Costco or Sam's Club?

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dandruff

Golden Member
Jan 28, 2000
1,406
6
81
Have both.
Costco for everything except:
Quick Carwashes / Commercial Cleaning Stuff / Use samsclub.com to get stuff not in the store (90% business)
 

ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,689
2,811
126
costco > sams club except in 2 very important ways:

1. sams has self checkout without a huge conveyor next to it, so it's pretty much always people with just a couple-few items. costco doesn't have any self checkouts or fast lanes so you have to get in line with people with full carts when you just have a rotisserie chicken

2. sams club food court has coke machines with lots of flavors and plain iced tea. costco, despite having 16 fountains, only has 5 nasty flavors of pepsi products available. complete bullshit.

2.1. some of the sams club food courts around here make jalapeno and pepperoni pizza, which is the best kind of pizza. never seen that in costco.

otherwise, costco has better meat (prime available all the time now, and the lamb racks are fantastic) and the kirkland signature stuff is pretty much tops.

1) Costco has self checkout. The ones in Atlanta do at least. Don't know about Texas.
2) Switch to Pepsi at food court does suck.
3) Sam's Club whole pizza at food court is cheaper but smaller. Whole is 18" at Costco. It's 16" at Sam's. But pizza is $1 cheaper at Sam's so it's a wash. Jalapeno and pepperoni pizza does rock. So point to Sam's. But Costco has food items not available at Sam's and I rather have food from Costco food court. I don't trust Sam's employees when it comes to food safety.
 
Feb 25, 2011
16,823
1,493
126
1) Costco has self checkout. The ones in Atlanta do at least. Don't know about Texas.
2) Switch to Pepsi at food court does suck.
3) Sam's Club whole pizza at food court is cheaper but smaller. Whole is 18" at Costco. It's 16" at Sam's. But pizza is $1 cheaper at Sam's so it's a wash. Jalapeno and pepperoni pizza does rock. So point to Sam's. But Costco has food items not available at Sam's and I rather have food from Costco food court. I don't trust Sam's employees when it comes to food safety.
Out Costco got rid of the self-checkouts. Apparently they were actually more labor-intensive for Costco, and took people longer on average to check out.

Because people suck at self-checkouts and constantly either need help, or need to go to the customer service desk to fix what they did wrong.
 

ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,689
2,811
126
Have both.
Costco for everything except:
Quick Carwashes / Commercial Cleaning Stuff / Use samsclub.com to get stuff not in the store (90% business)

Spot on. Sam's is better if you're small business owner.
 

ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,689
2,811
126
Used to buy the boneless lamb at Costco all the time for work. Couldn't find a better deal anywhere. And olive oil. And rags.

I guess you guys didn't do any cleaning. Sam's Club carry industrial cleaners. Costco only carry consumer home grade cleaners. You can't use home stuff for industrial use. And again operating hours. Sam's open at 7am for business members. Costco can't compete with that.
 

Ns1

No Lifer
Jun 17, 2001
55,414
1,574
126
I guess you guys didn't do any cleaning. Sam's Club carry industrial cleaners. Costco only carry consumer home grade cleaners. You can't use home stuff for industrial use. And again operating hours. Sam's open at 7am for business members. Costco can't compete with that.

My friend, you need to find a costco business center which is actually geared towards businesses (and opens at 7am)
 

MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
21,969
20,227
136
I guess you guys didn't do any cleaning. Sam's Club carry industrial cleaners. Costco only carry consumer home grade cleaners. You can't use home stuff for industrial use. And again operating hours. Sam's open at 7am for business members. Costco can't compete with that.

We had a food truck to clean. Regular cleaners were just fine, except for the hood over the grill and fryer, then we used industrial strength oven cleaner.
 

ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,689
2,811
126
My friend, you need to find a costco business center which is actually geared towards businesses (and opens at 7am)

There's only one in Atlanta and it's in Southside. I don't want to drive an hour south to die. Plus I checked out their cleaning section. It's still home grade stuff and not commercial.

Every Sam's Club opens at 7am for business members. Like I said, Costco can't compete with Sam's Club for small business. My small business friends all use Sam's Club more than Costco for business.
 

ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,689
2,811
126
We had a food truck to clean. Regular cleaners were just fine, except for the hood over the grill and fryer, then we used industrial strength oven cleaner.

Which is available at Sam's Club. Comes in 3 small spray bottles and works great.
 

Ns1

No Lifer
Jun 17, 2001
55,414
1,574
126
Every Sam's Club opens at 7am for business members. Like I said, Costco can't compete with Sam's Club for small business. My small business friends all use Sam's Club more than Costco for business.

guess that depends on the friends you roll with, all mine swear fealty to costco.
 

ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,689
2,811
126
guess that depends on the friends you roll with, all mine swear fealty to costco.

Very true. My current business doesn't need Costco or Sam's Club. Which is why I dropped Sam's Club membership. For home use, my wife and I prefer Costco.
 

CA19100

Senior member
Jun 29, 2012
634
13
76
The quality of product (particularly the fresh fruits and meats) is dramatically better at Costco. You can get items cheaper at Sams, but they're generally of correspondingly lower quality. The Costco checkout process also isn't an endless waiting game like it is at Sam's. There are lines, but they're rarely more than a couple of people deep, and they move fast.

Costco is a better value by a long shot.
 

96Firebird

Diamond Member
Nov 8, 2010
5,712
316
126
Does Costco carry cherry tomatoes? They seem to be seasonal at Sam's Club, which I hate.

I use Sam's Club for gas though, and the checkout lines don't bother me because I use the app to checkout myself.

Maybe I'll switch to Costco when my membership expires...
 

ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,689
2,811
126
I saw it too at Costco and I thought it was toilet steps for small kids and manlets. I didn't know it was for regular adults.
 

momeNt

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2011
9,297
352
126
Out Costco got rid of the self-checkouts. Apparently they were actually more labor-intensive for Costco, and took people longer on average to check out.

Because people suck at self-checkouts and constantly either need help, or need to go to the customer service desk to fix what they did wrong.

Most of that could be solved by two things. No alcohol out of self-checkout. And if you look OVER a certain age, you are not allowed to use self-checkout.
 

Chaotic42

Lifer
Jun 15, 2001
33,929
1,098
126
Does Costco carry cherry tomatoes? They seem to be seasonal at Sam's Club, which I hate.

I use Sam's Club for gas though, and the checkout lines don't bother me because I use the app to checkout myself.

Maybe I'll switch to Costco when my membership expires...

The Sams Club here only has 91 octane
 

John Connor

Lifer
Nov 30, 2012
22,840
617
121
Well obviously Costco. Make sure you also buy a rice cooker from Amazon Prime. What? No Prime (Crime)? You a cave man or something?

 
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