11 Secrets Sam's Club Employees Know About The Chain Most Customers Don't

If you're trying to save some money at the grocery store (and who isn't these days?), it may make sense to shop at a membership club, like Sam's Club. You can stock up on bulk packages of all your essentials, which can reduce the per weight or per ounce price. But whether you've been a Sam's Club member for years or you're contemplating getting a membership for the first time, there's probably a lot you don't know about the grocery chain.

That's why we're taking a closer look at what actual Sam's Club employees have to say about the popular shopping spot. Over the years, workers have taken to various forums on the internet to divulge Sam's Club secrets that only employees would know. Getting in on these secrets yourself might allow you to make better shopping decisions ... or they may give you more insight into the membership club. Either way, having this insider info might just make your next shopping experience at Sam's Club a bit better.

Sam's Clubs can be massive stores, which can make it difficult to get in, get what you need, and get out again. To make matters worse, these stores can often be crowded and chaotic, which is the last thing you want when you're just trying to get your bulk shopping done for the month. So it can be pretty annoying when the aisle you need to go down is closed off. You may have to wait until the aisle is open again, or perhaps skip that item.

But there's usually a good reason for Sam's Club employees to shut an aisle down, and generally, it's for customer safety. Someone on Reddit who claimed to be a Sam's Club employee said that a customer at their location ignored the caution tape that marked off an aisle where a forklift was operating. The customer was annoyed at the inconvenience, but the poster explained that closing the aisle was a basic safety expectation. On the same thread, another self-proclaimed Sam's Club worker commented that something similar had happened to them, and that the customer said they were going to inform their manager. Little did the customer know, though, that the employee was just following company policy. Therefore, if you can't get down an aisle at Sam's Club, you can probably assume that it's for a good reason.

When you're shopping at Sam's Club, there may be times when something catches your eye and you immediately put it in your cart, maybe without checking the tag. However, according to one Reddit user who claimed to be a Sam's Club employee, you should try to check for barcodes on the product you're buying before taking it to checkout. Apparently, not everything that's on the floor is correctly merchandised, and that means employees might have to track down a version of the item that does have that barcode to see if they can scan it in. And ultimately, if the item doesn't come up in their system, there's not a lot they can do to help you.

This poster said the same was true for incorrect prices. There are some times when the price on the price tag actually doesn't match up with what's in their system. These kinds of situations, the poster wrote, are usually a merchandising problem, and are generally not the cashier's fault. Of course, that can be irritating for customers — if it happens to you, just don't take it out on an employee.

Since Sam's Club is such a big place, it can sometimes be difficult to find what you need. And when you actually do find those items, they might be hard to reach. You might stop an employee and ask them for help, either pointing you in the right direction of an item or actually grabbing it for you. And if that employee blows you off or says they can't help you, there's a good chance that you'll be a bit annoyed. However, one Sam's Club worker explained on Reddit that there are times when they actually can't help you, or they could get in trouble from managers.

"We are stressed and trying to meet unrealistic expectations and goals," they wrote, "and can't stop for small tasks like that or we get in trouble." Honestly, this shouldn't come as a huge surprise, considering that Sam's Club is owned by Walmart, a company that's notorious for its alleged poor treatment of workers. It's annoying when you can't get the help, but before you go off on an employee, recognize that they may not even be in a position to help you in the first place.

When you get a defective product from Sam's Club (or any other store, for that matter), you probably want to get your money back. Sam's Club's generous return policy makes it relatively easy to return most items with only a small number of exceptions, like custom-made items and prescriptions. Of course, there may be times when you actually do have to return a product, but you might want to be careful that you're not too liberal with the returns, because one Sam's Club employee on Reddit said that they're starting to flag customers for excessive returns.

That being said, the same poster said that this policy seemed rarely used and that they'd never actually seen a return get denied. Still, though, you want to be able to return the items that actually are defective, so you might want to be careful with just how much you return if there's not a valid reason.

You can actually return most food to Sam's Club if it's not up to par, which is great when you want to avoid wasting money. But have you ever thought about what happens to the food after you take it back to the store? Unfortunately, it's not exactly being put to good use, according to a Sam's Club employee on Reddit. They said that all food that comes back to the store should be destroyed. That's especially true when it comes to perishable, fresh food. However, they wrote that intact non-perishables can sometimes end up back on the shelf.

We get that the need to destroy the food comes from a food safety perspective. After all, once an item leaves the store, there's no way the staff can tell if it was held at an appropriate temperature and was otherwise not tampered with. But ultimately, it's a bummer knowing that perfectly good food is going to waste.

At the time of publication, a basic Sam's Club membership costs $60 per year following a 2026 rise in membership costs. However, it doesn't exactly compare to the amount of money you spend when you shop there. If you've ever left the store with a fully stocked cart, then you know exactly how pricey those groceries can be, even if you're getting a better deal than you would at a lot of other stores. That may lead you to believe that Sam's Club is making the majority of its money from product sales. Interestingly, though, this doesn't seem to be the case, per a Sam's Club employee on Reddit. "Memberships are our biggest money-makers," they said. 

This claim seems to be true. According to an article published by Retail Dive, Sam's Club then-CFO Todd Sears said in 2025 that 80% to 90% of the company's profits can be attributed to membership sales — not sales of actual products. Perhaps this is why the store can offer such low prices to its customers. Just keep in mind that there are some disadvantages to having a Sam's Club membership, including higher per-unit prices. 

Since Sam's Club is making so much money from its memberships, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the company is going to put a lot of effort into this form of revenue generation. According to some Redditors, Sam's Club pushes employees to make sales on upgraded memberships and credit cards. One of them posted a picture of a slip that they said Sam's Club cashiers were handed at work and said that cashiers were required to sell two Plus memberships and two credit cards every day. That seems like a lot of pressure for the people whose job it is to just check you out.

Apparently, the strategy to sell memberships goes far beyond this initiative, though, at least at some stores. Another Redditor wrote, "There are teams dedicated to getting more people to join our 'club' (cough cult cough)." We get that Sam's has to make money, but we also feel bad for the employees forced to peddle membership upgrades and Sam's Club-branded credit cards.

If you're shopping at Sam's Club, you're a customer of the store — that's obvious. However, it seems like employees at the membership club aren't technically allowed to call the people shopping at the store "customers" at all. Instead, employees are encouraged to call shoppers "members," per one Sam's Club employee on Reddit. However, they clarified that it really mattered which manager was watching you, implying that some take the rule more seriously than others.

Do we understand the sentiment here? Sure. It seems like Sam's Club is trying to cast itself in a more favorable light by declaring itself a club instead of just embracing the fact that it's a store like any other. "Members" sounds more inclusive and a bit less transactional, even though stores are, by nature, transactional. But it sounds incredibly nit-picky to call out employees for using the term "customers" when that's exactly what they are. This policy sort of sounds like Chick-fil-A's insistence that employees say "my pleasure" instead of "you're welcome." Does it really matter that much?

When you want to return an item to a lot of stores out there, you need to have your receipt on you. And if you forget that receipt? You're basically just out of luck. But a lot of customers of Sam's Club may not realize that you don't actually need a receipt to make a return at all at the membership club, according to an alleged employee. They said in a Facebook post that a record of everything you've ever purchased is in your digital account history, so they can simply look up the item you want to return.

Taking a closer look at the store's return policy, it seems like this is mostly true. It says that although the store would prefer if you had a receipt on hand, staff members will do their best to ensure that you actually can make the return. And some on Facebook have said that they have been able to make returns to the store without a receipt. So, should you just throw your receipt in the trash as you're leaving the store? Probably not. But if you misplace it, there's still a good chance you can make that intended return anyway.

If you shop at Sam's Club, you might want to get familiar with the special codes that appear on labels and tags at the store. These codes can give you important information about the product in question's status (similar to Costco's infamous asterisk), which is especially important when it comes to stuff you use on a regular basis. According to one Reddit user who claimed to be a Sam's Club employee, if a product's tag has a "C" on it, that usually means the product has been cancelled and won't be coming back.

Of course, it's a bummer to see that "C" on a product you really love, but knowing that it's likely going away in the future is valuable information. It gives you an opportunity to stock up on that product before you can't find it anymore. Sam's Club uses other codes on its product  tags as well. "N" allegedly means the product will always stick around, while "A" indicates that the item is active. Additionally, you'll find an "S" on seasonal products.

You might assume that employees get a comprehensive discount at just about every store. After all, if you're spending all day in the store, it only seems fair to get a lower price on your groceries. According to a Sam's Club employee on Reddit, though, employees actually don't get a discount at all — just a free membership.

This doesn't entirely match up with the stated benefits on the company website, though. Those benefits indicate that employees actually do get 10% off fresh fruits and vegetables, which isn't nothing. However, the discount is far from comprehensive, which means that employees aren't getting a discount on most products in the store. In fact, those fresh fruits and vegetables might be impractical for some, since those with smaller households may find it difficult to use up bulk amounts of fresh produce before it goes bad. We guess it's good that Sam's Club is giving its employees some benefits, but that measly 10% off a very limited number of products is a pretty disappointing policy.