Costco vs. Sam’s vs. BJs: part 1

I am aware of three current warehouse stores in the United States: Costco, BJs, and Sams. At various times, I have been a member of all three, and, ridiculously enough, for a brief period of time, belonged to all three. The three overlapping memberships occurred because, (of course) I was a Costco member, but BJs was much closer to my house. Therefore, it was much more convenient to visit the latter for the frequent milk and banana purchases. Then, Sam’s had a great offer on a relatively expensive item (I can no longer recall what it was), with the savings so large that it more than paid for the membership. The local Sam’s has since closed, so now I belong to *only* two of them.

My preference is clearly Costco (you don’t see me writing a “Browsing BJs” or a “Strolling Sam’s” blog, do you? 😜) but I also enjoy going to BJs (and, if Sam’s were still convenient, I imagine that I’d have trouble resisting a membership there too…what can I say? I am a warehouse junkie…) Given the many similarities as well as differences among the three stores, I thought it would make sense to write a series of posts comparing them on a variety of topics.

Because the most obvious commonality across the stores is the membership fee, I will start the series with a discussion their membership levels and fees.

Each of the three stores has a few levels of membership.

Costco: The basic membership level at Costco costs $55 and entitles members to cards per household. Second, there is a business membership which also costs $55 and provides members with a business card and a household card. In addition, they can add up to six additional business associates for the same price.Finally, there is the executive membership for $110, about which I have already written https://cruisingcostco.wordpress.com/2015/11/30/costco-executives/. Sam’s: Sam’s also has three levels of membership. The basic membership, called “Sam’s Savings” costs $45 a year and includes two cards for the household. For the same $45, business owners can purchase a “Sam’s Business” membership, which enables them to shop at earlier hours and, for an additional $45 each, can add up to eight additional members. The third option, “Sam’s Plus” costs $100 a year and entitles individuals or businesses to additional discounts including medications, eyeglasses and contacts. Then, in addition to these three basic memberships, Sam’s has an offer for college students or members of the military. These special offers include the original membership with a $15 gift card upon signing up or renewing. BJs: Similar to the other stores, BJs has multiple types of memberships. The Inner Circle (personal) memberships cost $50 per year and provide the member with two cards for one household. They also offer a discounted fee (I was unable to find this cost on the website) for active military personnel and veterans. Business memberships, which also cost $50 permit business associates to have two cards and then purchase up to eight additional cards for the same business address. The above memberships can be upgrades to a BJs Perk Rewards Membership for an additional charge of $50. This upgrade entitles members to earn awards of 2% of eligible purchases in-store and online. There are two other offers at BJs. College memberships are discounted (again, I was unable to obtain the price from the website) and provide the member with up to three additional cards for those at the same residence. These memberships are not eligible for the upgrade. Finally, periodically, there are promotions to invited individuals for no- or low-cost membership fees for a limited length of time (e,g., 60 days).