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Sam's vs. Costco Shopping Cart

Related Guides: Amazon or Walmart, Kids Clothes, Lowe's or Home Depot and Outlet Shopping vs. Retail
Next up was the tried-and-true shopping cart test. To compare prices, we shopped for a typical family of four, including an infant, at Costco and Sam's Club. We tried for a similar selection of products at each store and purchased store brands when possible; the Sam's Club store brand is Member's Mark and at Costco it's Kirkland. Just for fun, we also loaded up a cart with the same items at a local supermarket that's part of a regional chain to see how much you can save at the wholesale clubs.

Into our shopping cart went bottled water, pretzels, bread, cookies, steak, fresh peppers, yogurt, American cheese, shredded cheese, eggs, milk, orange juice, bananas, paper towels, toilet paper, tissues, frozen veggies, frozen chicken breasts, paper plates, Cheerios, oatmeal, jelly, peanut butter, applesauce, spaghetti and sauce, ranch dressing, mustard, ketchup, trash bags, disinfectant wipes, laundry detergent, dryer sheets, baby formula, diapers, baby wipes, and toothpaste. The grand total (without tax) came to $215.65 at Sam's Club and $227.08 at Costco -- a difference of $11.43. However, when we broke down the cost of each item by the amount/number of units in the package (see table), Costco was 3.6% cheaper overall. If this is your weekly haul, you might be able to spend almost $600 less over the course of a year by shopping at Sam's Club, but you'll get more for your money shopping at Costco.

Item for item we tried to pick the same brand in roughly the same quantity at each warehouse club. We noticed price differences most often on the in-house brands. Items with Costco's Kirkland label are a bit more expensive than similar items with Sam's Club's Member's Mark label, although digging a little deeper reveals that the pricier Kirkland packages often contain more. For example, Kirkland baby wipes cost $19.99 for a 900-count package at Costco compared with $13.48 for a 720-count package of Member's Mark baby wipes at Sam's Club. Similarly, Kirkland trash bags cost $13.79 for 200 and Member's Mark trash bags cost $9.98 for 150. On a per unit basis, Sam's Club is cheaper than Costco for both baby wipes (one baby wipe costs about 17% less) and trash bags (one trash bag costs 3.6% less), although the actual per-unit price differences amount to way less than a penny. Milk and frozen veggies, on the other hand, are 15.1% and 14.2% cheaper, respectively, on a per-ounce basis at Costco. As you can tell from the table, the price difference per unit can be as much as 40%-plus, depending on the product. For our particular shopping cart, if you care about total cost at checkout, Sam's Club is your best bet; if you care about price per unit, Costco shopping is for you.

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