Sam’s Club is the warehouse-store division of retail giant Walmart. This paid membership warehouse club boasts 600 locations across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and it’s known for its competitive pricing—a must given that it competes with the likes of Costco and BJ’s Wholesale Club.
It’s a popular chain among all generations, but it might have the most enviable position among younger age groups. Says Walmart CFO John David Rainey: “The highest growth cohort at Sam’s are Millennials and Gen Zs.”
This popular chain is an excellent idea for bulk shoppers who want to maximize their savings potential, but if you’re really being strategic with your groceries and other purchases, you might want to purchase a few items elsewhere. For one, low prices shouldn’t always be your only consideration … and even then, Sam’s Club won’t beat everyone on price every single time.
Let’s go over a few items that you might not want to buy at Sam’s Club—and why.
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Skip Purchasing These Products at Sam’s Club
These products aren’t ideal buys at Sam’s Club for one of several reasons.
— For instance, some products on this list simply don’t work well as bulk purchases, which is the only way products are sold at Sam’s Club.
— Despite its reputation for competitive prices, some items on this list can be found cheaper elsewhere.
— And other times, the issue has to do with healthiness or logistics.
No matter the reason, you might not want to purchase these items at Sam’s Club.
1. Avocados
There are two reasons Sam’s Club isn’t a great place to buy avocados.
Firstly, you can’t buy just one or two. The Sam’s Club closest to me only sells them in five-count or 16-count bags. So unless you’re having a party and need to make massive amounts of guacamole, once they all hit peak ripeness, some of those avocados likely will go bad before you can use them all.
Secondly, buying in bulk normally means you get a lower price per unit, but this isn’t the case here. For instance, a five-count bag of avocados at Sam’s Club currently costs $5.72, which is about $1.14 each. One avocado at Aldi costs $1.05. At Target, I can buy single avocados for only 99¢ each.
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2. Rotisserie Chicken
Are you trying to lower your sodium intake? Well, most of us probably should. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, about 90% of Americans are consuming more than the recommended amount of sodium.
And you’re not going to do that eating Sam’s Club’s rotisserie chicken.
Consumer Reports nutritional experts evaluated rotisserie chickens from Sam’s Club, Kroger, Publix, Safeway, Stop & Shop, Walmart, Wegmans, Whole Foods, BJ’s Wholesale, Costco, and restaurant Boston Market.
In terms of sodium, Sam’s Club chicken was the worst. The Member’s Mark Seasoned Rotisserie Chicken has 550 mg of sodium per 3-ounce serving. Second-worst was Costco’s Kirkland chickens, which at 460 mg of sodium still represented a big step down. All the others fell in a wide range, from 40 mg to 368 mg.
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3. Flour
Everything is bigger at Sam’s Club, including sacks of flour. At the Sam’s Club nearest me, the smallest bag of all-purpose flour available is 12 pounds.
Healthline states that all-purpose flour lasts only six to eight months on a shelf. If you store it in the refrigerator, it can last up to a year and putting it in the freezer can give it two years of life. However, if you keep it in the fridge, you have to be careful to keep it away from moisture or it may form mold. Plus, whether frozen or refrigerated, you’ll have to let flour reach room temperature before using it or else it may be lumpy.
So maybe, maybe, if you’re baking endless desserts around the holidays, you might be able to get through a jumbo-sized bag of flour before it expires. But unless you own a baking business or otherwise are mass-producing baked products, you might want to buy more reasonably sized bags of flour elsewhere.
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4. Generic Milk
Sam’s Club low prices aren’t always the lowest prices—even when it comes to its store brand, Member’s Mark.
For instance: A one-gallon jug of Member’s Mark Vitamin D Whole Milk currently costs $3.42. You don’t even have to go outside of the corporate entity for a better deal—you can score a gallon of Walmart’s Great Value Vitamin D Whole Milk for just $2.68.
And if you want just a half-gallon of the same milk … well, you won’t find that at Sam’s Club at all.
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5. Olive Oil
Olive oil delivers great taste and health benefits. But you can always have too much of a good thing.
According to the North American Olive Oil Association, you should use an opened bottle of olive oil within three months (though it can last longer in a cool, dark space).
Sam’s Club sells olive oil in larger quantities than most grocery stores, so buyers might not be able to use the full bottles before they go bad. The smallest amount of olive oil you can get at Sam’s Club is 50.7 fluid ounces, and you can find even larger bottles. But unless your family is drinking the stuff, it could be tough to get through that much in three months or less—leading to a lot of waste.
Instead, consider grabbing a smaller bottle of olive oil somewhere else.
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6. Items You Don’t Have Room to Store
You can ignore this one if you have a home with more than enough storage space. But many people live in small apartments or crowded homes and don’t have the room to buy everything they need in bulk.
Let’s say you like to have a few boxes of tissues on hand in case you’re feeling sniffly. The smallest quantity of tissue boxes you can buy from the Sam’s Club closest to me is 12.
Rather than hiding Kleenex boxes in every free nook and cranny in your home, you might be better off buying a smaller number of boxes elsewhere. It might end up costing you slightly more, but you also won’t be cramming tissue boxes into every inch of free space you can find.
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7. Items With Manufacturer Coupons
Recently, I found out that some granola bars I bought were recalled. I contacted the company and they decided to send me some manufacturer coupons to make up for the recall. I took the coupons to Target and received hefty discounts on the new items I bought.
You simply can’t do this at Sam’s Club, which doesn’t accept manufacturer or competitors’ coupons. The only exception is vendor checks from Enfamil, Purina, and similar products.
So if you ever collect manufacturer’s coupons, head somewhere else to use them.
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8. Candy for Personal Use
If Halloween is approaching and you want to stock up on candy for trick-or-treaters, Sam’s Club is an excellent place to do so. Same goes for any holiday or event where you’ll be giving away a boatload of sweets.
However, if you just like to get yourself the occasional little treat, Sam’s Club isn’t a great choice. Want to buy yourself a Twix bar after a major shopping trip? At Sam’s Club, you’d need to buy a 36-pack.
Sure, you can tell yourself you’ll just buy your snack in bulk and then just eat one bar a week. But let’s be real: How likely is it to play out that way? If a stack of those sweet caramel shortbread chocolate bars are staring back at you every time you open the pantry, odds are you’ll indulge a bit more frequently. (And considering each serving has 25 grams of sugar, that’s not exactly the healthiest choice.)
So if you’re trying to cut down on sugar, don’t buy personal-use candy at Sam’s Club.
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9. Seasonal Wrapping Paper + Ribbons
If you buy presents for a family of six, a lot of distant relatives, and a host of friends, get your wrapping supplies at Sam’s Club. Paper rolls come in four-packs. Ribbons come in six-packs.
But if you only exchange a few presents with a few people each year, you have a choice to make.
If you have a lot of room to store these items for use every year, go for it! But if you don’t, buy your wrapping supplies elsewhere. (Besides, some people think it’s fun to pick out new wrapping patterns every year!)
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10. New Pet Food + Treats
Is your dog a pickier eater than your child? It’s not as crazy as it seems. In a 2022 Jinx survey, a majority of respondents (54%) said they considered their dogs to be picky eaters.
In the same survey, over a quarter of respondents said they had at least 10 bags of unused dog food in their homes.
Whenever you’re debuting new pet food, start by purchasing a small amount. You can’t do that at Sam’s Club, where bags of dry dog food at Sam’s Club range between 23.5 and 50 pounds.
That’s a lot of wasted food if your dog doesn’t like it.
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