Sam's Club Beats Costco In This Shopper Experience Category

Costco has Sam Club beat in terms of organic food, premium products, and employee pay and benefits, but Sam's Club wins in one shopper experience category. We all know part of the Costco experience is dealing the inconvenient parking and crowds, so Sam's Club makes things feel easier. If convenience is your highest priority, Sam's Club's curbside pickup makes the membership worth it to simply pull up, pick up, and take off. In fact, we named Sam's Club one of the 14 best grocery store chains for pick-up orders.

In comparison, Costco is way behind on the curbside pickup trend. You're stuck getting your step count goals in walking to and through the warehouse or paying an exorbitant amount for an Instacart shopper. The warehouse chain has stated that storage and space for pickup orders were major issues. It also prefers customers to shop inside, where impulse purchases are more likely. To be fair, the warehouse team did test curbside pickup at a few Albuquerque locations in 2021 but determined it didn't make sense for the company to roll out long term.

Curbside pickup has become standard across major retailers, especially after the pandemic forced many stores to adapt. Of the two major warehouse retailers, though, Sam's Club is the only one that offers this service. Costco does not offer curbside pickup. With Sam's Club, you choose your products online or through the app, check out, and pull into a designated spot to receive your haul. You don't even need to load it into the car yourself, perfect if you want bulk items without the heavy lifting.

Sam's Club Plus members can use free curbside pickup as early as 7:00 a.m. on weekdays through Saturday and 8:00 a.m. on Sunday until 6:00 p.m. Regular club members can pick up from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Sunday .

How do you does curbside pickup work? When shopping online, select the pickup option as you add items to your cart. This even applies to refrigerated or frozen items, since they are kept in controlled temperatures until you arrive. When your order is ready, you'll get a notification through the app, text, or email .

If you can't make it at your scheduled pickup time, you have up to 24 hours to pick up your order. After that, the order will be canceled and you'll need to complete the process again. When picking up the order, you'll need to provide the order number and a government-issued ID. For added convenience, you can also designate someone else to pick up your order during checkout by choosing the "additional pickup person" feature. Just make sure to do it before you submit your order, as you can't change the pickup person later.

Beyond curbside pickup, Sam's Club may have Costco beat in terms of convenience. Instead of struggling to find parking miles away and waiting in long lines, Sam's Club members have many membership perks that can streamline the shopping experience. For instance, Sam's Club Plus members have early shopping hours, so they can pickup curbside as early as 7:00 a.m. That's a couple of hours before Costco Executive members can step inside the warehouse.

Aside from the early shopping hours, you can enjoy the Scan & Go feature. Simply open your app, tap Scan & Go, and scan your barcodes as you shop. You can check out through the app and show your exit code when leaving the warehouse. No need to wait in a long line. It's basically a self-checkout as you go. The feature also lets you order items from the café beforehand so you can pick up a slice or hot dog right after you're done shopping, with no waiting needed.

On a similar note, Sam's Club members can enjoy free shipping on many items and free same-day delivery with purchases over $50. That's a bit better than Costco's $75 minimum for free two-day delivery. These are just some of many things Sam Clubs does better than Costco and can make it a worthy alternative to Costco or a complement if you want the best of both worlds.