Sam's Club Or Costco

[penguin]

As a transplant from NW Arkansas, I have a loyalty to Sam's Club for my bulk buying needs, but since I no longer live in Wal-Mart monopoly land, I feel I should look into Costco. I think the last time I stepped foot in Costco was when I was little, so I don't know what's in there.

From a gluten-free perspective, which do y'all prefer?

TIA

[VydorScope]

Sam's but only cause Ive never even seen a Costco anywhere around here

[Girl Ninja]

I used to work for and shop at Sam's Club. Now I shop at Costco. We have both very close to one another and as far as I can tell they are pretty much identical as far as product selection.

[gavinsdaddy]

costco they take care of the people that work for them and pay them pretty good.

[queenofhearts]

If I had a Costco nearby I'd go there, because of their fair labor practices, & just because they are not part of the Unholy Walmart Empire-- sorry if that offends, ChelsE, but I do object to many of their business practices.

Unfortunately there's not a Costco in my city yet (I do hear rumors one is coming), but I stopped going to Sam's after reading Nickel & Dimed...

My brother has a Costco nearby & shops there almost exclusively. Their quality seems very good, from my second-hand knowledge.

Leah

[jenvan]

We also prefer costco. They do have great benefits and pay, but we feel they carry products that are a step higher than Sam's club in quality. Not meaning to offend anyone on that statement! We don't usually buy generic, but have bought the Kirkland (costco brand) of products several times and each one has been great. We primarily buy our toliet paper, paper towels etc there. Oh, they do have some really great food and meats too--comes in handy when throwing a large party or bbq.

[debbiewil]

Costco. There are a number of Costco brand (Kirkland) products that are gluten-free. Their rotisserie chicken and chicken wings (not the ribs) in the deli dept are gluten-free for a fast dinner or emergency pot luck. And their fresh produce is much better than the selection at Sam's.

On the other hand, Sam's has better prices on some products, like frozen fish and some meats. But you have to buy more bulk.

Debbie

[ehrin]

I have to agree with the other posters that won't succumb to Wal-Mart or Sam's club. I wont shop at either and actually just finished a great book:

How Walmart is Destroying America and the World and What You Can Do About It -

I'd highly recommend it for those that posted their distaste.

I actually don't shop at either - I shop at BJ's and they do have a nice selection.

I'd have to think though that all three are pretty comparable (except for business practices).

I also hope to not have offended anyone.

[penguin]

I'm not offended at people's dislike for WalMart. My university had the Walton College of Business, Bud Walton Arena, Walton Hall, Walton Honor's College, the list goes on and on. Of course, we also have the Tyson school for poultry science (for real), Tyson track center, and they take care of "Tusk" (the mascot). As you can imagine, in NW Arkansas, you have no choice to shop at Sam's club and WalMart and buy Tyson chicken It sucked. I spend so much money there in college I probably paid for several fellowships that weren't mine and smartboards in the business school I wasn't in I'm not the biggest Wally World fan.

Now that I'm in hippy granola Austin, I have options

I went to Costco during lunch and I liked the products they had. Anyplace I can get Pacific Organic chicken broth and shelf-stable organic milk, I'm in! Their produce was also MUCH better. I'm going to have to talk my Wal-Mart lovin' DH into a costco membership...

(I like BJ's too, but we don't have any down here. I think that's a NE thing)

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Shelf-stable organic milk? Wow, I gotta go back to Costco! We belong to both--Sam's Club used to be 5 minutes away, but they moved15 minutes further away. Costco is 1/2 hour away, but they had a coupon/gift card offer that made it basically a free membership (well, for one year, anyway), so I signed up. I missed the shelf-stable organic milk, though--gotta look for that. And I didn't know their rotisserie chicks were gluten-free--definite plus!

Can you summarize How Walmart is Destroying America for this thread?

[CarlaB]

I used to live in a small town. There was a Wal-Mart, within a few years of it opening, every store in the quaint downtown was closed, even the Radio Shack. Now it's basically a ghost town.

On the one hand, more people in that town are employed (by Wal-Mart) and goods are cheaper. It could be argued that they would have driven to the next town over (15 minute drive) to go to KMart or Target, etc., which would mean it wasn't necessarily Wal-Mart that shut down the town, just the natural evolution of business to be more efficient.

Personally, I'm neither for them nor against them. But I believe the argument is that they put small business owners in rural communities out of business. At least that's the issue I was exposed to in our rural town. I remember when gas stations used to be local ... now they're all chains. It's the same type of "progress." Same argument could be used against Starbucks and Kroger as well.

[ehrin]

I don't want to delve too deeply into the subject - it tends to offend some people, so I'll ask you to do a bit of research - buy the book even! It's very inexpensive...I don't mean to sound rude, but in a public forum such as this it can just stir up too much debate.

I will leave you with this link:

Open Original Shared Link

it's intense, but accurate