"Road House"

Velos · May 14, 2022

Saw this article in the Costco Connection Magazine and thought it might be of interest to newer RV'ers.

https://www.costco.com/connection-cover-hit-the-road-may-2022.html

kb0zke · May 21, 2022

I see frequent references to Costo, but I've never seen one of their stores. We have a Sam's Club membership and find their stores in most larger cities.

Dutch_12078 · May 21, 2022

1 hour ago, kb0zke said:

I see frequent references to Costo, but I've never seen one of their stores. We have a Sam's Club membership and find their stores in most larger cities.

There's only 572 Costco stores in the US, so it's probably pretty easy to miss them if you're not looking for one.

bigjim · May 22, 2022

Interesting. I googled the number of Sam's clubs in the US and it came up with 600. Texas has the most locations with 82.

Kirk W · May 22, 2022

Quote

COSTCO has made its way into nearly every US state. They operate in 46 states, plus Washington DC and Puerto Rico. Costco, the warehouse shopping club, continued to grow in 2021 with 572 locations in the United States. In 2021, the warehouse club had 131 stores in the state of California, but only one store in Delaware, Mississippi, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Vermont, and Washington D.C. It still had no presence in Maine, Rhode Island, West Virginia, and Wyoming

COSTCO locations Texas has 35 locations and California has 131 locations(as of 2021)

Bill Joyce · May 22, 2022

11 hours ago, bigjim said:

Interesting. I googled the number of Sam's clubs in the US and it came up with 600. Texas has the most locations with 82.

In early 2018 they closed around 60 Sam's Clubs including all of them in Alaska and Washington. Some SKP friends were very unhappy they closed the Casa Grande AZ Sam's, since they were leaseholders at the co-op in Casa Grande. I have not heard if they have opened any new ones. I know Costco is still growing and has also been replacing older stores with larger new ones.

bigjim · May 22, 2022

I remember at least one or two that closed about the time you mention. One was in Memphis Tn. Slightly noteworthy is that Costco often builds close to Sam's club locations.

Chalkie · May 22, 2022

8 minutes ago, bigjim said:

Slightly noteworthy is that Costco often builds close to Sam's club locations.

I can't help but wonder if that is not based on land availability more than a business decision. In Colorado Springs, where we used to live, Costco was on the east and west of the city and Sam's on the north and south. Here in the Austin area there are 3 Costcos and 3 Sam's and none are close to each other. We have memberships to both and have found that Costco tends to have higher end products compared to Sam's when it comes to clothing, appliances and TVs and Costco food selections tend to more of the organic, sustainable, wild caught, etc. than Sam's. The big difference is that Sam's was started as a supply point for small businesses where Costco's target has been the individual. Obviously both are willing to take their money from either group. In our travels we have also seen Sam's Clubs and Walmarts located side by side. We have shopped at some these colocated stores and found that often times Walmart will have identical items to Sam's at lower prices.

Darryl&Rita · May 22, 2022

Never been a Sam's club in Canada. Just FYI.

Chalkie · May 22, 2022

16 minutes ago, Darryl&Rita said:

Never been a Sam's club in Canada. Just FYI.

Actually there were for a 5 year period but then they were all closed in 2009 as they were not "meeting expectations". I read that as they were not making enough money.

Darryl&Rita · May 22, 2022

1 hour ago, Chalkie said:

Actually there were for a 5 year period but then they were all closed in 2009 as they were not "meeting expectations". I read that as they were not making enough money.

Research shows 1 still open in Ontario. Never seen 1, but we're a long way from the population dense region of Ontario.

Kirk W · May 23, 2022

13 hours ago, Darryl&Rita said:

Research shows 1 still open in Ontario.

If you use the link to COSTCO locations that I posted above, you will find that the Province of Ontario has 9 COSTCO stores. There are currently 107 COSTCO store locations in Canada.

Edited May 23, 2022 by Kirk W

Chalkie · May 23, 2022

12 minutes ago, Kirk W said:

If you use the link to COSTCO locations that I posted above, you will find that the Province of Ontario has 9 COSTCO stores but none in the city of Ontario. There are currently 107 COSTCO store locations in Canada.

I guess I was using Costco's store locator function incorrectly and therefore stand corrected.

Kirk W · May 23, 2022

3 minutes ago, Chalkie said:

I guess I was using Costco's store locator function incorrectly and therefore stand corrected.

I think that I did read that COSTCO has closed some poorly producing stores so it may well be that some of them were in Canada. I thought that I remembered something about them closing most of the stores in Canada, which is the reason that I went searching for them. 😊

Darryl&Rita · May 23, 2022

1 hour ago, Kirk W said:

If you use the link to COSTCO locations that I posted above, you will find that the Province of Ontario has 9 COSTCO stores. There are currently 107 COSTCO store locations in Canada.

We were talking about Sam's Club stores, not Costco. Thanks for the link, though.