Warehouse clubs: What does the hive think?

Since teacher lunches apparently suck this year, I've been doing weekly meal prep for my wife so she has something a little nicer than the pizza on cardboard that Flagler County is pushing on staff this year. And every week when I'm cooking she always lets me know she "likes the steak ones better than the chicken ones."

Uhh, no E36 M3 honey. There's a reason those lunches also cost about three times what the chicken ones do.

Anyway, all of this buying and preparing in bulk has got me thinking about joining Sam's Club. It *looks* like the math is very favorable, and that the $100/yr membership would pay for itself in chicken and (especially) beef savings, but it's been a long time since I've been a member of a warehouse club and when I was it was like a $20 investment so before I plunk down a hundo I wanted to see if anyone had thoughts.

Our Sam's is one exit away—although it's an exit I avoid like the plague since it's a total zoo, but, you know, cheap meat... And to really see the savings on beef particularly I'd have to start cutting my own steaks, but the upside is that does give me an excuse to buy a breaking knife.

We also have a Costco going in two exits away, but it's a location I'm even less excited to visit. And at any rate, they just broke ground, so if we did Sam's now when it comes to renewal time the Costco will probably be just opening and I can make the move then if I want to.

Anyway, what does the hive think of warehouse clubs? Or do I just need to start serving her ducks?

We have a membership to the BJs wholesale club that's 5 mins from our house. We didn't think we would go that often but after we got the $20 initial membership we have kept up with it for another year. For what we buy there the membership is worth it for us. 
although if we had to go more than 5 minutes away to the Sam's club at your exit JG I don't think I would be as enthusiastic about it. 

I'm a big fan of Sam's Club and their meat, which is strange because I won't step foot in a Wal-Mart. 

Not having a local Costco kinda seals that deal. 

Ribs, brisket, primal cuts, even their prepared foods are good. If you get there the right time you can also get super cheap rotisserie chicken already quartered which makes things super easy for lunches or lazy dinners. 

I've recently learned not all Sams are created equal. There are 3 near me, each about 20 miles from home. The one we always went to is very basic, but we found one with a full on sushi station, and the third has a full on butcher shop which is amazing. 

Their store brand paper towels are better and cheaper than bounty, their laundry soap is as good as tide but cheaper, both of our TVs have come from there, we get pillows there every quarter, the bakery does really good work too for party buns and cupcakes. 

Don't forget to factor in any potential savings on gas. We see about 15 to 20 cents a gallon cheaper.

The "premium" membership (Sam's) can save a lot on prescriptions, too.

We save enough to pay for the membership without even needing to factor in the savings on food.

I have a Costco membership.  Mom and Dad have a Sam's, but they're likely switching to Costco despite it being 10 miles further away.  They went with me one day to Costco and said it was much better.  What does that actually mean?  I don't know.  Never been to a Sam's club.

Costco is a little cheaper and they basically refund your membership with a gift card.  Mom and Dad said that doesn't happen at Sam's, but I can't confirm.

I'm single and living alone so I have to be careful in the food department.  I'll buy bulk meats there to freeze and other things like nuts, cereal, or shampoo... things that don't go bad, but the honest truth is that you can't buy most things there in normal quantities.  If you want shampoo, it's a shrink-wrapped pack of three of the big bottles. Rice comes in a 25-lb burlap bag. I was all excited about some olives that they were letting you taste one day, and they ended up being a box with two, half-gallon jars in it.  What the heck is a single guy going to do with a gallon of olives?  Come to think of it, what would a family of 10 do with a gallon of olives?

Where they really shine is in the other stuff - tires, tech stuff, mattresses, generators, eyeglasses, pharmacy,  They're also great for stocking up for a party when you need a bushel of potato chips or a 5-gallon bucket of spinach dip.  (I'm exaggerating, but you can expect most food items to be a minimum of twice the quantity you expect at a regular grocery store)

Pro tip:  Get the executive membership.  It's $120 instead of $60, but they refund the extra $60 back as a gift card.  It also gets you other perks, like no-question refunds.  I had a pop up canopy that I left outside all winter to store a motorcycle and it collapsed under snow and ice.  Took it back like 3 months later and they just refunded.  The website for Costco is a bit clumsy, but they have way more stuff online.  In-store is not quite the mecca you might expect.  They have a truckload of clothes in a huge section, but it's deceiving.  It's a 12' x 8' table of 3000 of the same shirt in two colors.  The website has everything at your fingertips and fast shipping.

Edit to add... Some of their pre-prepped meals are really wonderful.  They come in microwave trays and they're designed for four servings.  I'll take some of those to work and nosh on them for a few days.  Beef tips in gravy, BBQ meatballs, and my favorite is this strange slop with polenta.  Super yum.  I keep big boxes of pho and ramen at work.  They're not the cheapy styrofoam cup ones, they're actually really yummy.  Pour some hot water from the water cooler in it and 3 minutes later I have really yummy noodles.  I just had miso and kimchee rice noodles today.  Even came with a little packet of sesame oil.  A case of 24 was $11.

One thing I noticed was that spices are pretty cheap there and I've been really iimpressed with the flavor.  I get big jugs of certain spices so I can make jars of my brisket rub for gifts.  (by the way, I just checked and Briskets were $3.99/lb yesterday.)

matthewmcl said:

Don't forget to factor in any potential savings on gas. We see about 15 to 20 cents a gallon cheaper.

Yeah I literally just did my math on beef and chicken and it worked out really favorably over what I'm paying now at (mostly) WalMart. If I shopped sales at other stores I could come closer, but those are hard to rely on and honestly I'm not sure I want to add that hassle to my life.

And if we actually nut up and go get gas there it makes the whole thing totally financially favorable, although like I said I'm no fan of that exit. But maybe groceries always get picked up in whatever vehicle has the least gas at any particular moment.

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

It's a 12' x 8' table of 3000 of the same shirt in two colors.  

You're basically describing my closet here, so this is going in the Plus column.

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

When I go to my local Costco, and I treat Sama the same way, it's about an hour before closing on a Monday or Tuesday night. 7pm seems to be the sweet spot for no crowds, no lines, and easy in and out. Sometimes they'll be low on baked goods, you'll need to figure out your stores restock timings. Avoid it like the plague on weekends

Coscto member since 2004, and you can have my card when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. Seriously, it's great. High quality, good prices, excellent customer service. They extend the factory warranty on major consumer items like TVs. Their Kirkland brand stuff is as good as, and often better than name brands. They carry stuff that my local grocery stores don't. You can return damn near anything. They have the cheapest gas in town by a significant margin. Their cash back more than pays for the cost of the membership. They even take pretty good care of their employees. I realize I sound like a cult member here, but I suppose I am. 

TheTallOne17 said:

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

Avoid it like the plague on weekends

Ugh. yeah. that's absolutely the story around here.

The Daytona area has a bad case of mid-size-city-itis, where we're a large enough metro area to pretty much have everything, but not a large enough area to have more than one of most things. As a result the crowds around the major shopping areas with high-volume specialty stores tend to be apocalyptic, particularly on the weekends.

Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) said:

 They even take pretty good care of their employees. 

And that's a huge check in Costco's column for me. We don't have a ton of "ethical" options here, and many of the ones we do are simply above our means to habitually support. So when we have the chance to support a large company that actually doesn't seem to be run by lunatics it's nice to have that option.

So, yeah, maybe if we pull the trigger on Sam's we bail for Costco when they open in a year and we're up for renewal. 

We have both, each has a strong point.  Costco is cheap to join, they give a cash card that basically pays for the membership.  Prescription glasses are a great deal, and they have some things BJs doesn't offer.  Bjs tends to have better deals if you shop the weekly sales and the gas discounts for buying some stuff can add up.  BJs also give an additional discount if you get gas with their credit card.

We have found the gas is a real deal when travelling with the RV.  And now walmart doesn't allow overnight parking some of the warehouse stores are pretty cool about it.  And don't forget the hot dog and soda for a buck fifty at costco.  Talk about a cheap meal!

Living in Costco's home town, we don't have any other warehouse clubs around.

Note that Costco doesn't just refund your extra $60 for the 'executive' membership. They give you 2% back. So if you spend less than $3k/yr there, you get less than the $60 premium back and it's not worth it. If you spend more than $3k/yr the upgrade at least pays for itself. If you spend more than $6k/yr, as we generally seem to, it pays for the entire membership... And that's on top of the great prices and cheaper gas. We have the Costco Visa as well, which adds even more back.

We used to have a BJ's membership from back when Costco didn't take credit cards.  Our local BJ's did not have gas or tires, so we never bought those.

We kept it up when the kids (2) were around, but we let it lapse at least 5 years ago and do not miss it.

I can't speak to any of the other clubs, but with BJ's:

• You really had to pay attention to prices - they were probably cheaper than the grocery store, but maybe not, either.  You could not just assume you were saving money,  particularly with meats.
   
• Some of their house brand stuff was excellent, and some was well below par.  That really happened on an item-by-item basis.  You just had to try each product, and if you didn't like it, there was a lot left over.
   
• Somewhat limited name brand selections, but much better than, say, Aldi.
   
• It took me a while to convince DW that if something was 2/3 the cost of retail, but you ended up throwing 1/3 of it away, it was not really a bargain - PLUS you had to store a giant box of it the whole time it was aging out.  She did come to agree with me on this.
   
• 48 mega rolls of Charmin 2-ply might be very reasonably priced, but take up an ungodly amount of space.  And you can't buy it in smaller than "emergency airlift" quantities.
   
• It's almost completely impossible to buy fresh produce in small enough quantities to be reasonably eaten, so you'll throw a lot away.

With just 2 of us, it really didn't make enough sense to keep our membership.

Costco. The gas savings makes up the price of the membership. I buy 90% of my clothes from there. I like there stuff, generally. 

Be aware that things aren't always cheaper. Sam's (and therefore Walmart) have never, ever been reasonable on sodaop. The local grocery store has big cases for $2 less.

JG Pasterjak said:

But maybe groceries always get picked up in whatever vehicle has the least gas at any particular moment.

If you're shopping warehouse clubs, groceries are going to get picked up in whatever vehicle has the largest cargo bay.  Period.

Big family, yes.

Little family, no.

Besides, once in the store you will buy large quantities of stuff you don't need.

Another Costco cult member. If yu have the space to store the merchandise, you'll end up saving a fair amount of money. We don't go there as often as we used to when we lived somewhere where the Costco was in town, but we still stock up on a lot of bulk items every 4-8 weeks.

Plus it's my go-to place for "normal vehicle" tires.

I just remembered Sam's has genetic Claritin D. Its half the price of  the same thing a Walmart. And Walmarts is more than half of the name brand. My membership is paid back in less than 2 months on this deal alone.

Driven5 said:

Living in Costco's home town, we don't have any other warehouse clubs around.

Note that Costco doesn't just refund your extra $60 for the 'executive' membership. They give you 2% back. So if you spend less than $3k/yr there, you get less than the $60 premium back and it's not worth it. If you spend more than $3k/yr the upgrade at least pays for itself. If you spend more than $6k/yr, as we generally seem to, it pays for the entire membership... And that's on top of the great prices and cheaper gas. We have the Costco Visa as well, which adds even more back.

This hasn't been the case for me.  Right in my paperwork, one of the perks is that if you don't save $60 worth, they refund the difference.  Now, of course, it's on their honor, but they track the costs of the same items sold elsewhere, but two of the years I've been a member, I got a gift certificate for a small amount with an explanation of how I didn't save enough.  First year it was $22 and change if I recall correctly.  This year was about $10.

Also of note, our Costco gas isn't much of a savings.  Pre-pandemic it was 15 cents cheaper, but right now it's pretty much on par with other stations.

I refuse to patronize Sam Walton's line of shops in any way, shape, or form- so Sam's is out. I've never been in a BJ's- can't comment there. Been a costco member for a number of years now. 

Other than the absolute mass insanity that is Costco in central Florida- I quite enjoy Costco. I have the additional benefit of having a bonus costco not too far away that carries business only supplies- it cuts down on the retail aspect of it. No samples, no clothes, no bullE36 M3. It also works extremely well with my current path- I eat mostly the same food every day as a way to watch my diet- Costco makes that cost effective. 

I've been a member of all three at one time or another.  My first Costco experience dates back to when they were called "Price Club," so it's been a while.  In general, I'm a big fan, but Costco is easily the best of the three.  Sam's Club easily the worst.

Mndsm said:

 

 

Other than the absolute mass insanity that is Costco in central Florida- I quite enjoy Costco. 

You are a brave man, I was gonna go get a Costco membership in Brandon but didn't even park the car once I got in the parking lot.