Costco Card @ SamsClub

You don't have to be a member of anything other than the human race to shop at Sam's Club. If you are not a member, you pay 10 percent more(not including pharmacy).

Big Katuna wrote:
FYI you don't need a membership to buy from their pharmacy or liquor store.

I don't know about the liquor, but, per federal law, if the pharmacy accepts any federal money (e.g. medicaid, medicare part D plans, tricare) it can NOT exclude anyone. Like was said, tell the greeter you are going to the pharmacy.

Sams does this to draw in people from costco. Costco dosent there stores are showing twice the growth over sams

Elizabeth24 wrote:
Membership card

NO. They are 2 totally different companies.

I've had a business membership with 5 additional associate members on our Sam's membership Card since the late 1980's and always have been very satisfied. Several years ago we went to a Cosco in Florida with some friends who were members. Was not impressed in the least. We signed a register to get membership info and holy cow! For years after Cosco just kept calling and sending emails to me trying to get us to join. No way!

Yes, for a few months until July 4th 2016 Sam's was letting non-Sam's Club who were Cosco members to use their Sam's Club Stores with their Cosco membership card. Must have been good for Sam's as it was reported that they got a very large surge in new members from doing this. We have 4 Sam's Clubs and 2 Cosco's in our area and the amount of cars in Sam's VS Cosco parking lots tells the story as to which is the most desired by about 3 to one per store.

Simply put, a Cosco membership card won't get you into a Sam's Club to purchase goods in the main store as you have to present a membership card at the door when entering and a valid up to date Sam's membership card at the register to be swiped before the Sam's employee can even scan a bar code and enter the first item. The valid membership card activates the register and your name on the card appears on the register's screen! BTW, Sam's Membership Cards have your picture on them so if you don't match the pic, the manager will come to see you and they take it seriously as this finds stolen or lost cards so quickly and efficiently.

For the winter season in Florida we go to Sams and purchase a snow bird membership which is good for 6 months.

IAMICHABOD wrote:

Big Katuna wrote:
FYI you don't need a membership to buy from their pharmacy or liquor store.

Pharmacy is open to everyone,just tell the greeter that is where you are going.

As for liquor only Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Texas and Vermont allow it by state law.

The liquor laws are irrelevant in the case of Vermont since there are no Sam's Clubs in Vermont.

They do also have a temporary non-member pass you can print off use to get a free one-day membership. There is a surcharge of a few percent on purchases in that case. Even with the surcharge, it ended up being the best deal somewhat locally for me when I needed to buy a pair of golf cart batteries for my motorhome.

azjeffh wrote:

IAMICHABOD wrote:
They did for a short time ending July 4th 2016.
Costco at Sams

Very clever marketing strategy. Wonder how many Costco customers they gained?

Not me, we were not impressed.

We've been in both a SAM's and BJ's Liquor Store section in Florida, and per Florida law the Liquor Store is open to the general Public.

Big Katuna wrote:
FYI you don't need a membership to buy from their pharmacy or liquor store.

Pharmacy is open to everyone,just tell the greeter that is where you are going.

As for liquor only Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Texas and Vermont allow it by state law.