A Beginner's Guide To Food Shopping At Sam's Club

The bulk version of Walmart, Sam's Club is a staple brand in many communities (to be more specific, in nearly 600 throughout the United States, and in additional communities throughout Brazil, China, and Mexico). Originally founded by Sam Walton in 1983, the first Sam's Club was intended to provide resources for small businesses, offering bulk products that they might need in their operations. However, now, while many small business owners do still shop at Sam's Club, it's more broadly known as the place anyone — or at least any member, though we'll get into that in a moment — can go to stock up on all sorts of household items, foods, and beverages.

Often compared to Costco, Sam's Club is your place to buy more paper towels and toilet paper than your family could feasibly use in a fiscal quarter. It's where you can buy oversized tubs of condiments and snack foods. No need to stock up on anything in particular? You can still swing by for a hot dog, bakery item, or rotisserie chicken.

If you've yet to discover the magic of Sam's Club, though, there are a few things you'll want to know ahead of your first visit. Here's everything you need to know to get started as a Sam's Club fan.

First things first, to fully enjoy the wealth of benefits that comes with shopping at Sam's Club as opposed to any ol' grocery store, you will actually want that membership. Sure, there are ways around the membership; for example, you can piggyback off someone else's membership if you share an address, or you can keep your shopping online, where you'll need a guest membership and pay higher prices but still have access to all of the Sam's Club products. You can also buy certain products within Sam's Club without a membership, such as alcohol and pharmaceuticals, thanks to legal workarounds.

However, for the full Sam's Club experience, you're going to need that membership. There are two Sam's Club membership tiers, Club and Plus, and Plus is the better deal. Perks you'll get with Plus that you won't find with the Club tier include free shipping, free curbside pickup, and impressive savings in the pharmacy and optical center.

Walk around Sam's Club just once and you'll notice something. As you peruse the aisles of pallets filled with canned goods, snack items, and pantry staples, you'll realize that, as far as variety goes, there's not much of it. Sam's Club specializes in larger-than-life quantities and offering tons of items under one roof, not giving you a lot of specific item options to pick from.

For example, if you're hoping to stock up on your favorite soda, you may be disappointed. Sam's Club only stocks a selection of the major, best, big-brand sodas, albeit in packs of 35 cans. Similarly, if you're looking for coffee, you might find yourself settling for dozens of the same brand and flavor of K-cups, rather than having your pick of 20 or 30 coffee options, like you might find in the Walmart next door. When comparing Sam's Club and Costco, commenters online frequently mention how Sam's Club only stocks one type of a particular item and that the selection is lackluster at best.

All that said, while Sam's Club might not be your best pick for browsing a ton of different options, if you can find certain products that you love here, you can always come back and find that same great item, time and time again.

Just like you shouldn't expect to find a lot of variety at Sam's Club, you also shouldn't walk in hoping to find all your specialty grocery items that you might normally find at a typical grocery store. If you have a particular favorite vegan, gluten-free, or allergen-free product, plan to still purchase it wherever you normally shop, versus at Sam's Club.

Of course, Sam's Club does have some specialty items, even if they are few and far between. Additionally, because Sam's Club offers such a large number of items, you can find plenty of foods that naturally fit within specialty diets without trying. 

In other words, even though you might not find your favorite gluten-free baked goods, you can find gluten-free snacks, cereals, and other items that just so happen to be gluten-free. Likewise, while you might not be able to find your favorite vegan frozen foods, vegans and vegetarians alike will still appreciate Sam's Club's robust produce section.

While Sam's Club isn't a great option for browsing a large variety of singular items on your shopping list, and it's not a good pick for specialty items, Sam's Club is absolutely a great store for stocking up on basics and long-lasting, non-perishable foods.

Pantry items that are consistently priced very affordably at Sam's Club include canned soup, some of which work out to a cost of just $0.10 per ounce of soup, versus up to $0.17 per ounce for the same soup on Amazon, and soda, which can work out to just $0.52 per can when you buy a 35-pack. Other very cheaply priced non-perishable items that are a great deal at Sam's Club include condiments and snack foods.

Before you check out, with your cart overflowing with cans, though, be sure you don't make a rookie bulk-buyer mistake. Think of where you'll actually put all of those non-perishable pantry items. Do you have room in your kitchen cabinets or pantry? Or are you going to end up with a stack of Campbell's soup sitting in the corner of your living room?

As you stock up on your favorite non-perishable food items at Sam's Club, you may be tempted to reach for the affordably priced bulk dairy and produce as well. However, before you just throw a six-pack of cream cheese or a gigantic bag of apples in your cart, think about your intended uses for those items and how quickly you can consume them. If you allow these foods to spoil in your fridge and then eat them, you could be at risk for a dangerous foodborne illness, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In general, most perishable foods will last a few days to a week in your fridge, with a little wiggle room. An unopened pack of hot dogs, for example, will last two weeks when stored properly at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or colder, while a tub of prepared macaroni salad will last three to four days. You get a little more time with produce, with items like apples boasting a shelf life of over a month, and carrots lasting an impressive seven months.

Yes, Sam's Club gives you ample opportunities to stock up on your favorite candies, chips, and other snack foods. However, before you just go stock up on bulk-sized servings of your favorite sweet treats and salty indulgences, pause and reconsider.

According to a study conducted by researchers at Dartmouth (via CNN), shopping at club stores like Sam's Club can increase your overall calories consumed. The study found that those who shop at these stores consume almost 10% more calories than they might otherwise. These calories are largely attributed to packaged foods, with the study finding that club store shoppers eat about 3,500 more calories a month from these types of foods than they would if they didn't shop at a club store. The extra packaged food consumption for these study participants also led to more than a 10% increase in fat consumption and a 5% increase in sugar consumption — and it all came down to buying packaged foods in bulk.

So you want to shop at Sam's Club, but you really don't have the space to store a lot of extra food or household items. Or, maybe, you just can't justify the cost of an annual membership. In either of these instances, you may want to get a bulk buddy — someone who'll split the cost of your membership, the cost of your purchases, and/or your purchases themselves. Say you have a friend who's also been considering a Sam's Club membership, and they have a similar lifestyle or diet. You could split the cost of a single membership with that individual and then go stock up on the items you both want, saving you both money and storage space, while letting you take advantage of Sam's Club's bulk prices.

The only downside to this method? You'll need to do your shopping together, in order to share a membership card, and then divvy up payment later. Typically, membership cards can only be shared by members of the same household. In that instance, up to two members of a household can get their own cards for one annual fee.

While you want to be careful about stocking up on perishable items like cheese, eggs, or deli meat if you don't expect to be able to eat all of that perishable food before it goes bad, the Sam's Club deli area does offer some great items that you don't need to be quite so careful with. Look for the ready-to-heat items around the deli for fresh, fast dinners that can serve a crowd. Whether you want an oversized party tray of pinwheel wraps for an upcoming event or 5 pounds of potato salad for a family picnic, these are the types of foods you can expect.

Fan-favorite ready-to-eat or -heat items include the famed Sam's Club rotisserie chicken. However, do watch out for that chicken if you're trying to cut back on the sodium; Consumer Reports found that, out of a selection of grocery-store chicken, Sam's Club's Member's Mark rotisserie chicken had one of the highest sodium amounts. Panera-branded microwavable soups and mac n' cheese are popular as well, as is sushi — Sam's Club staff members can even make custom sushi trays.

You'll be able to smell the Sam's Club bakery before you see it. Churning out a range of cakes, pies, breads, and other sweets, the Sam's Club bakery serves up way better than your average grocery-store sheet cake. Plus, everything is a bit on the large side, in true Sam's Club fashion, from the pumpkin pies to the muffins.

One of the favorite, by far, bakery staples at Sam's Club? The Member's Mark White and Chocolate Cupcakes that come with sprinkles and in a 30-pack tray for just $16. Ideal for a party, these cupcake trays have received more than 1,000 reviews on Sam's Club's website and boast a near-perfect rating, with reviewers saying things like that they purchased the cupcakes for their wedding and not a single one was left, and that the fluffy frosting is perfectly sweet atop the moist cake.

As you're shopping, don't forget that the bakery offers specialty, personalized orders, too. You can pick your cake's icing color and flavor, décor, shape, and more. The bakery will even do tiered cakes, if you're not a fan of sheet cakes or cookie cakes.

On your first trip to Sam's Club, you might notice sample stations set up around the store, offering bite-sized portions of new or favorite products. The next few times you go, though, you might not find a single one. On some days, you might find tons of sample stations and on others, just one or two. What gives?

There are good and bad days to shop at Sam's Club if you love free samples. You'll find the most samples available on weekend days, between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. However, if the weather is bad, there won't be as many sample stations on the store floor as there would be if the weather was nice.

Sample stations aren't the only way to sample great foods at your local Sam's Club, though. When Sam's Club brought the sample program back in 2021, after the COVID-19 pandemic led to its shutdown due to safety concerns, the club store announced via a press release that it would also be testing new ways to provide samples in the future, such as during checkout or curbside pickup.

The Sam's Club café menu is simple. Think hot dogs, pizzas, pretzels, frozen yogurt ... and, well, that's just about it. However, for die-hard fans, there's nothing quite like the cheap deliciousness that can be found at these small cafés posted up right by the checkout lanes. The quarter-pound hot dogs are a cult favorite and, in fact, made headlines at the end of 2022, when Sam's Club lowered the price of the hot dog and soda combo from $1.50 to $1.38. A press release stated at the time that this small discount was an important one: "This is a signal. It's indicative of the journey we're on — to make the Sam's Club membership the most valuable subscription you have."

Might this seemingly innocent comment have been a dig against Costco, where the café hot dogs are equally renowned but the hot dog combo still costs $1.50? Perhaps. So which club store hot dog truly reigns supreme? According to Los Angeles Times food columnist Lucas Kwan Peterson, the Sam's Club combo is a better deal, with better toppings for the hot dogs and a better drink selection than you'll find at Costco. Plus, at Sam's Club, you can eat at the café without a membership; that's not the case at Costco.

Sure, you could swing by your local beer, spirits, or wine retailer on your way home from the grocery store, but why not get everything in one place? Luckily, many Sam's Club locations sell a large variety of alcoholic beverages. You can buy big bulk cases of your favorite, name-brand beer, but you can also find Sam's Club store brand (aka Member's Mark) items that are worth a try. Not convinced? Take the beverage experts' word for it. The Beverage Testing Institute gave Member's Mark Vodka a gold medal for its exceptional flavor. The Institute also ranked Member's Mark Blanco Tequila highly, with another gold medal.

If you have a Sam's Club membership, you can even have wine shipped directly to your home. According to a 2021 press release that detailed then-new program, members could order Member's Mark wines to be delivered in 16 states and around Washington, D.C., in boxes of either six or 12 bottles.

When you've scoured Sam's Club for all the great deals and finds the store has to offer, don't stand around waiting in long weekend lines before you can check out and go home. Sam's Club offers its Scan & Go app to make your shopping experience even more convenient. Here's how it works.

All you need to do is download the app and, when you're in the store, open it up and use your phone's camera to scan barcodes as you add items to your cart. Once you're finished shopping, you can pay in-app using your on-file credit card, EBT, or Sam's Cash. The app generates a receipt, you show your receipt on your way out the door, and you're good to go. Again and again, this app is one of the top things people love about Sam's Club. As one Redditor noted, "[Sam's mobile checkout app] ends up saving me a ton of time on the weekends when checkout lines at Costco are ridiculous. Yeah, I know Costco cashiers are fast, but you know what's faster than a cashier? Scanning items as I put them in my cart and just walking out of the store without going through a checkout line at all."