Which do you prefer. Costco, Sam's Club, or neither? I have memberships to both. I prefer Sam's for daily staples. Milk, potatoes, onions, chicken, beef. My Sam's is almost never busy, has a great liquor store attached, and is super close. Since COVID and greedflation we've mostly stopped eating out and 90% of all our groceries come from Sam's. For everything else I like Costco. I use them for travel and get my car insurance through them. I've bought my mattresses, TVs, computer monitors, cell phones, and last week I got a new kitchen sink. But my closest Costco is always packed and has all the charm of merging onto the interstate during rush hour.
My comparison won't be fair because I had a Sam's Club membership like 20 years ago and just started shopping at Costco within the past few years, but time frames aside I've found Costco to have pretty solid quality whereas I thought Sam's Club products were lower end Wal-mart cheap stuff. I found the food at Sam's Club in particularly to be barely edible (some really nasty macaroni salad came to mind; I bought a large container and ended up throwing most of it away), whereas the food at Costco wasn't quite as impressive as Trader Joe's or Earth Fare but a lot closer than I expected. Their Kirkland brand stuff has been pretty good quality, and they probably have the best budget priced extra virgin olive oil (and is actually real EVOO, unlike most cheap brands) I've used. I will note I think I may have got food poisoning from a soup at Costco, but I'm not 100% certain because food poisoning can take up to a couple of days to fully manifest and I had a few different meals over than span of time. I'm just not buying that brand of soup there again just to be sure. I haven't had anything else there I suspected was foul or contaminated in any way, and the Kirkland brand stuff has always been good quality so far. Sam's Club may be way better now than it was years ago, though. I've never been particularly fond of Wal-mart in general, either, so that connection is probably a negative influence on my view of it.
We’ve actually been eating out a lot more since greedflation hit. There’s very little difference in price between buying groceries at Publix vs eating out. I’d go to Costco more, but ours is about 25-30 minutes away from our house through extremely heavy traffic and it's always insanely busy. There's usually a line down the road to get into it. We go there once every month or two. But it’s a gigantic hassle to shop there. I do like Costco though. We bought our appliances there. It's great for tires. If it was closer and not so crowded I would go more. The food there is great. They carry great products. They're also really good about standing behind stuff if you have an issue. You can return almost anything. I have no experience with Sam's Club.
I've gotten several packages of chicken from Costco that have been open and at least 2 that had bad chicken in them. I don't buy their packaged chicken anymore. I think Sam's meat is just better in general although individual location may vary depending on their supplier. Costco's bakery is way better. Their made to order sheet cakes are amazing and all the stuff on the shelf is better too. I also like the Kirkland XO cognac. It never felt like Sam's is just another Walmart store to me, but maybe long ago it was. Their meats and produce are way better than Walmart.
In general, the main draw to Costco is that they cater to the location that they're in. So for example, if the Costco is in an area with fairly large asian population, they'll carry a lot of specialty products for the asian members. My costco has an extremely large south asian population (indian). I'd say on any given day, the warehouse is 75% full of south asians. The dairy cooler has only Silk almond milk as an alternative and the rest of the cooler is regular milk. If I go to another costco in a less diverse and mainly black/white american population, the dairy cooler has all sorts of oat milk, skim milk, etc. My costco also has a very diverse produce and dried fruit area and other indian foods like ghee butter.. they also set up an entire diwali fireworks area when the time comes. The costco rule of pricing at 15% profit margin cap on their products really helps too. My mom goes to the asian market and buys chinese sausage for $13.99 for a pack. Costco sells a 2-pack for the same price.
I have a slight preference for Costco. They tend to carry upscale groceries (think Whole Foods) at much cheap prices. But other than that no difference. I've also been burned on moldy bread though so it's not perfect. Use Google to check traffic patterns for your store. My store is virtually empty Weeknights nights after 7:00pm so that's when I go. I agree. I think struggling restraunts have so many deals nowadays you could be losing money cooking. But it's probably not a good idea to overdo it because we're old now lol. Do you think you could've just got sick at Costco? I read that the store was considered a superspreader location for Covid since it's constantly insanely busy. Dude. I thought the dried mango could not be beat but the dried strawberry is somehow 100x better. I don't make eyecontact with it now though. I'm still dodging the beetus like NEO. I wish they carried FairLife milk, it's basically whey protein in direct milk form. Made by Coca Cola lol. It's so ungodly expensive everywhere else.
I got my first case of FairLife protein shakes at Sams. $20.98 for 12. The dried mango is da bomb. Haven't seen the strawberries but now I'm going to look for them. I'm not sure how you could lose money cooking. I love chicken thighs and I get 4 pounds of boneless for about $14. I make curries, stews, white chili, grilled chicken teriyaki. I can feed 4 people for about $30. Heck I can do a Sam's club filet mignon dinner for about $60. $50 for 4 steaks and maybe $10 for baked potatoes, corn and Caesar salad. The last time I went out to eat I paid $90 for a mediocre breakfast at iHop. It's pretty rare that I go to a normal grocery store but when I do there is a bit of sticker shock. If any of you say you're doing Door Dash I'm going to turn into a Grampa and yell at you for wasting money. And don't get me started on today's tipping culture!
costco does carry fairlife. does your location not? it’s only in chocolate but it’s an 18 pack for $31.99 i know my location sells out pretty fast so maybe it’s the same as your’s and you tend to not see it because of that?
I meant regular Fairlife (Skim) Milk. The nutritional value is very very close to protein powder but it's just milk without a ton of synthetic ingrediants.
I cook almost every meal and usually save a lot of money. I have a pretty decent dual zone air fryer that was also on sale from Costco for $99.
Did you mean my post? It is real milk and tastes better than anything else on the shelf. It's just filtered to remove lactose, 50% of the sugar, then 50% more protein. But there is nothng syntehic about it. I use the full fat version to make super high protein greek yogurt lol. You fatties defintely should be switching.
DUDE! Me and bfun were talking about that airfryer in another thread. No concerns about the teflon? I missed the $99 sale and have been kicking myself.
I have the Midea dual zone air fryer. I wouldn't say I have zero concerns, but I think I'll be OK as long as I replace when it starts to get old and worn. I clean it by soaking it first then using a soft sponge so I don't chip or scrape anything off. I have read the more recently manufactured teflon products are safer than in the past, but apparently the manufacturing process to make it is still pretty terrible for the environment.
I'm lactose intolerant. I don't drink any milk. I would be willing to bet it still has some lactose and would make me sick.
Hi, I have memberships to both Costco and Sam's Club too, and it's interesting to see how each serves different needs. Here's my take: I also prefer Sam's Club for daily staples. The convenience of it being less busy and closer makes a huge difference, especially for routine shopping trips. Plus, their liquor store is a nice bonus. Since COVID, like you, I've cut back on eating out and rely heavily on Sam's for groceries. Their selection of essentials like milk, potatoes, onions, chicken, and beef is consistently good. On the other hand, Costco is my go-to for bigger purchases and services. I've found their travel deals and car insurance offerings to be quite competitive. Plus, their quality on items like mattresses, electronics, and even things like kitchen sinks is hard to beat. However, the crowded store and hectic parking lot can be a real drawback. Both have their strengths, and having memberships to both can cover a wide range of needs quite effectively. It's all about finding the right balance and using each store for what they do best. Best regards, Jack ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ check my website; https://mazzani.pl