- Best for: Families of three or more who spend $250+ per week on groceries and household staples.
- Biggest win: The $50/year membership is $15 cheaper than Costco's, and Scan & Go lets you skip every checkout line in the building.
- Biggest drawback: Product curation trails Costco, the stores feel like Walmart warehouses, and customer service complaints about unauthorized charges and missing refunds are piling up.
Sam's Club costs $50 a year. Costco costs $65. Both sell bulk groceries, household goods, tires, pharmacy, and optical. Both have private-label brands that undercut name brands by 30% to 50%. The question everyone asks is whether the $15 price difference reflects a $15 difference in quality. It does, but not in the ways most people expect.
Sam's Club wins on technology (Scan & Go is genuinely great), pharmacy pricing (free generics on the Plus plan), and membership cost. Costco wins on product selection, store experience, and food court. The right answer depends on what you're actually buying and how often you're buying it.
The membership math
Club ($50/year)
The basic tier. Warehouse access, website, app, pharmacy pricing, optical center, tire and battery center. One complimentary household card for someone at the same address. For families who visit once or twice a month and spend $250 to $400 per trip, this pays for itself through bulk pricing alone.
At a conservative 25% savings on $3,000 in annual grocery spending, you're saving about $750 a year. Subtract the $50 fee and you're up $700. That math holds for families. Singles and couples struggle to hit $3,000 without wasting food, because a 5-pound bag of shredded cheese goes moldy before two people can finish it.
Plus ($110/year)
The Plus tier adds perks that compound for frequent shoppers:
- 2% back on qualifying purchases (up to $500/year in Sam's Club credit)
- Free curbside pickup (Club members pay a surcharge)
- Free shipping on most online orders with no minimum
- Early shopping hours before the club opens to regular members
- Free generic prescriptions on 10 select medications, and 600+ generics for $10 or less
The 2% cashback is the math that matters. To earn back the $60 gap between Club and Plus, you need to spend $3,000 a year at Sam's Club. Families spending $5,000+ annually make the Plus membership pay for itself and pocket the difference. If you take prescriptions on the free generics list (metformin, lisinopril, sertraline, and seven others), the Plus tier can save you hundreds more on top of the cashback.
How it stacks up against Costco's tiers
Costco raised their membership prices in September 2024. Gold Star (basic) went from $60 to $65. Executive went from $120 to $130. Sam's Club held steady at $50 and $110. That puts Sam's Club $15 cheaper on the basic tier and $20 cheaper on the premium tier. If you're on a tight budget and both clubs are nearby, Sam's wins before you even walk in the door.
What Sam's Club does best
Scan & Go changes how you shop
This is Sam's Club's strongest advantage over Costco, and Costco has no equivalent. You open the app, scan barcodes with your phone as you fill your cart, pay inside the app, and walk out. An associate checks your digital receipt at the door. No checkout lines. No self-checkout machines. No waiting behind someone with two flatbed carts on a Saturday.
About 30% of Sam's Club members now use Scan & Go regularly, a 50% increase over the past three years. Sam's Club is leaning hard into this: they're rolling out AI-powered exit arches across all 600 clubs that scan your cart from the top and sides to verify purchases. The company plans to phase out traditional checkout lanes entirely. If you hate lines, Sam's Club is building the future you want.
Member's Mark is better than you think
Sam's Club quietly revamped their private label over the past few years. Member's Mark now covers 6,000+ products, roughly 20% of the store's inventory, and the quality has caught up to (and sometimes passed) Kirkland Signature on key items.
Some specifics: Member's Mark paper towels cost $19.98 for a 15-pack (2,250 total sheets). Kirkland paper towels cost $23.99 for a 12-pack (1,920 sheets). You get more sheets for less money. Member's Mark allergy pills run $12.23 for 400 tablets ($0.03 per pill) versus $39.98 for 120 Zyrtec tablets ($0.33 per pill). The Member's Mark coffee is $11.98 for a canister with 8 more ounces than Starbucks Pike Place at $21.93.
In September 2025, Sam's Club launched a premium diaper line under Member's Mark with upgraded materials and 12-hour absorbent protection, at the same price as their standard diapers. At roughly 14 cents per diaper for a 290-count box, that's about half what Pampers costs.
The pharmacy is a sleeper perk
Plus members get 10 common generic medications completely free: metformin, lisinopril, sertraline, amlodipine, escitalopram, finasteride, montelukast, pioglitazone, donepezil, and Vitamin D2. Another 600+ generics cost $10 or less. CVS and Walgreens charge 30% to 50% more for the same pills.
In October 2025, Sam's Club added free same-day delivery of refrigerated medications for Plus members, including GLP-1s, insulin, and antibiotics. If you take a daily medication, the pharmacy savings alone can justify the Plus membership. One caveat: the free generics program isn't available in Arizona, California, or Minnesota (those states get a $2/month rate instead due to state regulations).
Gas and tires save real money
Sam's Club gas stations run 5 to 25 cents per gallon cheaper than nearby stations, with 10 cents being the typical savings. Over a year of weekly fill-ups (15 gallons each), that's $78 to $195 saved. Costco gas is usually a few cents cheaper than Sam's, but the lines at Costco gas stations are notoriously longer.
Tires are also consistently priced $50 to $150 below Discount Tire or dealership prices for a set of four Goodyear or Michelin tires. That includes mounting, balancing, and a road hazard warranty. The downside: appointment availability can be spotty, and wait times are sometimes brutal. Drop the car off instead of waiting.
Where Sam's Club falls short
Product selection is predictable
Sam's Club carries roughly 4,000 to 5,000 SKUs per location. Costco carries about the same number, but their product curation is in a different league. Costco's buyers pick interesting, rotating items that make each visit feel like a treasure hunt. Sam's Club leans toward predictable staples. You'll find what you came for, but you won't stumble on a $40 Patagonia jacket or a wedge of high-end Manchego.
The organic and specialty food gap is wide. If you care about organic produce, grass-fed meats, or specialty cheeses, Costco wins by a significant margin.
The stores feel like Walmart
Harsh lighting, utilitarian signage, lower staffing levels. Finding someone to help you in the electronics section takes longer than it should. Costco's stores feel cleaner and more organized. This won't matter to everyone, but if you enjoy the Costco shopping experience (and plenty of people genuinely do), Sam's Club feels like a downgrade in atmosphere.
Customer service has problems
This is the serious one. Sam's Club has a pattern of complaints about unauthorized membership renewal charges, even after cancellation. SiteJabber shows a 1.7/5 rating across 644 reviews, with billing and customer service as the worst categories. Multiple customers report being charged $50 despite cancelling, then spending weeks chasing refunds through unresponsive support channels.
There are also complaints about produce quality (rotten bananas and moldy fruit on delivery), incomplete orders, and a customer service team that sometimes refuses to escalate to managers. The in-store experience is generally fine. The backend operations, especially billing and delivery, are where things break down.
The food court is fine
Pizza slices run $2 to $2.50. Most items are under $5. It's adequate. But Costco's food court is legendary for a reason: the $1.50 hot dog and drink combo hasn't changed since 1984, and they sold 245 million of them in 2025 alone. Nobody makes a special trip for Sam's Club food court. Plenty of people do for Costco's.
What to always buy at Sam's Club
- Paper products: Toilet paper, paper towels, and tissues run 30% to 40% below grocery store prices. Member's Mark paper towels specifically beat Kirkland on both price and sheet count.
- Diapers and wipes: Member's Mark Premium diapers cost roughly 14 cents each. Pampers runs 25 to 30 cents.
- Prescriptions: Especially generics on the Plus plan. Free is hard to beat.
- Gas: 5 to 25 cents per gallon cheaper than nearby stations. Worth the membership fee alone if you fill up weekly.
- Rotisserie chicken: $4.98 for a 3-pound bird. Costco charges $4.99 for a similar size. Both are loss leaders and both are great deals.
- OTC medications and supplements: Member's Mark generics cost a fraction of name brands (allergy pills at $0.03 each vs. $0.33 for Zyrtec).
- Laundry detergent and cleaning supplies: Bulk sizes save 25% to 40% versus grocery store pricing.
What to skip (or compare first)
- Electronics: Prices are competitive but rarely the lowest. Check Best Buy and Amazon first.
- Fresh produce: Bulk sizes lead to waste for smaller households. Only buy what you'll eat in a week.
- Books and toys: Amazon wins on selection and usually on price.
- Furniture: Quality varies wildly. Read reviews carefully before committing.
Shipping, delivery, and returns
- Curbside pickup: Free for Plus members. Club members pay a surcharge. Orders ready within four hours at most locations.
- Same-day delivery: Available through Instacart in many markets. Expect a delivery fee and a 10% to 15% markup on item prices versus in-store.
- Standard shipping: Free for Plus members on most items. Club members need to hit minimum order thresholds. Delivery in 3 to 5 business days.
- Returns: No time limit on most items. Electronics have a 90-day window. Cell phones get 14 days. Commercial equipment gets 30 days. Proof of purchase required.
The online inventory is more limited than what you'll find in the warehouse. Big-ticket items like furniture, electronics, and appliances have the widest online selection. Grocery availability for delivery varies heavily by location.
The bottom line
Sam's Club delivers real value for the right household. The $50 membership is the cheapest entry into warehouse club shopping, Member's Mark products have quietly become competitive with Kirkland Signature on key items, and Scan & Go is the best checkout experience in any retail store. The pharmacy savings on the Plus tier can pay for the membership several times over if you take common generics.
The trade-offs are real. Costco has better product curation, cleaner stores, a legendary food court, and slightly cheaper gas. Sam's Club has billing problems that show up in customer reviews too often to ignore. If you already have a Costco membership and enjoy shopping there, switching doesn't make sense. But if you're choosing your first warehouse club, or if the nearest Costco is 30 minutes away while Sam's Club is around the corner, the value is there.
Sam's Club saves families real money on groceries, gas, and prescriptions. The stores aren't glamorous. The food court won't inspire devotion. But your bank account won't care.
