- Which is better, Sam's Club or Costco. Which membership program gives
you more bang for your buck. Where are the prices lowest? Sam's Club or Costco. I am here in the battle of
Sam's Club versus Costco. I'm The Deal Guy, Matt Granite, welcome back to the channel. I'm gonna do a complete price breakdown between the two retailers. I'm going to show you, which is better in my opinion. And I'm gonna have you guys
weigh in via the comments. If you like this type of content, please give this video a thumbs up. Subscribe and turn your notifications on. I've done full breakdowns of insider clearance deals at Sam's Club, Target, Walmart, Costco, Best Buy, Amazon. What to buy, what not to buy I'm here to help you. Before we get to the complete comparison, I wanna remind you guys
on Matsdailydeals.com. You will find your best daily deals, that include crazy pillow price drops from 99 bucks down to 25. And a reminder I do use affiliate links. So if you're kind enough
to use one of my links, I will benefit monetarily. If you shop frequently
at Sam's Club or Costco, you're gonna find there are
some fundamental differences between both stores. I wanna start with the membership fees. And the battle of where do you get the most bang for your buck. As a whole, Sam's Club
is going to be the winner on membership fees and
I'm gonna show you why. But don't worry for all
the Costco aficionado. There are plenty of
reasons why your membership actually works to your advantage. A regular membership, $45 at Sam's Club and a $100 for their deluxe
special VIP membership. At Costco, same type of programming, except it's 60 versus 120. In addition to the membership
fees being higher at Costco, I think we can agree that
Sam's Club actually treats its Sam's plus members better, by giving you a great way to shop early before any of the crowds. In some locations, this
is three or two hours before anyone else in the general public for a $100 per year commitment. I have found that both retailers
are actually willing to give you a discount on
your membership fees or wipe them out if for any reason you don't
breakeven in your savings over the course of a year. That's one thing to keep in mind. So well Sam's Club might
treat its members better, Costco treats its employees better. And I wanna make sure I have
the most recent numbers, but this is a thing. Costco staff are paid 23% more, for the front of house staff membership services and cashiers. And the stock staff are paid 33% more at Costco versus Sam's club. So if you wanna be in
support of a merchant that treats its employees better, I think there's no doubt about it. Costco would be the win to go on that. In battle point number two, the question is which
retailer has more selection. And if you actually look at the skews and you run through them and you have no life and
no friends like I do, and you just sit in front
of your computer all day. You will find that that Sam's Club actually offers more products, a much wider selection
available at Sam's Club. So Sam's Club wins in terms of selection. In my opinion, Costco
wins in terms of quality. And I think that might be some
of what Costco's motto is. They have a very large focus on their Kirkland Signature brand. And there's no doubt in my mind that whether you're
buying bathroom tissue, cashews, olive oil, whatever it is, the Kirkland Signature brand
is just out of this world in my opinion, on most products. The in house brand at Sam's
Club is called Member's Mark. And it just doesn't have the same level of quality associated with it. Although the deals are great. That is the big difference
between the Sam's Club and Costco in house brands
in terms of selection. With that being said in the
comparison of big name brands, because Costco is very focused
on its own in house line. When it comes to Kleenex or Tide, you are almost always going to do better at Sam's Club versus Costco. And I am going to do a
full store wide comparison, with the help of a
website in a few moments. Where I'll show you overall, which store is cheaper on everything. But Sam's Club and Costco
for an identical product, Sam's Club is $35.49 cents just on this Tide as an example. Same product, 29.98 at Sam's Club. There is no difference
between these two products, same skew, same everything,
29.98 versus 35.49. Now what about the savings
you get outside of the store, in terms of their credit card programs. In the case of Sam's Club versus Costco, I'm thinking that it might be a tie. Although I'll let you guys weigh in. The Costco visa gives you
the added benefit of 2% back in terms of cash from all purchases on Costco and costco.com. The Sam's Club credit card is 1%, but you get 5% cashback on the Sam's Club credit
card, Costco offers 4%. So depending on whether
or not you do the majority of your spending on gas or
on Costco or Sam's Club, you're going to find that
it might be a washout between both credit cards. So I'm gonna call number four a tie. For the number five difference between Costco and Sam's Club, the big question is
poultry meat, groceries. And I don't think there's
anyone that will argue with me, the grocery selection as a
whole in the meat quality is much better at Costco. Now we have to keep in mind that Sam's Club's parent company is Walmart. And by the way, both Costco and Sam's Club were established the same year, they have the same business model, they have almost the
same number of locations. So there's a great deal of similarities between both of these
giant warehouse retailers. But I think with the
produce quality, we see it. Walmart on many of its
meat and grocery products, it might not be surprising to you that I don't think Sam's Club can
compete with Costco on this. But with that being said, if you look at some of the advertisements on a Costco wholesale website, like a Wagyu locker pack for $2,000. You would never see that advertised on a Sam's Club website. With that being said, the meat prices are actually comparable. If you wanna go really high-end, you're gonna do better at Costco. If you are just ready to buy up every piece of ground meat insight, Member's Mark will bring more savings. I think the answer is
the higher end groceries are better at Costco and
the lower end products are probably a little
bit better at Sam's Club. And if you actually look just terms of how both websites are advertised. I'm getting a Member's
Mark beef smoked sausage advertised to me on one site and look at the Chicago Ag
USDA on the other, right. It's a bit of a different clientele. With that being said, are members doing better as a whole at Sam's Club versus Costco, that would bring me to point number six. Costco doesn't offer
any other retail model other than that, you need
a membership feature shop in its location if you want access to most of its products. Sam's Club, well, they have Walmart. And you will find that
many of the bulk offerings are identical at both
Walmart and Sam's Club. And there are reasons to avoid
Walmart if you can I'm sure. But I just wanna mention to you guys that with the in house brands
at both retailers, there might not always be a reason to justify going to Sam's Club. A lot of people with Costco memberships feel they are compelled
to go there because, well there's this whole philosophy that like, since you have the membership,
you need to use it. So it'll pay for itself. So, Costco shoppers might have
a little bit more enthusiasm tied to their shopping sprees. And the Sam's Club crowd
might also frequent a Walmart. So I'm just letting you guys know that there's a uniqueness tied to Costco that you don't see at Sam's Club. With that being said, the larger scale purchases
from major brands are actually more
aggressive at Sam's Club. So if you look at appliances, a lot of people believe that the brands are higher end at Costco,
and that's actually not true. Most of the retailers carry
identical brands and offerings, LG, Samsung, you're gonna find both. But on a recent 4th of July sale, you'll find the savings
were actually better on the higher end brands. Like really the ones you see
on your screen right now, Whirlpool, Maytag, and
some of the lower end of the kitchenAid products were pushed more feverishly on Costco. And actually if you went to
this old 4th of July sale which I've screen grab,
you're going to find that many of the promotions
are tied to Whirlpool. Like I'm not even entering
this as my search result. And this is what's being
pulled up at Costco. Now Whirlpool is a great line, but I think some of you
might argue that the Samsung and LG products are
maybe a little bit better. Just throwing that out
there as a price comparison. But I actually wanna move on to the big pricing difference number seven, which is a full breakdown
of where prices are cheaper. And that's the big thing
everyone wants to know. So with the help of Cheapism, I have a full breakdown
of all of the products the average household would buy. And I wanna mention to you guys, not only is this important, but Cheapism is a great resource. They've featured me in the past, I'm so appreciative of
the fact that they exist. And with all of the breakdowns between American cheese and
applesauce and baby formula, where you can see that at Costco. The prices slightly
higher on some products. And on Sam's Club it's the same thing, higher or lower depending on the product. The Cheapism study looked
at the products available, the brand names, and then
using the in house alternative from both retailers as
frequently as possible. And this is what was
derived from the data. Of 30 products that were surveyed, Costco's prices were
better than Sam's Club on only nine products. So out of 30 average household products, Costco had an advantage
on only nine of them with an average money
savings of more than 11%. So what do we take from all of this? Well, if you're buying the big brands like that proceeding Tide
example I showed you, you're going to do better at Sam's Club. And if you are enamored
with the Kirkland brand or you love that quality that they offer, you are going to do better at Costco. Assuming you shop primarily
from their in house brand. Now, when it comes to order fulfillment, curbside pickup, I found that Sam's Club is actually faster by a day. I'm not sure if having all of
the Walmart warehouse training or whatever goes on on the
Walmart side of the business, has in any way impacted the
Sam's Club side of the business. But Sam's Club a little bit faster in terms of delivery and
fulfillment versus Costco. Now when you take all of
these factors into account, members have the advantage of
shopping early at Sam's Club, membership fees are lower at Sam's Club. Costco treats its employees better. Maybe the Costco employees are happier. I haven't found any proof of either seem more dependent upon the location and the community where you were going. But if you wanna support a
store where the employees are treated better, Costco wins. The credit cards are a bit of a wash out, the Kirkland Signature
brand in my opinion, better than the in house
brand at Sam's Club. I think that Costco has an edge. I think that Costco is better. I think that's assuming that you want the most bang for your buck. And once you get past
those membership fees, what Costco offers you once
you get inside their door. Especially on the Kirkland products, which is one of the main
reasons to shop at Costco. In my opinion, you are getting a lot more bang for your buck. But there are people that
are Sam's Club lovers and diehard Sam's Club shoppers. And I'm sure you're going to tell me how wrong I am and I look
forward to reading your comments. So I wanna hear from you guys, are you a Sam's Club member
or are you a Costco member? Have you ever considered going across the pond and switching places? And do you think one is
significantly better than the other? I've shopped frequently at both, I have both membership programs and various sides of my family, where there'll be a whole
war at the dinner table over who is better and why. But I think dollar for dollar, at least in the price comparison, Costco might have a slight advantage depending on where you spend your money. So leave me a comment. If you like this type of content, please subscribe, turn
your notifications on and give this video a thumbs up. That helps determine the
next video that I make. And I wanna thank you
guys so much for watching. I love you, bye bye.
