- Which is better, Sam's Club or Costco.
Which membership program gives you more bang for your buck.
Where are the prices lowest?
Sam's Club or Costco.
I am here in the battle of Sam's Club versus Costco.
I'm The Deal Guy, Matt Granite,
welcome back to the channel.
I'm gonna do a complete price breakdown
between the two retailers.
I'm going to show you,
which is better in my opinion.
And I'm gonna have you guys weigh in via the comments.
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I've done full breakdowns of
insider clearance deals at Sam's Club,
Target, Walmart, Costco, Best Buy, Amazon.
What to buy, what not to buy
I'm here to help you.
Before we get to the complete comparison,
I wanna remind you guys on Matsdailydeals.com.
You will find your best daily deals,
that include crazy pillow price drops
from 99 bucks down to 25.
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If you shop frequently at Sam's Club or Costco,
you're gonna find there are some fundamental differences
between both stores.
I wanna start with the membership fees.
And the battle of where do you get
the most bang for your buck.
As a whole, Sam's Club is going to be the winner
on membership fees and I'm gonna show you why.
But don't worry for all the Costco aficionado.
There are plenty of reasons why your membership
actually works to your advantage.
A regular membership, $45 at Sam's Club
and a $100 for their deluxe special VIP membership.
At Costco, same type of programming,
except it's 60 versus 120.
In addition to the membership fees being higher at Costco,
I think we can agree that Sam's Club actually treats
its Sam's plus members better,
by giving you a great way to shop early
before any of the crowds.
In some locations, this is three or two hours
before anyone else in the general public
for a $100 per year commitment.
I have found that both retailers are actually willing to
give you a discount on your membership fees
or wipe them out
if for any reason you don't breakeven in your savings
over the course of a year.
That's one thing to keep in mind.
So well Sam's Club might treat its members better,
Costco treats its employees better.
And I wanna make sure I have the most recent numbers,
but this is a thing.
Costco staff are paid 23% more,
for the front of house staff
membership services and cashiers.
And the stock staff are paid 33% more
at Costco versus Sam's club.
So if you wanna be in support of a merchant that
treats its employees better,
I think there's no doubt about it.
Costco would be the win to go on that.
In battle point number two,
the question is which retailer has more selection.
And if you actually look at the skews
and you run through them
and you have no life and no friends like I do,
and you just sit in front of your computer all day.
You will find that that Sam's Club
actually offers more products,
a much wider selection available at Sam's Club.
So Sam's Club wins in terms of selection.
In my opinion, Costco wins in terms of quality.
And I think that might be some of what Costco's motto is.
They have a very large focus
on their Kirkland Signature brand.
And there's no doubt in my mind
that whether you're buying bathroom tissue,
cashews, olive oil, whatever it is,
the Kirkland Signature brand is just out of this world
in my opinion, on most products.
The in house brand at Sam's Club is called Member's Mark.
And it just doesn't have the same
level of quality associated with it.
Although the deals are great.
That is the big difference between the Sam's Club
and Costco in house brands in terms of selection.
With that being said in the comparison of big name brands,
because Costco is very focused on its own in house line.
When it comes to Kleenex or Tide,
you are almost always going to do better
at Sam's Club versus Costco.
And I am going to do a full store wide comparison,
with the help of a website in a few moments.
Where I'll show you overall,
which store is cheaper on everything.
But Sam's Club and Costco for an identical product,
Sam's Club is $35.49 cents
just on this Tide as an example.
Same product, 29.98 at Sam's Club.
There is no difference between these two products,
same skew, same everything, 29.98 versus 35.49.
Now what about the savings you get outside of the store,
in terms of their credit card programs.
In the case of Sam's Club versus Costco,
I'm thinking that it might be a tie.
Although I'll let you guys weigh in.
The Costco visa gives you the added benefit of 2% back
in terms of cash from all purchases
on Costco and costco.com.
The Sam's Club credit card is 1%,
but you get 5% cashback
on the Sam's Club credit card, Costco offers 4%.
So depending on whether or not you do the majority
of your spending on gas or on Costco or Sam's Club,
you're going to find that it might be a washout
between both credit cards.
So I'm gonna call number four a tie.
For the number five difference
between Costco and Sam's Club,
the big question is poultry meat, groceries.
And I don't think there's anyone that will argue with me,
the grocery selection as a whole in the meat quality
is much better at Costco.
Now we have to keep in mind that
Sam's Club's parent company is Walmart.
And by the way, both Costco and Sam's Club
were established the same year,
they have the same business model,
they have almost the same number of locations.
So there's a great deal of similarities
between both of these giant warehouse retailers.
But I think with the produce quality, we see it.
Walmart on many of its meat and grocery products,
it might not be surprising to you that
I don't think Sam's Club can compete with Costco on this.
But with that being said,
if you look at some of the advertisements
on a Costco wholesale website,
like a Wagyu locker pack for $2,000.
You would never see that advertised
on a Sam's Club website.
With that being said,
the meat prices are actually comparable.
If you wanna go really high-end,
you're gonna do better at Costco.
If you are just ready to buy up
every piece of ground meat insight,
Member's Mark will bring more savings.
I think the answer is the higher end groceries
are better at Costco and the lower end products
are probably a little bit better at Sam's Club.
And if you actually look just terms of
how both websites are advertised.
I'm getting a Member's Mark beef smoked sausage
advertised to me on one site and
look at the Chicago Ag USDA on the other, right.
It's a bit of a different clientele.
With that being said,
are members doing better as a whole
at Sam's Club versus Costco,
that would bring me to point number six.
Costco doesn't offer any other retail model
other than that, you need a membership feature shop
in its location if you want access
to most of its products.
Sam's Club, well, they have Walmart.
And you will find that many of the bulk offerings
are identical at both Walmart and Sam's Club.
And there are reasons to avoid Walmart if you can I'm sure.
But I just wanna mention to you guys that
with the in house brands at both retailers,
there might not always be a reason
to justify going to Sam's Club.
A lot of people with Costco memberships
feel they are compelled to go there because, well
there's this whole philosophy that like,
since you have the membership, you need to use it.
So it'll pay for itself.
So, Costco shoppers might have a little bit more enthusiasm
tied to their shopping sprees.
And the Sam's Club crowd might also frequent a Walmart.
So I'm just letting you guys know that
there's a uniqueness tied to Costco
that you don't see at Sam's Club.
With that being said,
the larger scale purchases from major brands
are actually more aggressive at Sam's Club.
So if you look at appliances,
a lot of people believe that the brands
are higher end at Costco, and that's actually not true.
Most of the retailers carry identical brands and offerings,
LG, Samsung, you're gonna find both.
But on a recent 4th of July sale,
you'll find the savings were actually better
on the higher end brands.
Like really the ones you see on your screen right now,
Whirlpool, Maytag, and some of the lower end
of the kitchenAid products
were pushed more feverishly on Costco.
And actually if you went to this old 4th of July sale
which I've screen grab, you're going to find
that many of the promotions are tied to Whirlpool.
Like I'm not even entering this as my search result.
And this is what's being pulled up at Costco.
Now Whirlpool is a great line,
but I think some of you might argue that the
Samsung and LG products are maybe a little bit better.
Just throwing that out there as a price comparison.
But I actually wanna move on to
the big pricing difference number seven,
which is a full breakdown of where prices are cheaper.
And that's the big thing everyone wants to know.
So with the help of Cheapism,
I have a full breakdown of all of the products
the average household would buy.
And I wanna mention to you guys,
not only is this important,
but Cheapism is a great resource.
They've featured me in the past,
I'm so appreciative of the fact that they exist.
And with all of the breakdowns between
American cheese and applesauce and baby formula,
where you can see that at Costco.
The prices slightly higher on some products.
And on Sam's Club it's the same thing,
higher or lower depending on the product.
The Cheapism study looked at the products available,
the brand names, and then using the in house alternative
from both retailers as frequently as possible.
And this is what was derived from the data.
Of 30 products that were surveyed,
Costco's prices were better than Sam's Club
on only nine products.
So out of 30 average household products,
Costco had an advantage on only nine of them
with an average money savings of more than 11%.
So what do we take from all of this?
Well, if you're buying the big brands
like that proceeding Tide example I showed you,
you're going to do better at Sam's Club.
And if you are enamored with the Kirkland brand
or you love that quality that they offer,
you are going to do better at Costco.
Assuming you shop primarily from their in house brand.
Now, when it comes to order fulfillment,
curbside pickup, I found that Sam's Club
is actually faster by a day.
I'm not sure if having all of the Walmart warehouse training
or whatever goes on on the Walmart side of the business,
has in any way impacted the Sam's Club side of the business.
But Sam's Club a little bit faster
in terms of delivery and fulfillment versus Costco.
Now when you take all of these factors into account,
members have the advantage of shopping early at Sam's Club,
membership fees are lower at Sam's Club.
Costco treats its employees better.
Maybe the Costco employees are happier.
I haven't found any proof of either
seem more dependent upon the location
and the community where you were going.
But if you wanna support a store where the employees
are treated better, Costco wins.
The credit cards are a bit of a wash out,
the Kirkland Signature brand in my opinion,
better than the in house brand at Sam's Club.
I think that Costco has an edge.
I think that Costco is better.
I think that's assuming that you want
the most bang for your buck.
And once you get past those membership fees,
what Costco offers you once you get inside their door.
Especially on the Kirkland products,
which is one of the main reasons to shop at Costco.
In my opinion, you are getting
a lot more bang for your buck.
But there are people that are Sam's Club lovers
and diehard Sam's Club shoppers.
And I'm sure you're going to tell me
how wrong I am and I look forward to reading your comments.
So I wanna hear from you guys,
are you a Sam's Club member or are you a Costco member?
Have you ever considered going
across the pond and switching places?
And do you think one is significantly better than the other?
I've shopped frequently at both,
I have both membership programs
and various sides of my family,
where there'll be a whole war at the dinner table
over who is better and why.
But I think dollar for dollar,
at least in the price comparison,
Costco might have a slight advantage
depending on where you spend your money.
So leave me a comment.
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And I wanna thank you guys so much for watching.
I love you, bye bye.