Sears and K-mart are merging.

[Doramius]

I agree with you Roundabout regarding Sam's vs. Costco. However, there are a ton of things Costco has that Sam's doesn't. Or at least at the Costco I go to here. If I need food or general products like DVDs, TV, toothpaste, diapers, soap, etc. then I go to Sam's Club. Far cheaper and same quality. Coscto has some higher end items in furniture every so often. It's still pricey, but the selection is decent. My wife has a free Costco card from her work. Everyone else we know has a Sam's Club and there is always someone going when we want to go, so we haven't needed to purchase a club membership there either.

My biggest peeve with Costco are the hours they run it. I go there at 7PM on a Saturday and they are closed. I went there at 9:10PM in the middle of the summer on a Friday night and they were closed. All these times they were closed and I would go to Sam's and find them open. More than happy to give my business to someone who actually is open during peak shopping hours. Sam's even has certain business memberships that allow people in for 1 or 2 hours before the store's actual opening time.

[Roundabout]

You're right, Costco does have some items (mostly furniture type things, like you noted) that are completely different to what Sam's has. And Costco does have a better selection of those type of items than Sam's, though I don't buy those kinds of things every day. I haven't tried to price compare those things, but I have bought some furniture items at Sam's - recently I bought a wooden bench and a bookcase - they were bargains at Sam's. The bookcase in particular, is very good quality, real wood (not that pressed wood chip crap) and on top of that, they had lowered the price from $179 down to $149, a savings of $30 on something I was going to buy anyway.

Another thing I find at Sam's that I've never seen at Costco is clearance or closeout items. I bought a set of four lamps for the living room that was originally $89.99 for $49.99 just because the box was opened. Nothing wrong with them, but no box. I've bought dozens of items there this way, anything that is open box is clearanced and usually for around half price. I even bought my lawn mower that way there. I bought an MP3 Boombox for half price, no box, works great. I constantly see PC's and monitors, some with box, some without, for bargain prices. Even some food items, like boxes of candy bars, etc (some brats opened and ate one, usually) for half price. At Costco, they'd rather throw it out than clearance it.

AFIAK, Costco never marks anything as clearance, at least I've never seen anything there with a markdown tag. I'm not going out on a limb and saying they never do it, just that I myself have never seen any. At Sam's, it's every day. They even mark down meat that is a day or two old, every morning. If you come when they open, you can find yesterday's meat for 30 - 50% off, so you can eat steak on the cheap. I love it.

I definitely agree with you about the hours, too. I've gone to Costco on days when I thought they'd be open (July 4) and they were closed. Sam's was open for business. I guess Costco doesn't care that they lose business that way. Sam's has better hours and lower prices, that's the reason they get my business. Not because they are necessarily better, but they try harder to get my business, not because I'm saying "Costco sucks". I like Costco too, but Sam's is better IMO.

I think both stores should be open better hours, this may vary by location, but here even Sam's closes by 8:30 on weekdays and Saturday, and at 6:30 on Sunday. I wish both would be open till at least 9:00 Monday to Sat. and till 7 or 8 on Sunday. I don't have the business membership to Sam's, but you're right, if I did, I can come in two hours before normal opening time. However, I'm more likely to come in the evening than in the mornings.

Both stores will refund your money at any time on your membership fees, if you aren't satisfied. For sure, if I had to pay for my Costco membership, I'd be asking for a refund. At $45 a year, IMO it's too much.

[Doramius]

Out east there is a place called BJ's Wholesale that reminds me of Costco. I don't know if they are anywhere else. I had a membership with them for 2 years and bought very little from them. I finally gave up and said, I'm getting one with Sam's because it was $10 cheaper. Sam's was 10 miles further and I visited it about twice on a monthly basis.

My worry is Target and Costco merging at some point. And people think K-Mart and Sears are doing a "NO-NO" and going to go under for it.

I'm still waiting for Wegmans and Chase-Pitkin to venture out west. Walmart put up supercenters near by a couple of Wegman's stores and one had to downgrade to a regular wal-mart because they couldn't get enough business. What they did was remodel the store and have a large Sam's Club connected to a regular sized Walmart. They even took out the McD's that was in it.

[Roundabout]

Out east there is a place called BJ's Wholesale that reminds me of Costco. I don't know if they are anywhere else. I had a membership with them for 2 years and bought very little from them. I finally gave up and said, I'm getting one with Sam's because it was $10 cheaper. Sam's was 10 miles further and I visited it about twice on a monthly basis.

My worry is Target and Costco merging at some point. And people think K-Mart and Sears are doing a "NO-NO" and going to go under for it.

I'm still waiting for Wegmans and Chase-Pitkin to venture out west. Walmart put up supercenters near by a couple of Wegman's stores and one had to downgrade to a regular wal-mart because they couldn't get enough business. What they did was remodel the store and have a large Sam's Club connected to a regular sized Walmart. They even took out the McD's that was in it.

I've never heard of Wegmans or Chase-Pitkin. Are they only in the Northeast? I've been all over the southeast and southwest of the US and have never seen one. Sounds like an interesting store, from what you describe. If they've been able to effect Wal-Mart like that, it must have a lot that WM doesn't offer.

I haven't heard any rumors of Target (Dayton Hudson) merging with Costco. I guess it could happen, because Target doesn't have any discount whse stores the way Wal-Mart has Sam's. Of course, Wal-Mart originally bought out Pace Discount Warehouse and changed the name to Sam's club (I always thought "Sam's" was a little egotistical, and the more generic sounding "Pace" was a better choice to leave it). Costco bought out Price Club and there was nothing left for Target. Maybe the BJ's Wholesale could be a target (no pun intended :P ) but I don't think Costco is actively seeking a merger. Not that they couldn't have a hostile takeover, it's happened to other companies.

And it's also possible that the Sears/Kmart merger will sink both of them. They've both struggled against Wal-Mart and their Supercenters, and WM is opening Supercenters at a rapid pace, because Target has already opened their own supercenters that look just like Wal-Mart's version. I went in one in North Tampa about a year ago, and it's almost a clone of Wal-Mart's. It's not the same at Target Greatland, which is just a larger version of a standard Target store with a few grocery items. It's a full-blown Supercenter, and I've not seen any on the west coast yet. I don't know how many they have, but that's probably why WM is opening theirs at a rapid pace, before Target moves in with theirs.

Sears just opened a "Sears Grand" store near my house, but I'm not impressed. I thought it would be like a WM Supercenter, but it's more like a Target Greatland. Nothing special at all.

I'm waiting for the WM Supercenters to really expand here in Calif., we need them and there are almost none. I think Victorville is the next city to get one, that's about 30 miles from where I live, still too far.

For now, I do all my grocery shopping at Sam's, while I wait for a WM Supercenter.

[Guest]

I can hear it now."Blue light special on Toughskins"

[bazooka]

There is not a single k-mart in north texas and yet we still see k-mart commercials.

Why????