In honor of tax-free weekend, Sam's Club is hosting an open house. This means that anyone can shop there, regardless of whether you have a membership or have paid the fee. This includes online at their Sam's Club website as well.
I encourage you to check it out but be sure to compare prices. I have found repeatedly that prices on groceries are not very good. Even if you don't use coupons but simply buy on sale at the grocery store, grocery store prices usually beat Sam's prices. If you use coupons on top of the grocery sales, they obliterate Sam's prices. Here is an example:
Harris Teeter offered me an EVIC special on Tide where I can get 50 oz for $4.97. I can buy up to two of these at that price, so that's a total of 100 ounces of Tide for 9.94.
Now, check out this article that touts the absurdity of how great the prices are at Sam's Club. The writer's first example uses Tide and how you can get 200 ounces at Sam's Club for $22.98. That makes 100 ounces $11.49, which is already higher than Harris Teeter's price of $9.94 for 100 ounces. And I haven't even used coupons, yet, to boot!
Sam's Club does not take coupons but Harris Teeter does. What if I use coupons at Harris Teeter on the Tide?
Sam's Price- $22.98 for 200 ounces (100 ounces would be $11.49)
No coupons allowed at Sams Club
Harris Teeter EVIC Price: $9.94 for 100 ounces (bought in two containers of 50 oz each)
Coupons:
$.75 off one Tide from August P&G insert (use two, one for each container)= $1.50 off
Doubled Coupons- Harris Teeter will double the above coupons= $1.50 off
Harris Teeter Digital EVIC Coupon- an extra $1.00 off
$9.94-$1.50-$1.50-$1.00= $5.94 for 100 ounces of Tide at Harris Teeter versus $11.49 at Sam's!
As you can see, the Tide is over TWICE as much at Sam's Club and normally you would have to buy a Sam's membership to have the privilege of overpaying! Clearly that article's writer has never compared grocery sales prices or used coupons.
Do your homework, though- I have found gas to be a deal at Sam's, provided you don't have to go out of your way to get there. My husband has a free work membership and if I'm near Sam's I fill up there. However......lately I've been getting gas at Wilco/Hess for less than Sam's because I use the Lowes Foods Gas Rewards program. Also, I did get a great Tupperware set from there that was actually less than Amazon.com's price. So again, there may be some deals but I still do better on groceries at the grocery store.
Perhaps you can use this membership free weekend as an opportunity to compare prices at Sam's with the sales you find at local grocery stores. I am almost 100% sure you will find the same result that I do- Sam's is not the place to get a bargain.
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