Should I give up my Sam's club membership for one at BJ's

My Sam's club membership expires this month and after 10-15 years I'm considering dropping them. I've only bought gas occasionally and a few other items this past year.  We do have a BJ's close by but I don't know if they are worth the membership fee either. Costco is not close to our area. What does everyone think?

"Should I give up my Sam's club membership for BJ's?"
 
Whoa!  Talk about a loaded question!

joerogo


"Should I give up my Sam's club membership for BJ's?"

Whoa!  Talk about a loaded question!

Oh My!! I didn't realize. I changed the subject line a bit.

   But I don't remember why !

 I must be laughing at Al.

We don't have BJ's around here ! (read into that whatever your evil little minds want to !!!), However we have a SAM's about 15 miles from here, on the Indiana side of the River...then Costco is 15 miles further, on the N E side of Louisville. For us to double our shopping distance, considering the amount we spend (@ $150-200 a month), It would seem that SAM's would hold the advantage for our choice of locations.  NOT SO.  We have a strong bias for COSTCO, perhaps stemming from our membership in Price Club out in SoCal before PC merged with COSTCO. We like to think that we find better quality products at COSTCO, but I have no side-by-side comparisons to prove that belief.
We have retrieved over $200 each year in cash rebates using the Business edition of the membership. The cost is $100 per year, but receiving double that in 'cash-back' on our purchases (and on-line shopping) has far-more than paid for the membership each year we have had it.

I became a member of Costco because they had the best deal on a set of four tires by $60 over anyone else. That paid for my membership with $10 to spare. I enjoy going to Costco but can't justify the membership fee. So I will probably drop it. If I only lived closer than the 12 miles it is from my house I could lunch there on their samples every day and take better advantage of their gas pumps. Besides, I get a 10% discount at Target on everything including food as a retiree and an additional 5% discount when using my Target Visa for the purchases. On top of that a couple of times per year for a whole month I also got an additional 10% discount for employees and retirees on house brand foods like Archer Farms and Market Pantry. Adding them all together that is a pretty steep discount. Bottom line there is no other retailer that can touch those deals for me since Target has a policy of price matching or beating Walmart within 5% on any identical item. You just can't get tires at Target.

We have A BJ's and a Sams virtually across the road from each. I think BJ's has a trial membership so I may check that out.

We have 4 Costcos,  3 BJ's and 1 Sams within a 15 minute ride here on Long Island.

If I could rent a bedroom at COSTCO, I would.

I am seriously looking at the Costco Savings accounts as an improved interest payer over what our local banks are paying. More on that by the first of the year.

mayor al


I am seriously looking at the Costco Savings accounts as an improved interest payer over what our local banks are paying. More on that by the first of the year.

How this flew under my radar is a mystery to me, maybe it's a regional thing.
Al, if Costco has a fault, I've yet to find it...They just gave me a full refund on a Visio TV I bought there about 1 1/2 years ago. Many of the cashiers know everyone by name...they save the heaviest cases of their Swift packed Baby Backs for me...many of them treck up from Frederick as regulars here...they have answeres to questions, never seen an attitude on one of them...they treat their employees right, who in turn treat the customers right, a model company.

I believe they have a good deal on mouthwash at BJ's.

We have a Sam's and a Costco but the Sam's is only a mile from my house so that's what we stick with. We buy all our gas there because they are consistently 10 cents cheaper than anyone else. There is only 2 of us so we don't buy a lot of bulk but over the last few years we have bought 2 TV's, a digital camera and some computer related items, all at considerable savings.

I guess we don't have many folks who use BJ's Wholesale club as we haven't had many comments on them. I did notice their memberships are $45 a year as opposed to $35 for Sam's  so that may be a deal killer. On the plus side they do advertise they sell smaller quantities and take coupons.

Kland,
Funny you should mention the gas prices for the clubs. We find that it is about a 50/50 split on the price at Costco being cheaper than the discount gas stations (Circle K etc) It always seems to be that If I don't check the gas stations price on the way to Costco...then fill up at Costco, the prices at the gas stations will be quite a bit cheaper than the 'Club price'...and the opposite is also true...Fill at a local station, then find Costco to be cheaper when we arrive.
  Fueling can be a complex operation for us !!!!

Do you know anyone with a BJ's membership? If so, tag along one day and see how you like it. Or if I am not mistaken, arent you allowed a visitors pass at those places? Just a thought..

<<Or if I am not mistaken, arent you allowed a visitors pass at those places? Just a thought.. >>
 
There is a BJs within a few miles of us, and the nearest Costco is 10 miles away, but we much prefer Costco. BJ's does offer a trial membership, which is how we tried it out, but if I remember correctly you do not get the full BJs discount unless you sign up as a "real" member. Trial members had something like a 10% surcharge on all purchases. In any event, after a couple of trips, we dropped the trial.

On BJ's website they do say there is a 15% surcharge on the one day pass but they don't mention any surcharge on the 60 day trial membership. I was really looking to compare them to Sam's. Actually I may end up with neither. Costco is 40 miles from here whereas Sam's and BJ's are about 5 miles away.

mayor al


Kland,
Funny you should mention the gas prices for the clubs. We find that it is about a 50/50 split on the price at Costco being cheaper than the discount gas stations (Circle K etc) It always seems to be that If I don't check the gas stations price on the way to Costco...then fill up at Costco, the prices at the gas stations will be quite a bit cheaper than the 'Club price'...and the opposite is also true...Fill at a local station, then find Costco to be cheaper when we arrive.
Fueling can be a complex operation for us !!!!

 
We don't have any discount gas stations so Sam's is always the lowest price. What kills us is the gas tax we pay as part of being a Chicago "collar" county, supporting public mass transit that we don't have or use. Gas is around $3.00 and up right now. We figure that the gas savings alone have paid for our membership fee.

When we moved here we were offered a trial membership to BJs. I shopped there twice. Not much of a cheese selection and the meat is all select grade. We cancelled our membership and got a refund since there wasn't such a great selection of anything else, either. We now belong to Sam's, which is a lot better, with good meat and produce, but as soon as the Sarasota Costco is open (probably not until 2012) we will switch. We belonged to the Costco when we lived in Frederick, MD and also in Pittsburgh and much prefer it to any other big warehouse store.