Thursday, June 22

Outside City Limits? Costco? Sam's Club?

 I know it might seem strange but yesterday we were indeed outside the city limits. We thought we might go to Costco and we still might. But ended up at Sam's Club in Ames.

A few weeks ago I gained 1,750 MyPoints by joining Sam's Club for $35. I have been a MyPoints member for nearly as long as I have been on the computer. 1992? or thereabouts. They send me ads in my email and I can click on them or not. I can visit the site or not. If I got behind I deleted it all. It was never a pain and I racked up points just by clicking a few times. It became an automatic thing almost. Every now and then I would redeem my points for money. Just a few weeks ago I redeemed points and added $50 to my Amazon account. So spending $35 because of an ad was a bit unusual for me. I had a motive. In Texas, Costco is close and easy but in Iowa it is not. Sams Club is closer. I am not at all familiar with Sam's Club so we are in a new learning experience. If we are not convinced in a year we simply will not renew.

For those who doubt me, you can look it up but Costco has been in existence longer than Sam's Club and it appears to me that Sam's Club copied Costco's floor plan and operating system. I will not quibble over it. 

Costco's sample system is much more user-friendly. In Sam's Club, you have to sign your name before you get your sample and I doubt that you can repeat as often as you want as you can at Costco. I know, it's a small thing. Costco's system appears more customer friendly to me.

Sam's Club has far more variety in what they carry although we could not find many of the items we had on our Costco list. Overall, on things we do buy at Costco and they do carry at Sam's Club, Costco was cheaper. Sometimes by as much as $3.00.

Gas is cheaper at Costco. The aisles are wider...much wider in Costco. 3 carts wide.

Time will tell.


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