Sam's Club Membership Shops

@hbbigdaddy wrote:

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.

I see your point about being able to do return shops even if you don't do the membership shop. But I'm not sure how the deal above is "net free." It's $20, and you get a $10 gift card. I wouldn't want the chicken or the cupcakes, so they hold no value to me (I mean, I wouldn't refuse them, but I wouldn't consider them a credit against the membership fee.) I'd consider this a net $10 membership fee.

In any event, I have to go to the WalMart right next door for another matter, so I'm not going out of my way to do this shop, and I wouldn't pay for a membership to Sam's Club if this shop hadn't come up. It just wouldn't have been that important to me. Will it cost me more than $10 of my time? Probably. But I figure it's a good way to see if they have stuff I like and stock up on some supplies I'd have to buy anyway.

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

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Birdy, the original link was for a $45 gift card when you buy the $45 membership. I got a $10 gift card from customer service when I downloaded the app. The chicken and cupcakes are different perks.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

@HonnyBrown wrote:

Birdy, the original link was for a $45 gift card when you buy the $45 membership. I got a $10 gift card from customer service when I downloaded the app. The chicken and cupcakes are different perks.

Now that offer *is* free. The other one really isn't, imo....

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

I posted 2 different offers seen. First one was $45 GC (return of your cost of membership). This was another offer. Either way, my point is...don't do work for something that is basically free. I'm sure your time is more valuable than to spend it filling out a report for the MSC when it's unnecessary and you gain nothing from doing so.

@hbbigdaddy wrote:

I posted 2 different offers seen. First one was $45 GC (return of your cost of membership). This was another offer. Either way, my point is...don't do work for something that is basically free. I'm sure your time is more valuable than to spend it filling out a report for the MSC when it's unnecessary and you gain nothing from doing so.

The $45 gift card offer with membership is available in-club as well. I got the offer in my ValPak mailing recently, plus their website has a way to email yourself a code that you could give them when signing up in-club. When you redeem it in person, there is nothing on the receipt which says that you got it, and the shop terms do not say that you cannot use any offers when signing up. You have to sign up for auto-renew to get the gift card, but you can easily turn it off after you receive it.

So do the shop, get reimbursed for the membership, get the $45 gift card, and get $25 from AMEX if you have that offer. That made it worthwhile for me to go out of my way to do the shop.

Here's the link to get the $45 gift card offer emailed to you.

[joinnow.samsclub.com]

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2022 05:06PM by MisterBill.

Now that is MAXIMIZING the shop. Getting the $45 GC and also getting reimbursed by the MSC so you are now making money. I fear most have just done the work for free (no pay) and did not take advantage like you did.

I'm almost motivated to do one now that I can see a way to make $ doing it.

Also, the $45 gift card be used at either Walmart or Sam's Club.

Oh, and you can join as a new member if you are a household member on another membership. I have a card through my friend's membership and was still able to join as a new member.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2022 10:08PM by MisterBill.

No luck in getting the $45 gift card to upgrade to PLUS membership.

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.
Richard Feynman-- letter to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track (2005) p. 230

I always have my phone recording a video as I do shops these days. I make sure that there’s no way that it can be seen and it helps me to wait or go back and review the audios for things I might miss otherwise.

How did you manage to get a membership through your friend?

@MisterBill wrote:

Also, the $45 gift card be used at either Walmart or Sam's Club.

Oh, and you can join as a new member if you are a household member on another membership. I have a card through my friend's membership and was still able to join as a new member.

It's the same membership with an additional card for a household member. BJ's and Costco do the same thing.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

There are a boatload of Membership shops in my area, but the purchase and return ones are few and far between. I hope more of them show up.

Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product. Eleanor Roosevelt

If you just compare apple to apple I can say that variety of products in 1) Costco, 2) BJ's and 3) Sams goes the same way I positioned them. But getting one year free membership that is a very good deal. I had Costco year prior pandemic and switched to BJ's for $25 per year and now got free Sam's. So from $60 per year I got $25 and now $0. Costco do not deliver items to your car as BJ's and Sams are doing.

Shopping Eastern Pennsylvania since 2009

@ honnyBrown @ MrBill Yes, I know. We have to show ID with the same address in order to become a "household" member. So how did you manage that Mr.Bill?

@HonnyBrown wrote:

It's the same membership with an additional card for a household member. BJ's and Costco do the same thing.

Your friend gets the additional card and gives it to you.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

I'm starting to wonder if the main purpose of these shops is to get new members. The job board is filled with 'signing up for a card' shops, but very few 'purchase and return' ones.

Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product. Eleanor Roosevelt

@KathyG wrote:

I'm starting to wonder if the main purpose of these shops is to get new members. The job board is filled with 'signing up for a card' shops, but very few 'purchase and return' ones.

Been sitting on going through with these shops. One day I am like yeah I will do it tomorrow.... Then I just seem to forget. Just not sure how useful it will be.

I have to drive past Sam's to get to Costco, and they carry many of the same items. Today Sam's got my money for my purchase of spinach, mushrooms, and rotisserie chicken.

@jrj76 wrote:

@KathyG wrote:

I'm starting to wonder if the main purpose of these shops is to get new members. The job board is filled with 'signing up for a card' shops, but very few 'purchase and return' ones.

Been sitting on going through with these shops. One day I am like yeah I will do it tomorrow.... Then I just seem to forget. Just not sure how useful it will be.

Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product. Eleanor Roosevelt

@KathyG wrote:

I'm starting to wonder if the main purpose of these shops is to get new members. The job board is filled with 'signing up for a card' shops, but very few 'purchase and return' ones.

Well, you can only do a membership purchase shop once and some people were already members. And now that they have more shoppers who are members, there are more who can do the purchase/return shops.

@hbbigdaddy wrote:

Now that is MAXIMIZING the shop. Getting the $45 GC and also getting reimbursed by the MSC so you are now making money. I fear most have just done the work for free (no pay) and did not take advantage like you did.

I'm almost motivated to do one now that I can see a way to make $ doing it.

So, did you take a shop? Did anyone else do it with the $45 gift card code and AMEX deal? I got the $25 back from them, and just got paid for the shop. No gift card yet, hopefully in the next couple of weeks.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/2022 03:18AM by MisterBill.

With the online offer of a $45 gift card, membership is like free anyways.

I think your thinking is spot on.

quote=KathyG]
I'm starting to wonder if the main purpose of these shops is to get new members. The job board is filled with 'signing up for a card' shops, but very few 'purchase and return' ones.[/quote]

Please be careful. I don't know about BJ's (there aren't any in my area) but Sam's Club and Costco are very different in terms of the additional (free) card. Your Sam's Club "household" member has access to your annual rewards. I set up a friend as my Sam's Club "household" member and a Sam's Club cashier talked him into renewing "our" membership for another year and used "our" annual rewards to pay for half of it. It turned out to be OK because my friend paid the other half.

Your Costco's additional card person does not have access to your annual rewards.

@HonnyBrown wrote:

It's the same membership with an additional card for a household member. BJ's and Costco do the same thing.

It would not be the first time companies have used MSing to get business..

@KathyG wrote:

I'm starting to wonder if the main purpose of these shops is to get new members. The job board is filled with 'signing up for a card' shops, but very few 'purchase and return' ones.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

I have set up different people to be my "household" person before I found out whoever that person is will have access to my annual rewards. I did not have to get the card for them. All I had to do was to go to the membership desk and tell them that person's name and email address/phone number. I did not have to provide a physical address.
Then, my "household" person visited Sam's Club, provided their name and information, and got their card.

I have done this for three people. (Whenever one person decides he/she doesn't really like/need Sam's Club, I terminate their household status and set up someone else as my new household person.)

@Madetoshop wrote:

@ honnyBrown @ MrBill Yes, I know. We have to show ID with the same address in order to become a "household" member. So how did you manage that Mr.Bill?

@HonnyBrown wrote:

It's the same membership with an additional card for a household member. BJ's and Costco do the same thing.

Just FYI… If you use your Venmo debit card to do the membership shop, you’ll get $35 cash back on top of being reimbursed. (I only found this out after I did it & hope y’all can use this!)

OK, I thought I would give this up but, Costco memberships require ID. If my friend set me up as her "household member", I would not be able to activate the membership due to having to show ID. I don't live with her/him and my ID doesn't reflect their address, it reflects MINE which is different, thus, no membership as their household member. I recall it was the same for BJ's. Don't know about Sam's. So how do you all do this?

A friend set me up with her Costco card. I showed my ID, had my picture taken and got my card. Unless things have changed, there was no problem with me not being a household member.

@iagal wrote:

A friend set me up with her Costco card. I showed my ID, had my picture taken and got my card. Unless things have changed, there was no problem with me not being a household member.

Yeah, I don't think they really enforce that. Household is a loose term. And you could be living with them and not have changed the address on your driver's license.

@whosear wrote:

With the online offer of a $45 gift card, membership is like free anyways.

And when you do it on a mystery shop that reimburses for said membership, it's $45 back in your pocket. And if you use AMEX or Venmo, it's another $25-35 back on top of that.

BTW, I received my $45 gift card today.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/2022 12:42AM by MisterBill.

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