Sam's Club Lowers Hot Dog Combo To $1.38

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Alpha8472
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Sam's Club Lowers Hot Dog Combo To $1.38

Post by Alpha8472 »

It was $1.50, but they have lowered it to $1.38.

Costco is still at $1.50.

You can still get the join for $50 and get $50 off your first club purchase. It is like getting membership for free.
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Re: Sam's Club Lowers Hot Dog Combo To $1.38

Post by storewanderer »

In my opinion you get what you pay for with regards to the Sam's Hot Dog combo. Yuck.

However I think the Sam's Pizza Slice at 1.98 (2.48 with drink), Pretzel at $1, and Frozen Yogurt at $1 is a bargain and quality is surprisingly good. The Brownie Sundae when they have brownies at $1.58 is beyond a steal and the brownie they put in is great (this would be $5+ anywhere else). Pizza Pretzel is awful.

Also at Sam's they only have Pepsi products on fountain, they used to have Coke too ("your club your choice" - not anymore I guess). They also switched from a foam cup to a paper cup that leaks almost immediately. I can still get the equipment to dispense seltzer at least.
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Re: Sam's Club Lowers Hot Dog Combo To $1.38

Post by HCal »

Sam's has always played second fiddle to Costco. With all the complaints about Costco's food court, maybe this is their way of trying to get more attention and pick up some new members. But ultimately, I doubt it will move the needle much. Costco members are very loyal, and Sam's is constantly having promos that make the membership free or nearly free, which suggests they are struggling.
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Re: Sam's Club Lowers Hot Dog Combo To $1.38

Post by storewanderer »

HCal wrote: November 20th, 2022, 8:28 pm Sam's has always played second fiddle to Costco. With all the complaints about Costco's food court, maybe this is their way of trying to get more attention and pick up some new members. But ultimately, I doubt it will move the needle much. Costco members are very loyal, and Sam's is constantly having promos that make the membership free or nearly free, which suggests they are struggling.
Sam's Food Court does not require membership to use it and the hot dog advertisements have that disclaimer no membership is required.

Sam's has been increasing business DRASTICALLY in the past few years. I really thought the Reno Sam's was on the verge of closing 5 years ago. It had little traffic, understocked, undermerchandised, always nice employees but very few of them. Sad fresh departments. Now it is like an entirely different store. The store is always busy even right up to closing time. Fresh departments are full and well assorted except bakery which may as well just close down for good. Checkout service has declined due to additional traffic but the self checkout is fast and easy.

I know multiple people who have stopped going to Costco in Reno and started going to Sam's. This will continue until Costco builds a warehouse in South Reno. There are various reasons this is happening: convenience, the Sam's offering pick up (so you don't have to go into the store), easier parking lot/not as crowded, and in some cases even saying they like the selection better at Sam's. The current Reno Costco is overcrowded, undersized, and not in the best neighborhood. Some people from South Reno also go to the Sparks Costco instead of the Reno Costco. Upper income customers are becoming increasingly uncomfortable at the Reno Costco and some are gravitating to Sam's. Sam's current offer is much more attractive than it used to be. Five years ago, with what Sam's offered, those customers would have tried Sam's once and half of them would have left without buying anything and the other half would have made one transaction then never returned.

I find Sam's pricing to be somewhat higher than Costco and I think all of this "free membership" stuff is part of the reason why.
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Re: Sam's Club Lowers Hot Dog Combo To $1.38

Post by Brian Lutz »

I haven't been to a Sam's Club in years since they closed all of their stores in Washington, but I thought they had better pizza than Costco did at the time. When they opened their store in Renton I thought it was much nicer than the nearby Costcos, but ultimately found that I just couldn't find much to buy there and let my membership lapse at some point.
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Re: Sam's Club Lowers Hot Dog Combo To $1.38

Post by babs »

Brian Lutz wrote: November 21st, 2022, 8:18 am I haven't been to a Sam's Club in years since they closed all of their stores in Washington, but I thought they had better pizza than Costco did at the time. When they opened their store in Renton I thought it was much nicer than the nearby Costcos, but ultimately found that I just couldn't find much to buy there and let my membership lapse at some point.
Over the years, the Sam's Clubs I have visited usually looked nicer than Costco stores with better displays, signage and yes the food court had better variety. But the merchandise they carried always felt a notch below what Costco has. And the private labels was always an extension of what you find at Walmart and doesn't compare with Kirkland Signature. It wouldn't take much to improve Sam's but they have fallen far behind Costco and it would take a lot to get people to switch their membership.
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Re: Sam's Club Lowers Hot Dog Combo To $1.38

Post by storewanderer »

babs wrote: November 21st, 2022, 6:32 pm
Brian Lutz wrote: November 21st, 2022, 8:18 am I haven't been to a Sam's Club in years since they closed all of their stores in Washington, but I thought they had better pizza than Costco did at the time. When they opened their store in Renton I thought it was much nicer than the nearby Costcos, but ultimately found that I just couldn't find much to buy there and let my membership lapse at some point.
Over the years, the Sam's Clubs I have visited usually looked nicer than Costco stores with better displays, signage and yes the food court had better variety. But the merchandise they carried always felt a notch below what Costco has. And the private labels was always an extension of what you find at Walmart and doesn't compare with Kirkland Signature. It wouldn't take much to improve Sam's but they have fallen far behind Costco and it would take a lot to get people to switch their membership.
Sam's has made significant improvements on all fronts in recent years. They have beefed up private label, beefed up prepared food/ready to eat food, improved clothing, improved liquor, basically improved their entire store. They may not have tobacco or a photo lab anymore, but they have made a lot of other improvements.

I am going to go out on a limb and say if Sam's were still in the Pacific Northwest today, they would have made a similar drastic increase to their traffic today vs. 5 years ago and their few stores there would be viable today. I really think that point when Sam's pulled from the Pacific Northwest and closed so many stores was a turning point for the company. "Do or Die" - you could say.

It also helps that the warehouse store format has done very well throughout the COVID period, it was one of the places that was open selling everything when malls were closed, and unlike Target, the warehouse store format has held onto every customer it gained during COVID and continues to increase customer counts. At this point Costco's stores are so overcrowded they can't even handle any more customers. And it is getting closer to that situation for some Sam's Clubs now too.
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Re: Sam's Club Lowers Hot Dog Combo To $1.38

Post by arizonaguy »

storewanderer wrote: November 21st, 2022, 10:31 pm
babs wrote: November 21st, 2022, 6:32 pm
Brian Lutz wrote: November 21st, 2022, 8:18 am I haven't been to a Sam's Club in years since they closed all of their stores in Washington, but I thought they had better pizza than Costco did at the time. When they opened their store in Renton I thought it was much nicer than the nearby Costcos, but ultimately found that I just couldn't find much to buy there and let my membership lapse at some point.
Over the years, the Sam's Clubs I have visited usually looked nicer than Costco stores with better displays, signage and yes the food court had better variety. But the merchandise they carried always felt a notch below what Costco has. And the private labels was always an extension of what you find at Walmart and doesn't compare with Kirkland Signature. It wouldn't take much to improve Sam's but they have fallen far behind Costco and it would take a lot to get people to switch their membership.
Sam's has made significant improvements on all fronts in recent years. They have beefed up private label, beefed up prepared food/ready to eat food, improved clothing, improved liquor, basically improved their entire store. They may not have tobacco or a photo lab anymore, but they have made a lot of other improvements.

I am going to go out on a limb and say if Sam's were still in the Pacific Northwest today, they would have made a similar drastic increase to their traffic today vs. 5 years ago and their few stores there would be viable today. I really think that point when Sam's pulled from the Pacific Northwest and closed so many stores was a turning point for the company. "Do or Die" - you could say.

It also helps that the warehouse store format has done very well throughout the COVID period, it was one of the places that was open selling everything when malls were closed, and unlike Target, the warehouse store format has held onto every customer it gained during COVID and continues to increase customer counts. At this point Costco's stores are so overcrowded they can't even handle any more customers. And it is getting closer to that situation for some Sam's Clubs now too.
Costco doesn't have tobacco or a photo lab anymore either and seems to have gone the opposite direction as Sam's.

There has been a noticeable decline in quality all around from service to private label to bakery to even the food court at Costco since 2018 (when Sam's closed all of those stores). Costco has been on an expansion tare (I believe they've got 2-3 new stores in the pipeline in Metro Phoenix alone) but, while their stores are busier than ever, I'm noticing less and less value in my membership there.

I also am a Sam's Club member (as Sam's club is marginally closer to my house than Costco) and I like everything about the Sam's experience better (except for the 15 or so items that I can only get at Costco but can't get at Sam's). The service seems better at Sam's, the food court seems better at Sam's, the technology is miles better at Sam's, the overall product depth / selection is better at Sam's.

Costco, I believe, benefitted from the fact that its founder pretty much ran the company for so long but the decline has definitely accelerated over the last 10 years.
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Re: Sam's Club Lowers Hot Dog Combo To $1.38

Post by storewanderer »

arizonaguy wrote: November 27th, 2022, 8:36 am
Costco doesn't have tobacco or a photo lab anymore either and seems to have gone the opposite direction as Sam's.

There has been a noticeable decline in quality all around from service to private label to bakery to even the food court at Costco since 2018 (when Sam's closed all of those stores). Costco has been on an expansion tare (I believe they've got 2-3 new stores in the pipeline in Metro Phoenix alone) but, while their stores are busier than ever, I'm noticing less and less value in my membership there.

I also am a Sam's Club member (as Sam's club is marginally closer to my house than Costco) and I like everything about the Sam's experience better (except for the 15 or so items that I can only get at Costco but can't get at Sam's). The service seems better at Sam's, the food court seems better at Sam's, the technology is miles better at Sam's, the overall product depth / selection is better at Sam's.

Costco, I believe, benefitted from the fact that its founder pretty much ran the company for so long but the decline has definitely accelerated over the last 10 years.
I think Costco is just too popular with its core upper middle class customer base that they are so busy focusing on sales, they let some things slip through the cracks. They are so focused on selling merchandise they basically forget about technology.

Today in Sparks the Costco gas station was 4.69 for fuel (most area stations are at 5.00+). There were lines 6 cars deep in each lane waiting to get under the fuel canopy. A few miles away was Safeway, Smiths, or a couple of unbranded stations also at 4.69 (one of the unbranded stations that is a cash price but Safeway/Smiths are same price cash or credit) with many available pumps and no wait. But the Costco customer does not care. They will put themself through 20 minutes of a line idling their car burning more gas rather than explore other options that have the exact same gas price. I think this plays out throughout the Costco Store with the core customer base. There are many better options but the core customer is so satisfied with Costco they do not look anywhere else.
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Re: Sam's Club Lowers Hot Dog Combo To $1.38

Post by jamcool »

Sam’s primary customer is business owners, especially small businesses and restaurants. Costco seems to be more oriented to individuals and less towards businesses.
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