Which is cheaper costco or sam’s club , Costco and Sam’s Club are very popular shops, because they sell wholesale products at a low price. But Sam’s Club has a more economical membership with greater benefits, Sam’s Club may be the best choice for you. The cost of Sam’s Club basic membership costs $45 a year, while Costco costs $60 a year. If you purchase the SAM’s Club Basic Membership ($45) you can receive another complimentary card, free of charge, so that someone else can shop at the store. Costco’s basic membership does not offer these benefits, if you want to get another card you have to get the business membership and pay $60 for each person you add to the membership.
Both Sam’s Club and Costco offer the same basic services as: Pharmacy, liquor store, jewellery, petrol and optical center. However, Costco offers medical plans, you can buy and book vacation packages, has an auditory center, life insurance, etc.
For products, at Sam’s Club and Costco you will be able to find a great variety and well-known brands. You can also get low prices by buying their generic brands like the Kirkland from Costco and the Member’s Mark from Sam’s Club.
Sam’s Club membership can be done for $40 a year. The basic membership allows you to add up to 8 people and the membership plus 16 people.
Difference between sam’s club memberships
Affiliation Fees:
Most of the value of being a member depends on the perception of the value that is obtained from the price of the membership. However, we will compare here directly the price, and not value (since everyone has a slightly different value perception).
Cost of COSTCO membership:
for the basic “Gold Star” or “Business” membership are $60, and for the updated “executive” version $120, which offers more benefits, including 2% cash back rewards (up to $1.000) on qualified Costco purchases.
Sam’s Club membership cost:
For “Sam’s Savings” and “Business” basic memberships are $45, and $100 for “Plus,” which offers more benefits, including cash-back rewards of $10 for every 500 dollars spent on qualifying purchases (up to 500 Dollars per year). Sam’s Club also offers “early shopping hours” for Business and Plus members, which is a nice advantage.
Winner: Sam’s Club. If we are strictly seeing only the price, you have to give the approval to Sam’s Club, at all levels of membership. Keep in mind that the strengthening of Costco’s membership offers a top cash cover ($1.000 vs. $500), but you would have to spend more than $10,000 a year to make a difference. That’s more than I would recommend spending at any store.
Return Policies Costco and Sam’s Club :
The returns policies of Costco and Sam’s Club can be found here, respectively:
- Costco returns policy
- Sam’s Club returns policy
Winner: Costco (slight advantage). Both Costco and Sam’s Club have refreshing generous return policies, which is a huge advantage in shopping. To begin with, both offer a full refund on the cost of membership if you are not satisfied with it. Both offer the return of products at any time. There are some elements that come with time constraints both to retailers for a good reason. At Costco you get the slight advantage is that they have a much shorter list of non-returnable items or items that must be returned within a time frame.
Costco vs. Sam’s: Which Card is Better?
For this comparison, I think it’s important to look strictly at how the card benefits you in the store, cons to its other advantages.
Costco Anywhere Visa:
- Double Your membership card
- $0 annual fee (must be a COSTCO member)
- 4% discount on gas purchases at Costco and other gas stations (up to 7,000 dollars spent per year)
- 3% in restaurants and most shopping trips
- 2% discount at Costco and Costco.com
- 1% money back in other purchases
Sam’s Club MasterCard:
- Double Your membership card
- $0 Annual fee (money-back invoice for Sam’s Club members only)
- 5% in returns in the United States and Puerto Rico, petrol and gas stations at Sam’s Club (first $6.000 Per year on purchases, 1% on purchases after)
- 3% return on restaurants and travel.
- 1% return on other purchases
Which Card is Better winner: Costco. The Sam’s Club credit card has a very sweet advantage at 5% in returns at all gas stations that could make it worthwhile, even if you don’t usually buy at Sam’s (note: To get returns rewards you must be a member of Sam’s Club). However, if we are going to ponder the value of these cards in their connection to the retailer, 2% of cash back at Costco and Costco.comis a huge advantage that stands out between the two cards, which doubles 1% would be in Sam’s with the Sam’s Club MasterCard.
Payment Methods Costco vs. Sam’s
Costco Payment Methods:
Costco accepts all Visa, Costco cards, credit cards, cash, cheques, debit/ATM cards, EBT and Costco cash cards. Controls may require photo identification and approval from a supervisor or manager. Cash, cheques and EBT are not accepted at Costco petrol stations or COSTCO.
Sam’s Club payment methods:
Sam’s Club accepts Walmart and Sam’s Club credit cards, credit cards, cash or check, debit card, American Express, MasterCard, Discover, Visa credit cards, WalMart credit, SNAP.
Winner: Sam’s Club. The Costco move to all cards (Visa), it should be easier to pay a large amount of customers (versus AmEx exclusivity previously), however, Sam’s Club accepts the four major credit card providers: Amex, Visa, MasterCard and Discover.
Number of items Costco vs. Sam’s
Costco Items Selection:
Costco aims at only about 4,000 SKU’s. For the size of their warehouses, this is a hard thing to believe, but they focus on fewer items as part of their strategy of focusing on quality.
Sam’s Club item selection:
Sam’s Club has not shared the number of Sku they carry, however, it is clear that they have significantly more Sku in their locations than Costco.
Winner: Sam’s Club.
Employee Salaries and Benefits Costco vs. Sam’s
Last but not least. I think it’s important for any consumer to put a value on how well they treat them in the businesses they choose to frequent and their payroll employees in terms of wages, benefits, hours of work, vacations and more.
How much does Costco pay and average pay at Costco:
- Costco Payment: Cashiers @ ~ $15/hour. Ushers @ ~ $13.50/hour
- Costco Advantages: Health, dental, life, disability, AD&D, vision, pharmacy plans. 401K Match (annual contribution to your account, which is based on a percentage of income. This percentage increases with the years of employee service. Employee Stock Purchase Plan
- Costco working hours: see above.
- Costco Vacation (no working hours): New Year’s Day, Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas
How much does sam’s club pay and average pay at sam’s club:
- Sam’s Club Payout: Cashiers @ ~ $10/hour. Ushers @ ~ $11.00/hour
- Sam’s Club Benefits: Health, dental, life, disability, AD&D, vision, pharmacy plans. 401K match (up to 6% of salary). Employee stock purchase Plan (with company matching)
- Sam’s Club working hours: see above.
- Sam’s Club Vacation (no working hours): New Year’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas
Winner: Costco. Without TDF full of details and insurance costs, it is difficult to compare the benefit package between the two. But when it comes to paying (at least in the samples that have reported their payment to a third party), Costco is the clear winner, with Cashiers doing almost 50% more stock and staff than about 25% more, on average, than their Sam’s Club counterparts. It has also been said that Costco wage increases occur more frequently and there is a much larger cap than with the Sam’s Club/WalMart employees. In addition, COSTCO, employees do not have the potential to be dragged into extended and Saturday morning hours as employees of Sam’s Club, or 3 more days of vacation to work (Memorial, Independence and business days). And then there’s the reputation. Costco has said to treat its employees very well, while WalMart has a long history of otherwise (and only recently raised to employees the level of payment of $10).