10.
Our local ad is here.
It's quite often $3.50 and I think regular price is only $3.99.
No membership required, either.:)

Charles
 
I belong to Sam's Club. I purchased 2 laminated maple top benches for $149 each. They are every bit the table that the Gladiator Garage Works table is. I have Garage Works products also and these look identical fit and finish wise though these have one additional brace on the back bottom two legs. These products had to come out of the same factory. The Garage Works equivelant run around $400 bucks each. That was worth the price of the membership for me. We buy alot of bulk food products there. Good meat products, great cheese cake and very nice King Crab Legs (I know, big deal but when you live in the middle of a desert mountain state). My wife loves to shop there.

Here's a link to a pic: http://www.gladiatorgw.com/detail.asp?BaseModelID=GAWB06MTRG
 
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