Sam's Crackdown on Membership Sharing

[ClownLoach]

Costco is not alone.

Sam's has quietly begun some new programs without announcement.

First, the Sam's Club app has been updated with a new digital barcode that is a changing "matrix" which looks like a FedEx shipping label with thousands of pixels. This is going to eliminate screen shot usage at the register and self checkout. The app is requiring this to be enabled with 2 factor authentication, where a six digit pass code is sent via text to enable the new digital barcode. You are warned you can only use the old barcode 3 more times before you must enable the digital one. It is locked to your phone, so if you share usernames and passwords for membership then it will lock out your account on any other phone. This alone is going to have an immediate effect as many people share the app usernames and passwords which will stop happening with literally three uses.

Right now the old and new bar codes are still on the app but this is for a limited time. There have been many rumors about the physical cards being discontinued and social media comments that their local clubs are stating they no longer have cards and it is app only. This aligns with a digital barcode rollout as well.

And remember they are installing AI camera scanning gates at every exit this year.

So Sam's is also locking down their stores like Costco...

[storewanderer]

That is good, it will be a much easier transition since they have so many customers engaged by the app already for Pick Up, Scan & Go, etc.

But some people will still want a physical card so they probably need to offer that.

[Alpha8472]

When will Sam's Club Crack down on membership deal abuse. Right now you can get the $25 online membership sign up deal. You could have any other family member sign up and then you get a second card for a family member.

People will sign up with different emails or add an apartment number to your address even if it is a house.

After a few years of not being a member, it lets you get the new membership deal again.

What is there to buy at Sam's Club? I don't know if there is any reason to choose them over Costco.

[Super S]

That is good, it will be a much easier transition since they have so many customers engaged by the app already for Pick Up, Scan & Go, etc.

But some people will still want a physical card so they probably need to offer that.

I don't have Sam's Club in my area, but will say that if Costco required use of an app instead of a physical card, I would likely end my membership. I don't like being pushed to use apps for basic things.

Gotta wonder if Bi-Mart, with their $5.00 lifetime membership, will ever step this up.

[jamcool]

When will Sam's Club Crack down on membership deal abuse. Right now you can get the $25 online membership sign up deal. You could have any other family member sign up and then you get a second card for a family member.

People will sign up with different emails or add an apartment number to your address even if it is a house.

After a few years of not being a member, it lets you get the new membership deal again.

What is there to buy at Sam's Club? I don't know if there is any reason to choose them over Costco.

Sam’s takes all credit cards, not just Visa, they are oriented to small business accounts, they have faster checkout with self-scan and scan & go.

[Brian Lutz]

In my experience with the Sam's Club here, there seems to be little no card checking at the door right now. There's an employee at the door, but it seems like people can basically just walk in and out at will, and with the scan-and-go in the app there can be basically no interaction with anyone in the warehouse beyond the receipt checker if you wish. I get the impression this particular store is often understaffed though, which probably contributes to this sense. I also see that my Sam's Club app still has just a plain numeric barcode in the member section. Then again. I just use scan-and-go when I shop there anyway, much easier than dealing with the checkouts.

[ClownLoach]

In my experience with the Sam's Club here, there seems to be little no card checking at the door right now. There's an employee at the door, but it seems like people can basically just walk in and out at will, and with the scan-and-go in the app there can be basically no interaction with anyone in the warehouse beyond the receipt checker if you wish. I get the impression this particular store is often understaffed though, which probably contributes to this sense. I also see that my Sam's Club app still has just a plain numeric barcode in the member section. Then again. I just use scan-and-go when I shop there anyway, much easier than dealing with the checkouts.

I had noticed my Sam's app updated yesterday and I happened to go into the store. That is when I got the pop up message that I needed to activate the new digital barcode and that the app only will work 3 more times until it is activated. It sends you a text with a six digit code to activate it. The new "matrix" barcode loads but there is still a option to show the "old" barcode.

So this hard links a membership to a cell phone number. I would imagine that would address promotional membership games, but I have the Plus membership and earn Sam's Cash quickly enough that I don't pay anything anyway each year once that is factored in. Realistically Costco has been playing the same promotional game for six months now, basically buy a $55 membership and get a $30 gift card so it's only $25 for your first year. You have to ask for the offer but they're pretty much giving it away when they catch people card sharing.

As far as Sam's assortment, they have about 5,000 SKUs compared to 3,000 at Costco. They have some restaurant supply type stuff that Costco would only carry at business centers now. But they have been gradually moving that stuff online except for consumables and expanding more for the consumer. They used to carry almost 7,000 SKUs at Sam's but as we all know they couldn't manage the inventory well, they had bulk stacks in the aisles and other nonsense which has all been cleaned out and SKU rationalized. When I first saw a remodeled store I thought they had added more merchandise because of the improved layout when in fact a couple thousand items were removed to clear the clutter. Not one item I would shop them for disappeared so they must have known what they were doing. It felt like they really cut the vending machine type stuff, clunkier restaurant equipment and business oriented office supplies the most. They also stopped buying Walmart type deal junk like stacks of noname air fryers for $25 and such. The end result is the assortment skews much higher end, aligned with the Costco demographic.

Where Sam's excels is seasonal merchandise, far better assortment and quality than Costco. Clothing has been improving and is now comparable to Costco with really good quality basics in their house brand. All the house brand items are comparable to Kirkland, I would argue many are better and I have favorites all over the store. They have some really fun areas, spices and seasonings changes constantly and has probably 5 times the selection of Costco with lots of limited buys. Meat is a larger assortment and they have smaller packs at same price which is great for a smaller household. Their Home department is fantastic, the best quality towels, sheets, etc. Deli and Bakery in my opinion are hit or miss, selection is probably double Costco but they have some lower quality items thrown in. They do get lots of seasonal limited time foods, had some fantastic stuff for Octoberfest. Incredible quality garden stuff. Sam's is not the same as it was 5 years ago and continues to get better. They have a very large program where they target their top 10,000 members to test and adjust new house brand products before they come out, so their Members Mark brand moved from being bulk Walmart stuff to rivaling or exceeding Kirkland Signature. I don't care for the Sam's cafe operation but their hot dog is much better than Costco.

The areas I think Costco does better in are electronics, produce, limited time high dollar items, liquor (although Sam's just tripled their selection of whiskeys and tequilas but didn't have anything that excited me yet), bakery and deli, tires, pharmacy, furniture, appliances, and of course the food court.

Sam's selection, especially in the middle of the store, is more fun these days. I went over ten years without shopping Sam's because it was just Walmart junk in bulk in a clunky store, but they have completely reinvented the store and it keeps getting better. Costco is very stagnant and set in their ways, which I can understand from an operational perspective due to their volume where any new friction could cost millions of dollars in a single day. Sam's is the innovator in the industry now, not Costco, and it shows in their performance as they've flipped from years of downsizing and closures to remodeling nearly the entire chain and now expanding again with new warehouses under construction that are larger than what Costco builds today.

And the convenience offerings like the free curbside pickup for Plus members, free shipping etc. all come from Scan and Go and a really good self checkout. One supports the other, and yes half the cashiers went to order pulling where they get more hours, full time status and a fixed work schedule. They're actually treating their people well and it seems like every time I go now there's new faces on a board congratulating employees for 5, 10 year and up milestones. A decade ago Sam's felt like all minimum wage workers that didn't know anything or care because they were going to find a new job next week. Now I see the same people every time I shop there.

They're different like Coke and Pepsi, I can put up with either one but I would say my warehouse visits these days are 60% Costco, 40% Sam's and I usually wind up with a fuller basket at Sam's.

[storewanderer]

In my experience with the Sam's Club here, there seems to be little no card checking at the door right now. There's an employee at the door, but it seems like people can basically just walk in and out at will, and with the scan-and-go in the app there can be basically no interaction with anyone in the warehouse beyond the receipt checker if you wish. I get the impression this particular store is often understaffed though, which probably contributes to this sense. I also see that my Sam's Club app still has just a plain numeric barcode in the member section. Then again. I just use scan-and-go when I shop there anyway, much easier than dealing with the checkouts.

The directive on card at entry at Sam's keeps going back and forth between check, don't check, etc. I think the employees at this point are more there to make sure unpaid carts don't go out through the entrance and keep the carts organized than anything else.

[storewanderer]

As far as Sam's assortment, they have about 5,000 SKUs compared to 3,000 at Costco. They have some restaurant supply type stuff that Costco would only carry at business centers now. But they have been gradually moving that stuff online except for consumables and expanding more for the consumer. They used to carry almost 7,000 SKUs at Sam's but as we all know they couldn't manage the inventory well, they had bulk stacks in the aisles and other nonsense which has all been cleaned out and SKU rationalized. When I first saw a remodeled store I thought they had added more merchandise because of the improved layout when in fact a couple thousand items were removed to clear the clutter. Not one item I would shop them for disappeared so they must have known what they were doing. It felt like they really cut the vending machine type stuff, clunkier restaurant equipment and business oriented office supplies the most. They also stopped buying Walmart type deal junk like stacks of noname air fryers for $25 and such. The end result is the assortment skews much higher end, aligned with the Costco demographic.

Where Sam's excels is seasonal merchandise, far better assortment and quality than Costco. Clothing has been improving and is now comparable to Costco with really good quality basics in their house brand. All the house brand items are comparable to Kirkland, I would argue many are better and I have favorites all over the store. They have some really fun areas, spices and seasonings changes constantly and has probably 5 times the selection of Costco with lots of limited buys. Meat is a larger assortment and they have smaller packs at same price which is great for a smaller household. Their Home department is fantastic, the best quality towels, sheets, etc. Deli and Bakery in my opinion are hit or miss, selection is probably double Costco but they have some lower quality items thrown in. They do get lots of seasonal limited time foods, had some fantastic stuff for Octoberfest. Incredible quality garden stuff. Sam's is not the same as it was 5 years ago and continues to get better. They have a very large program where they target their top 10,000 members to test and adjust new house brand products before they come out, so their Members Mark brand moved from being bulk Walmart stuff to rivaling or exceeding Kirkland Signature. I don't care for the Sam's cafe operation but their hot dog is much better than Costco.

The areas I think Costco does better in are electronics, produce, limited time high dollar items, liquor (although Sam's just tripled their selection of whiskeys and tequilas but didn't have anything that excited me yet), bakery and deli, tires, pharmacy, furniture, appliances, and of course the food court.

Sam's selection, especially in the middle of the store, is more fun these days. I went over ten years without shopping Sam's because it was just Walmart junk in bulk in a clunky store, but they have completely reinvented the store and it keeps getting better. Costco is very stagnant and set in their ways, which I can understand from an operational perspective due to their volume where any new friction could cost millions of dollars in a single day. Sam's is the innovator in the industry now, not Costco, and it shows in their performance as they've flipped from years of downsizing and closures to remodeling nearly the entire chain and now expanding again with new warehouses under construction that are larger than what Costco builds today.

And the convenience offerings like the free curbside pickup for Plus members, free shipping etc. all come from Scan and Go and a really good self checkout. One supports the other, and yes half the cashiers went to order pulling where they get more hours, full time status and a fixed work schedule. They're actually treating their people well and it seems like every time I go now there's new faces on a board congratulating employees for 5, 10 year and up milestones. A decade ago Sam's felt like all minimum wage workers that didn't know anything or care because they were going to find a new job next week. Now I see the same people every time I shop there.

They're different like Coke and Pepsi, I can put up with either one but I would say my warehouse visits these days are 60% Costco, 40% Sam's and I usually wind up with a fuller basket at Sam's.

One of the other things I notice at Sams is I don't see many people returning items there. It seems like while the store has significantly more customer traffic than before, the returns/membership area is usually deserted or has one customer doing something. There used to be a line there and a good number of people were returning those junk special buys that they used to love to put on pallets out in the middle of the sales floor.

I'm still waiting for them to take some of this mindset over to the Wal Mart side of the business. I think it is happening. Baby steps.

They need to do something with their cafe. It is understaffed and sloppy (also very BUSY). For the price I really like the pizza slice. Better than slices that cost 2-2.5x as much at Whole Foods or the mall. I think they need to install about 20 order kiosks per store and mandate use of them (or the app) for cafe.

Their meat department is doing a lot of good things and the smaller package sizes are very helpful. They just don't do the sheer meat volume Costco does so they don't have the assortment of packages/cuts out that Costco has which is a big draw to Costco for some customers. The other thing is where Sam's is selling a ton of volume of lower priced cuts and chicken, Costco is selling a huge volume of higher end cuts/beef steaks so the department just isn't as interesting as Costco.

Produce at Sam's was better in 2021-2022 than it has been during 2023-present. Something is up with the supplier they use for a good amount of their produce (some of it appears to come from their warehouse but some is from this supplier). Some independent/small chains I shop, as well as US Foods Chef Store, use that supplier too, and I have noticed issues with produce at those stores too the past year.

[Alpha8472]

I had a Sam's Club Membership years ago. I am surprised to hear of all these changes. Perhaps I should take a look sometime soon.