Why Sams and Costco Suck

[unknownroad]

Originally Posted by Homeslice

2. "You'll need a hard hat when you shop here."

Heads up: Warehouse clubs are notorious for letting products drop on unsuspecting customers. In 1998, a woman in Cincinnati was hit by five 38-pound containers of kitty litter while shopping in a Sam's Club. She sustained head, neck, and shoulder injuries. And during the summer of 2001, a woman shopping in a Maryland Sam's Club barely avoided serious injury when a sofa fell from a shelf.

Hundreds of stores across the country, and they get one injury and one near-miss in a three year period as evidence that they're "notorious" for accidents?

This article is so poorly done that it borders on libel

[azoomm]

I shop on Sam's online for my events. I know exactly what I need - so I go online, do my order and drive by for a curbside pickup. It's absolutely brilliant.

And, I'm a business member - So, I have special hours that I can go there and not deal with the herd.

[askmrjesus]

Originally Posted by Homeslice

5. "You'll leave when we tell you to."

Ed Fritz and his family had just finished shopping at a warehouse club in northern California. As Fritz got to the store's exit, an employee stopped him and said, "I have to check your receipt." When Fritz declined to show it (he says he wanted to safeguard his credit card number), the employee grabbed his cart and then his arm to prevent him from leaving. Once Fritz freed himself, he headed to the parking lot, followed by six other employees. As one of them took down his license-plate number, Fritz was told never to return to the club. "I said, 'After this treatment, I never want to come back here,'" he recalls.

That may be an extreme example, but as club members have long known, it can often be a hassle just leaving a warehouse store. You'll wait for one of the club's employees to inspect your receipt, a procedure that will usually add several minutes to your outing. Obviously, when you join a club, you agree to follow its rules. But why such scrutiny? Galanti says that at Costco the review helps make sure "the right price is on the right items" and "is a measure of inventory security." While warehouse stores do have the right to check your receipt, Washington, D.C., attorney Donald Temple, who specializes in retail discrimination law, says employees cannot cross-check it with the items in your cart.

I had a business membership for Costco, and this is exactly what killed it for me.

Stand in line for forty-five minutes to get checked out, and then line up behind 30 carts, so some jagoff can inspect my receipt? Fuck that noise.

I did it once. After that, I just jumped the cue and went out the door. They tried to stop me every time, and every time I told them the same thing: If you think I'm a shoplifter, call the police, otherwise, get the fuck out of my way.

In the end, the cost savings wasn't worth the hassle.

JC

[Homeslice]

Yeah I don't understand that. WTF are they checking the receipt for? If that's such a valid business practice, why doesn't Walmart or Safeway or Kroger or anyone else do it?

[azoomm]

Originally Posted by Homeslice

Yeah I don't understand that. WTF are they checking the receipt for? If that's such a valid business practice, why doesn't Walmart or Safeway or Kroger or anyone else do it?

Fry's electronics does... I never understood it either.

[marko138]

Wal Mart around here does it on occasion, depends on who is at the door.

[Homeslice]

So they don't trust their cashiers to ring up items correctly?

[marko138]

Originally Posted by Homeslice

So they don't trust their cashiers to ring up items correctly?

They dont really know, here, they just give a quick glance at the receipt and move you along. It's like is the point?

[askmrjesus]

Originally Posted by Homeslice

Yeah I don't understand that. WTF are they checking the receipt for? If that's such a valid business practice, why doesn't Walmart or Safeway or Kroger or anyone else do it?

When I asked why they needed to look at my receipt, immediately after I left the checkout line, I was told that in order to keep my costs as low as possible, they had to check all the carts for stolen merchandise.

So, basically, to protect me from shoplifters, I had to be treated like one.

Yeah, right.

JC

[z06boy]

We have a membership to BJ's and have saved money and have never been hurt in there.

I bought my garage flooring at Sam's and saved a bunch compared to ANYWHERE I could find it online...close to half price.

I buy my contact lense at BJ's optical center and get better prices by doing that. Walmart's optical center is close on price.