Sam's Club Lowers Hot Dog Combo To $1.38

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Re: Sam's Club Lowers Hot Dog Combo To $1.38

Post by Super S »

I used to occasionally buy a hot dog at Costco to eat on the way home, but lost interest when they switched to paper straws for the drinks, which start disintegrating after about 15-20 minutes.
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Re: Sam's Club Lowers Hot Dog Combo To $1.38

Post by buckguy »

I'm still buying the same regular stuff at Costco that I was buying 10 years go. The main differences I've seen have been an expansion of name brand clothing--usually good value, better wine selection, and a wider range of higher end housewares like Vitamix blenders.

The pizza, etc. is perhaps remarkable for the price, but that's about it.

Sam's has been doing remarkable same-store sale increases, but it all seems related to membership promotions. At some point, that will need to end (or else prices will need to rise) and i wonder how they'll do with retention.
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Re: Sam's Club Lowers Hot Dog Combo To $1.38

Post by storewanderer »

buckguy wrote: November 29th, 2022, 8:02 am I'm still buying the same regular stuff at Costco that I was buying 10 years go. The main differences I've seen have been an expansion of name brand clothing--usually good value, better wine selection, and a wider range of higher end housewares like Vitamix blenders.

The pizza, etc. is perhaps remarkable for the price, but that's about it.

Sam's has been doing remarkable same-store sale increases, but it all seems related to membership promotions. At some point, that will need to end (or else prices will need to rise) and i wonder how they'll do with retention.
Sam's will continue free memberships or gift cards for renewal or other tricks on an ongoing basis. I think their pricing is a little less sharp than Costco on a number of items, I think that is one of the "cracks" of all of these membership promotions.

Likely outcome I see is Sam's ends up scrapping basic membership fees entirely to walk in and shop and just keeps a fee for "Plus." And "Plus" at Sam's has enough extra benefits between things like tire install discount, the pick up service, free shippping, they could throw an extra gas discount into it too, in addition to the rebate back, that Sam's Plus appears to offer better value than Costco Executive to a segment of not so frequent club users. Costco Executive is really for the frequent club users only.

Sam's has expanded clothing and housewares as well, it is primarily upper mid level product. They definitely have a larger mix of housewares than Costco, by far.
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Re: Sam's Club Lowers Hot Dog Combo To $1.38

Post by ClownLoach »

Sam's seems to still be using the discount membership promotion to get customers in the door, and I do not believe that will ever change or go away entirely while competing with Costco - one of the highest satisfaction retailers in the world. If you're a happy Costco customer why would you ever look at Sam's?

But they definitely are more focused on future membership fees with the recent increase in membership rates. And they used to focus on credit card sign-ups as an upsell - now they are trying to get more of the Plus sign ups. Sam's used to just focus on getting people through the door but that didn't translate well into high tickets or member retention. The Plus membership functions like Costco executive and if a customer is spending a decent amount of money in the store then the cash back benefit will basically make their membership free. Sam's and Costco both can afford to give away membership but only to the customers who bring them the most sales and profit.

Sam's is especially challenging because they have so many locations that are adjacent to, or even share a wall with Walmart - and they have learned that the Walmart customer is NOT the ideal Sam's customer.

Because of this they have to put some kind of barrier to entry in place or the Sam's Club next door to the Walmart will be shoplifted out of business.

I still see that Sam's Club locations that are freestanding buildings away from a Walmart seem to have more sales volume now. The customer Sam's wants does not want to go hear a dangerous, high theft Walmart.
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Re: Sam's Club Lowers Hot Dog Combo To $1.38

Post by storewanderer »

ClownLoach wrote: December 5th, 2022, 12:16 pm

Sam's is especially challenging because they have so many locations that are adjacent to, or even share a wall with Walmart - and they have learned that the Walmart customer is NOT the ideal Sam's customer.

Because of this they have to put some kind of barrier to entry in place or the Sam's Club next door to the Walmart will be shoplifted out of business.

I still see that Sam's Club locations that are freestanding buildings away from a Walmart seem to have more sales volume now. The customer Sam's wants does not want to go hear a dangerous, high theft Walmart.
The Reno Sam's shares a lot with a clean but otherwise not the best (but not the worst) Wal Mart (driveway between the two) and it is a different world over at Sam's. The Sam's entry/exit is about as far from Wal Mart as it could possibly be in distance. Wal Mart has lot cop cameras, Sam's has none. Wal Mart has security patrolling its lot in a vehicle, Sam's has no such thing.

The Reno Sam's gas station was previously a public facility shared with Wal Mart and had a +.05 per gallon fee if you did not use a Sam's Club Membership. Wal Mart changed this, now the only Wal Mart customers who can use the gas station are Wal Mart Plus customers and it otherwise will not activate the pump without a Sam's Club card.
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Re: Sam's Club Lowers Hot Dog Combo To $1.38

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: December 5th, 2022, 10:58 pm
ClownLoach wrote: December 5th, 2022, 12:16 pm

Sam's is especially challenging because they have so many locations that are adjacent to, or even share a wall with Walmart - and they have learned that the Walmart customer is NOT the ideal Sam's customer.

Because of this they have to put some kind of barrier to entry in place or the Sam's Club next door to the Walmart will be shoplifted out of business.

I still see that Sam's Club locations that are freestanding buildings away from a Walmart seem to have more sales volume now. The customer Sam's wants does not want to go hear a dangerous, high theft Walmart.
The Reno Sam's shares a lot with a clean but otherwise not the best (but not the worst) Wal Mart (driveway between the two) and it is a different world over at Sam's. The Sam's entry/exit is about as far from Wal Mart as it could possibly be in distance. Wal Mart has lot cop cameras, Sam's has none. Wal Mart has security patrolling its lot in a vehicle, Sam's has no such thing.

The Reno Sam's gas station was previously a public facility shared with Wal Mart and had a +.05 per gallon fee if you did not use a Sam's Club Membership. Wal Mart changed this, now the only Wal Mart customers who can use the gas station are Wal Mart Plus customers and it otherwise will not activate the pump without a Sam's Club card.
Today CNBC interviewed the Walmart CEO who confirmed that they are seeing out of control shoplifting and they will be reacting by raising prices or closing stores again where it is happening. He blamed organized retail crime groups. Walmart does not tolerate shrink and seems to have no problem closing a store entirely for that reason regardless of sales volume. (See Long Beach, CA downtown and Oakland/Emeryville among others)

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/06/walmart ... sures.html

Probably getting off topic here a bit...
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Re: Sam's Club Lowers Hot Dog Combo To $1.38

Post by storewanderer »

ClownLoach wrote: December 6th, 2022, 12:19 pm

Today CNBC interviewed the Walmart CEO who confirmed that they are seeing out of control shoplifting and they will be reacting by raising prices or closing stores again where it is happening. He blamed organized retail crime groups. Walmart does not tolerate shrink and seems to have no problem closing a store entirely for that reason regardless of sales volume. (See Long Beach, CA downtown and Oakland/Emeryville among others)

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/06/walmart ... sures.html

Probably getting off topic here a bit...
Off topic but that could apply to Sam's Stores with theft issues too.

Well, the Reno Sam's recently had an incident. Some folks drove into the exit doors (I think they were trying to break into the store, but that is only my speculation; it has not been confirmed as the motive) in the middle of the night. They missed that past the glass exit doors is a foyer with a roll up garage door (and another glass door) and I guess they split when they noticed that.
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Re: Sam's Club Lowers Hot Dog Combo To $1.38

Post by Alpha8472 »

The Walmart store in San Leandro near Oakland has been fortified by giant metal roll down security gates. The store is like a fortress now. The store also has a team of military trained armed guards in body armor. They are ready for an insurgent attack. The store has aisles locked up in secure cabinets. There are many employees with keys now to open up the cabinets. The store is much better run now than before. They have made it so tough to shoplift that the shoplifters now avoid this store.

They lost some customers due to locked cabinets, but the shrink has been kept under control.
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Re: Sam's Club Lowers Hot Dog Combo To $1.38

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: December 6th, 2022, 10:08 pm The Walmart store in San Leandro near Oakland has been fortified by giant metal roll down security gates. The store is like a fortress now. The store also has a team of military trained armed guards in body armor. They are ready for an insurgent attack. The store has aisles locked up in secure cabinets. There are many employees with keys now to open up the cabinets. The store is much better run now than before. They have made it so tough to shoplift that the shoplifters now avoid this store.

They lost some customers due to locked cabinets, but the shrink has been kept under control.
This sounds like an unpleasant environment to shop in. How long before they quit letting customers in and just do everything on a pick up basis?
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Re: Sam's Club Lowers Hot Dog Combo To $1.38

Post by Alpha8472 »

This store has done exactly that almost. Rather than wait for someone to unlock cabinets, there is a huge demand for curbside pickup. The cars are overflowing at curbside pickup. This store does a ton of online orders for pickup in store and curbside. You see crazy numbers of personal shoppers running around the store. There is even a pickup counter inside the store, and the line is huge.
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