Sam’s versus Costco

I have been a Costco member for a few months, long enough to give an accurate opinion of what I do and don’t like about Costco in comparison to Sam’s Club.

From a  moral/ethical standpoint Costco wins hands down.  They treat their employees much better than Sam’s does.  Costco also seems more concerned with supporting made in America products more so than Sam’s does.

Costco seems to have more ancillary services tied to their membership than Sam’s does.  They also have a more diverse online web store.

However here is what I DON’T like about my local Costco.

It is swamped, all the time, especially during snowbird season.  I used to think Sam’s got busy at times.  It’s nothing compared to Costco.  The Sam’s Club  floor plan is more wide open than Costco as well.  I never get away from the feeling of being crowded in Costco, ever. When I stopped at Sam’s on Friday it wasn’t bad at all, I didn’t feel like I was drowning in humanity once.

Costco has no labels on it’s aisles (Sam’s does) other than some number that means nothing to me.  How hard is it to post signage identifying the type of products that are in a particular aisle?  It makes it annoying to figure out where stuff is, especially if you are new to the store.  I don’t want to have to snake up and down every aisle in the store to figure out where the item I need is located.

There are a couple things that I can’t get at Costco like Zone Bars, which I can understand  I guess.  What I can’t understand is why they don’t sell something like bulk bags of outdoor bird seed.

The parking lot at my Costco is poorly designed and a royal pain in the ass to get into and out of.  The Sam’s parking lot isn’t great but it is way better than the Costco maze.

Finally, Costco doesn’t have self check out lines, something Sam’s implemented in the last year.  I always prefer to check myself out when possible.  The line is almost always non-existent since so many people are lazy fat asses that view self checkout as being too much like work.

So I currently have both club memberships since my Sam’s card auto renewed last October.  I intended to totally remove Sam’s Club from my life but the Costco negatives I listed here has that plan up in the air.