Have y'all done any? I'm not a member and have never shopped there. We were BJ's members many, many years ago, but the BJ's shops that were open a few years ago were purchase and cancel right away. The Sam's Club shops require you to keep the membership for a year--which sounds like a pretty good deal to me. And there's one 5 minutes from my house.

I have issues with the company that owns them and don't shop there, but if Sam's Club has good merchandise and good prices, I'm willing to give them a try. We have a big freezer in our house, so could use some bulk freezer foods, and we're always running out of paper goods! LOL.

Any feedback on their pricing and the quality of their goods? TIA.

The shop and the purchase return are both super short forms and insanely easy. If you’re even thinking about getting a Sam’s membership I would go ahead and do this because you get reimbursed for the full year. And you can do the purchase return with it and make $12 at the same time that portion only took me probably four minutes five minutes including walking to the other into the store finding what I was looking for and coming back out.

I love my plus membership. I completed a few membership inquiry shops in the recent past. The people & information persuaded me to re-join. If you have a method to offset the cost of getting to a club (I always need a way to offset an hour's drive or a longer drive in order that apparent cost savings are real), or qualify for free shipping, you might appreciate the ease of bulk and/or online purchases that are delivered to you. Sometimes, other companies offer shops, audits, and merchandising gigs in Sam's Club locations besides the current membership purchase and product return assignments. You already have space for bulk freezer foods. Do you have space for huge quantities of paper goods, too? If you order online, your items might come from stores other than the one closest to you.

Only downside is memberships can be found for like $10 elsewhere. Easy shop.

I did not do any of these shops but I have both a Costco Executive and a Sam's Plus membership. Costco prices are generally slightly higher unless you are buying something featured in Costco's coupon book. Although Costco and Sam's Club carry a lot of the same/similar items, the quality and selection of merchandise is better at Costco. For some things, the quality is about the same. For things like freshly baked items, Costco definitely has better quality than Sam's Club, albeit at higher prices.

The main reason I keep my Costco membership is I get over 90% of gas for my household's vehicles at Costco gas stations. There are also many Costcos in my area, where's there is only Sam's Club here. That Sam's Club does not have a gas station.

Customer service at Costcos here is usually far superior to Sam's Club.

One of the biggest benefits of the Sam's Plus membership is the free shipping.

Costco membership fees are higher and I suspect Costco will increase them $5 to $10 later this year.

The purchase/return shops are gone right now, so I can't tie one shop in with the other. But I'm assuming they'll be doing more of those in the future, so having a membership might pay off over a year. I often run errands around there, so going to the physical store is convenient for me.

Sometimes standing on principle (not shopping at WalMart) isn't the smartest thing to do!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/02/2022 05:47PM by BirdyC.

Be cautious about being enrolled in automatic membership renewal.

I've found the selection of merchandise at Sam's to be less than that offered at either Costco or BJ's. This might be a localized phenomenon.

I did the membership shop several weeks ago, and my first purchase/return one today. I had to wait in line for ten minutes; I suspect there would be a shorter line during the weekday.

I did the membership shop and it was straightforward. I did discretely record it to ensure I captured all the benefits the associate talked about.

As for the products, I find it is like any other store. There are some things I love and some I wouldn’t buy again. The negative being you have to buy a fairly large quantity and it’s a bummer if you end up not liking it.

I have always been a BJ's member. I was happy when they were shopped, so I did not renew my membership. I arranged the membership shop for the days when I needed to buy stuff. Now, no membership shops.

I tried Costco one year. I found the bulk food items too big for the needs of my family (food would go bad). The nonfood items I bought were defective.

I did the Sam's Club membership shop a few weeks back. They do not do auto renewal. I am looking forward to shopping there.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2022 03:46PM by HonnyBrown.

No BJs in my area. I was a Sam's Club member until 2010, when Costco opened just a few miles from my house. I would have to drive past it to get to Sam's. Two years ago I moved and now have to drive past Sam's to get to Costco :-)

However, I can't see switching my allegiance. Costco has some products I use on a daily basis that Sam's doesn't.

@HonnyBrown wrote:

I have always been a BJ's member. I was happy when they were shopped, so I did not renew my membership. I arranged the membership shop for the days when I needed to buy stuff. Now, no membership shops.

I tried Costco one year. I found they bulk food items to be too big for the needs of my family (food would go bad). The nonfood items I bought were defective.

I did the Sam's Club membership shop a few weeks back. They do not do auto renewal. I am looking forward to shopping there.

Thanks, all, for the feedback. I'm going to try to get this shop; if it weren't so close to me, I wouldn't bother, but I can't see passing it up!

I hadn't been to a Sam's in years, and I was pleased that this shop came up. I am enjoying my membership. Found some good deals.

I'm not a club person generally speaking, but I took the membership shop and got the annual fee reimbursed. I bought the version of TurboTax I need, and a bottle of multi-vitamins. Saved $25 on those alone, compared to other stores where I would buy those two items. I'll have to get familiar with the layout of the store because I can't find anything. That helps me get my steps in though, and it sure seems like I would be able to easily recoup the club membership if it were paid out of my pocket.

It depends on location. I find the west coast has more products that I would use than the east coast. There produce are in line and they sell an entire chicken for $5. It is similar to Costco and BJs, but with a lot less organic products but better looking apparel and kicks. There cake is actually better than both Costco and BJ's hands down. What company is offering a comp Sam's Club card? I just saw T-Mobile is offering a card for $15 for T-Mobile Tuesdays. You can't go wrong no matter what you decide. Enjoy!

There is only one Sam's Club near me, and it isn't really near me to pick up the shop. I do wish there was a Costco membership shop. I have done the BJs shops but, years mystery shopping, and I have never a Costco membership shop.

I snoozed, I lost.... Hopefully more of these will come along. Yesterday there were half a dozen in my area; today only the purchase/return shops. Oh, well....

There used to be a Sam's club 1 mile from my house (closed several years ago when Sam's consolidated operations and eliminated under-performing stores). I would go there even though I have quite a bit of COST stock (done really well over the years). My buddy would give me a hard time for shopping at the competitor of a company I have a sizeable investment in.

Many people have already addressed the differences. I would argue with my buddy that the quality of products is not much different. I would tell him Dole, Del Monte, Charmin, Samsung, Tide, Bounty, Tropicana, Coke etc did not make one set of products for Costco and one for Sams. But I do agree for the prepared foods, Costco is much better quality.

My main reason for shopping Sams over Costco (even though my sizeable investment in COST), was the convenience. There are 3 Costco within a 5 mile radius of me. However, they were always very busy. Even during mid-week daytime hours. Sams I found to be much less busy when compared to Costco. Of course Sams would be busy on the weekend, but their busy did not equate to Costco busy.

What I appreciate about Costco is the attitude off the employees. They are more friendly, more helpful and happier to serve you. The employees at Sams were glorified Walmart employees (same company) and they seemed miserable for the most part. There were friendly Sams employees, but the overall "feel" was much different.

If you have been to In N Out burger and then compare the employees there with other burger chains, you will understand what I mean. Both Costco and In N Out are more selective in their hiring process and expect more from their employees in terms of attitude and service.

Sam's no where near me. I was a BJ's member but quit that after a few years as the lines including customer service ones were long, slow and painful. I switched to COSTCO and love them. Quick moving lines, great customer service, greeters are polite and friendly, nice products, the carts are clean and in great condition. There are only certain things I will buy from these warehouse clubs. Highly doubt if the "savings" outweigh my membership payments.

Well, I spoke too soon. A few minutes after posting that all the membership shops were gone, I got the mass email from the MSC saying that had a zillion of them. Logged in and grabbed one for this week. Not sure exactly what to expect, but as long as I have to keep the membership for a year, it'll give me a good chance to see how their stuff and their service is.

I thought about doing one....but there is a deal by SAMS that basically gives you a free membership. So I can't justify doing "work" for the same free thing i can get already. If you google search sam's club membership, you will see you can get FREE membership. So I won't do a shop regardless of how easy when they are paying nothing. They could at least pay $10


[www.samsclub.com]

I did one today. Very easy.

Anybody with an American Express card probably has a cash back offer from them. I'm getting 25 back for purchasing my membership on the card in addition to having the membership reimbursed was part of the shop.

@foodluvr That's great to know. So get the membership ONLINE for net "free" after they give you the $45 GC in place of the membership fee and also get $25 from AMEX. That's the best way to do it. Forget doing a shop for new membership with NO fee. That is a waste of time when the membership is already free.

This link will get you a "net free" membership because they send you a $45 gift card. You can also google it if you don't want to follow the link

[www.samsclub.com]

The deal offers a gift card, so it's not exactly free.

My shop expenses go on my rewards credit card. No out of pocket expenses and no interest. The few zero fee shops that I do give me up to 5% cash back.

@hbbigdaddy wrote:

I thought about doing one....but there is a deal by SAMS that basically gives you a free membership. So I can't justify doing "work" for the same free thing i can get already. If you google search sam's club membership, you will see you can get FREE membership. So I won't do a shop regardless of how easy when they are paying nothing. They could at least pay $10


[www.samsclub.com]

I'm not sure how you don't consider it free. The $45 you spend on the membership is given back to you in the form of a $45 giftcard. I'm sure you will spend $45 at some point on toilet paper, canned foods, meats or something. So yes, you have to front the $45 and get a $45 GC in return, but it's "NET FREE" and you don't have to do a report regardless of how easy/short the report is.

I guess my point is....What benefit is doing the shop with NO pay to obtain a free membership, when you already can basically get the membership for free?

I got the membership, only to find out Sam's has a "$45.00 Gift card to spend at Sam's for this membership level. Was offered it to join the Plus membership. I'm going in to see if I upgrade if I can get the 45. PLUS would then cost me $10.00.

@hbbigdaddy wrote:

I guess my point is....What benefit is doing the shop with NO pay to obtain a free membership, when you already can basically get the membership for free?

I'm doing this so that I can do the purchase & return shops throughout the year. I return things I buy from time to time, and if I need to return something there, I might as well cover my time in going there and back, plus make a bit of a profit, should a shop coincide with my need to return something.

deal on slickdeals today. get the membership, plus $10 gc, chicken and cupcakes for only $20. i still see NO need to do a shop for a SAMS membership. if you want the membership...you can get it for "net free" without having to work for it. getting the FREE membership and you can still do the "return" shops out there that pay a fee.

[slickdeals.net]