Costco vs. Sam’s vs. BJs: part 4

All three of these chains are warehouse stores and therefore sell items in bulk. However, there are differences among them with respect to size of items, variety of items, and quality of items.

Costco:

In general, Costco sells items in the largest quantities. It can be hard to justify buying many if the items for a small family because of the large number of items that are often included in a single pack. For example eggs are sold in packs of 36, cantaloupes are sold in triplicate, and toilet paper comes in a pack of 30 rolls. My family shopped there for just the four of us and I assumed other small families also treated it as a grocery store. Therefore, growing up, I couldn’t figure out who would need a pack of 5000 drinking straws. However, after I started working in kitchens and catering during college, I realized that the owners shopped there. Imagine that…Costco was not just for  and families like mine that did not see anything odd about having an entire cabinet dedicated to toilet paper and paper towels.

Costco has quite the variety of items, selling things from milk to socks to eyeglasses to caskets (yes, caskets) to diamonds, and most recently, cars. In fact, a fun game is to identify the oddest combination of items purchased by fellow shoppers (slippers, smoked salmon, and a kayak perhaps?) However, this wide range of items limits the choice of brand on any one product. For example, you can buy a TV, a jacket, a loaf of bread, and razors in one trip but you will be limited to one or two brand options. One odd exception is the lox, of which they sell about five varieties…not sure why…

The exclusive Costco brand is Kirkland. Although store brands often have a bad reputation as being lower quality, this is certainly not the case with Kirkland. Every item I have bought in this brand has been at least as good as (often better) than name brands. And of course, tends to be less expensive.

BJs:

Although still in bulk, BJs tends to carry items in slightly smaller sizes than does Costco. Therefore, it can be more reasonable for a smaller family.

There is a large variety of items at BJs, including food, clothes, electronics, and furniture, but the store does not carry quite as many items as does Costco. One item that BJs sells that Costco does not sell, are greeting cards.

BJs carries two of their own brands. One, Berkley-Jensen, produces both food and non-food items and is the more simple of the private brands. The other, Wellesley Farms, is intended to be more upscale food items, ranging from dairy products, baked goods, and prepared meals.  As I tend to get more name brand items at BJs (e.g.,  bread, blintzes, potato pancakes, snack foods), I do not know as much about these private brands as I do about Costco. However, I can speak very highly of the Wellesley Farms New York style cheesecake. As I have mentioned, Growi g up, I frequently visited my grandparents in New York. One of my favorite memories is of lying between them on their bed, eating cheesecake and watching the Golden Girls (because these ladies always ate cheesecake, I wanted it while I watched). The NY cheesecakes were excellent, and this version from BJs is on par with any of them.

Sam’s:

Similar to BJs, Sam’s also sells slightly smaller quantities and has fewer products than Costco.

Their private label is “Member’s Mark”, although I also saw mention of a few higher quality labels, Artisan Fresh, Daily Chef and Simply Right.

Because I don’t know nearly as much about the variety and quality of items at the non-Costco stores (especially Sam’s)and feel free to chime in!

Which is your favorite club store? Why?

Have you ever been a member of more than one at once?

What do you think about the private label products?