closing of some Sam's stores (Jonesboro, Rogers: low income, income, living in)

[stiffnecked]

Sam's can't compete with Costco. That's what it boils down to. In Anchorage they have a Sam's located a little over a mile away from Costco on Dimond Blvd. Going into that Sam's is like walking in a graveyard. Costco will be packed with the parking lot full and Sam's will be lucky to have 10 customers inside.

The main reasons being merchandise selection and low energy employees. Costco also has more selection and variety of merchandise. Sam's tends to sell the same tired products they've had for the past 20 years.

By far Sam's tends to hire employees that move at a turtles pace. Slow and slower. Costco doesn't tolerate that. Their employees move and get you out the door once you hit the check out line. I had the sad misfortune to get in the only staffed checkout line at the local Sam's.

The lady in front of me had about 20 items in her basket. After the cashier scanner each item she paused and asked the lady about each item. I finally got fed up and left my basket in the line when the cashier stopped again, pulled out her cell phone to show this customer pictures of her dogs, and then proceed to tell her about her dogs favorite dog food.

And that is not an uncommon occurrence. I'll take Costco over Sam's any day of the week.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by stiffnecked

Sam's can't compete with Costco. That's what it boils down to. In Anchorage they have a Sam's located a little over a mile away from Costco on Dimond Blvd. Going into that Sam's is like walking in a graveyard. Costco will be packed with the parking lot full and Sam's will be lucky to have 10 customers inside.

The main reasons being merchandise selection and low energy employees. Costco also has more selection and variety of merchandise. Sam's tends to sell the same tired products they've had for the past 20 years.

By far Sam's tends to hire employees that move at a turtles pace. Slow and slower. Costco doesn't tolerate that. Their employees move and get you out the door once you hit the check out line. I had the sad misfortune to get in the only staffed checkout line at the local Sam's.

The lady in front of me had about 20 items in her basket. After the cashier scanner each item she paused and asked the lady about each item. I finally got fed up and left my basket in the line when the cashier stopped again, pulled out her cell phone to show this customer pictures of her dogs, and then proceed to tell her about her dogs favorite dog food.

And that is not an uncommon occurrence. I'll take Costco over Sam's any day of the week.

you are talking about one location and one state. I for one am talking about overall. I know in NM we had 2 Sam's and 2 Costco's, the Costco's were within a few blocks of Sam's in both location and both did a great business. I will say, our Sam's cashiers have been replaced by self check out for the most part: probably 2 self check outs for every one cashier, but we still have both and let's be realistic. This is the future of our country. Many retail stores are going with self checkout as an alternative. It is a business decision that is a time and expense safer. Today when we picked up our on line order from Sam's a very nice young lady rolled our cart to the car and helped my husband load the trunk. She was very pleasant. The same with the gentleman who put the air in our tires there. We could have put our own air in, but he volunteered to do it for us.

[gunslinger256]

Originally Posted by stiffnecked

Sam's can't compete with Costco. That's what it boils down to. In Anchorage they have a Sam's located a little over a mile away from Costco on Dimond Blvd. Going into that Sam's is like walking in a graveyard. Costco will be packed with the parking lot full and Sam's will be lucky to have 10 customers inside.

The main reasons being merchandise selection and low energy employees. Costco also has more selection and variety of merchandise. Sam's tends to sell the same tired products they've had for the past 20 years.

<snip>

And that is not an uncommon occurrence. I'll take Costco over Sam's any day of the week.

While it is true that sams is facing difficulty competing with Costco, I think the major issue is people shopping through amazon or walmart.com

My wife likes to use the "scan & go" option at Sam's and I experienced it for the first time a few weeks ago. We walked into a crowded sam's club in Bentonville and she takes out her phone and starts scanning the items as we add them to our cart.

Seeing how crowded the club was, I was not looking forward to getting out, but we bypassed the registers and she showed the receipt checkers at the exit her phone and we left without waiting on any lines.

It was amazing!

I wonder if Costco has that.

[Luvvarkansas]

Originally Posted by gunslinger256

Seeing how crowded the club was, I was not looking forward to getting out, but we bypassed the registers and she showed the receipt checkers at the exit her phone and we left without waiting on any lines.

It was amazing!

Now THAT'S a great idea!

[DGates01]

Originally Posted by hunterseat

I stopped going to Costco when they stopped selling those I've cream bars.

Lame.

[pittsflyer]

Originally Posted by stiffnecked

Sam's can't compete with Costco. That's what it boils down to. In Anchorage they have a Sam's located a little over a mile away from Costco on Dimond Blvd. Going into that Sam's is like walking in a graveyard. Costco will be packed with the parking lot full and Sam's will be lucky to have 10 customers inside.

The main reasons being merchandise selection and low energy employees. Costco also has more selection and variety of merchandise. Sam's tends to sell the same tired products they've had for the past 20 years.

By far Sam's tends to hire employees that move at a turtles pace. Slow and slower. Costco doesn't tolerate that. Their employees move and get you out the door once you hit the check out line. I had the sad misfortune to get in the only staffed checkout line at the local Sam's.

The lady in front of me had about 20 items in her basket. After the cashier scanner each item she paused and asked the lady about each item. I finally got fed up and left my basket in the line when the cashier stopped again, pulled out her cell phone to show this customer pictures of her dogs, and then proceed to tell her about her dogs favorite dog food.

And that is not an uncommon occurrence. I'll take Costco over Sam's any day of the week.

I love costco, I only very rarely went to sams, luckily my member ship is already expired. I will say we did get a better deal on our TV at sams. Large items are a real pain to get in Alaska. Shippers like Lynden and Carlile are always trying to swindle you. It takes alot of effort to get large heavy items up here without getting fleeced.

Costco is best at like 7pm on a tuesday, if you go on weekends its a nightmare. I buy online almost exclusivly now other than perishables or meats.

[DGates01]

Originally Posted by gunslinger256

My wife likes to use the "scan & go" option at Sam's and I experienced it for the first time a few weeks ago. We walked into a crowded sam's club in Bentonville and she takes out her phone and starts scanning the items as we add them to our cart. She showed the receipt checkers at the exit her phone and we left without waiting on any lines.

It was amazing! I wonder if Costco has that.

They don't. But they did have self checkout registers for awhile, which I loved. I usually only buy a few things, so it was nice to get out of the store faster. But they phased them out. I'm guessing they might've had issues with loss prevention. Who knows.

[sub]

Originally Posted by stiffnecked

Sam's can't compete with Costco. That's what it boils down to. In Anchorage they have a Sam's located a little over a mile away from Costco on Dimond Blvd. Going into that Sam's is like walking in a graveyard. Costco will be packed with the parking lot full and Sam's will be lucky to have 10 customers inside.

The main reasons being merchandise selection and low energy employees. Costco also has more selection and variety of merchandise. Sam's tends to sell the same tired products they've had for the past 20 years.

By far Sam's tends to hire employees that move at a turtles pace. Slow and slower. Costco doesn't tolerate that. Their employees move and get you out the door once you hit the check out line. I had the sad misfortune to get in the only staffed checkout line at the local Sam's.

The lady in front of me had about 20 items in her basket. After the cashier scanner each item she paused and asked the lady about each item. I finally got fed up and left my basket in the line when the cashier stopped again, pulled out her cell phone to show this customer pictures of her dogs, and then proceed to tell her about her dogs favorite dog food.

And that is not an uncommon occurrence. I'll take Costco over Sam's any day of the week.

Occasionally, Walmart owned stores will have good service.
82% of the time, they're like what you described with Sam's except they're usually fairly crowded.
The people in NWA will have a different take on things living in Walmartville. Every neighborhood it seems has a Walmart-operated something or other and I'm sure they're very conscience of their proximity to the home office and the big-wigs who might be in the store at any given moment.
As for some Sam's closing, the changes in retail continues. Online is causing a huge upheaval because Walmart used to never shut down anything. So yes, even a few stores is a big deal.
Then there's Dollar General. Same junk with same bad service, but it's so small and quick that the self-inflicted torturous trip doesn't feel quite so bad.
I'm not predicting doom and gloom for Walmart, but it is interesting to watch.

[gunslinger256]

Originally Posted by sub

Occasionally, Walmart owned stores will have good service.
82% of the time, they're like what you described with Sam's except they're usually fairly crowded.
The people in NWA will have a different take on things living in Walmartville. Every neighborhood it seems has a Walmart-operated something or other and I'm sure they're very conscience of their proximity to the home office and the big-wigs who might be in the store at any given moment.
As for some Sam's closing, the changes in retail continues. Online is causing a huge upheaval because Walmart used to never shut down anything. So yes, even a few stores is a big deal.
Then there's Dollar General. Same junk with same bad service, but it's so small and quick that the self-inflicted torturous trip doesn't feel quite so bad.
I'm not predicting doom and gloom for Walmart, but it is interesting to watch.

Agree. Most of the other Walmarts I've walked into that were NOT in NWA, were not as nice as the ones we get. Not sure if it's a reflection of the communities, but I'm sure the proximity to home office people inspecting/visiting plays a big role.

Most of the convenience features we get like pickup and scan and go are not available in other areas and I have no idea how they would manage creative shop lifters since those new conveniences can be cheated.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by gunslinger256

Agree. Most of the other Walmarts I've walked into that were NOT in NWA, were not as nice as the ones we get. Not sure if it's a reflection of the communities, but I'm sure the proximity to home office people inspecting/visiting plays a big role.

Most of the convenience features we get like pickup and scan and go are not available in other areas and I have no idea how they would manage creative shop lifters since those new conveniences can be cheated.

I have always wondered about some of the new conveniences as well as far as honesty goes. As for attitudes of the stores and overall niceness, yes, I feel certain it has to do with location and the overall community they are in. Our Walmart south of ABQ was pretty crappy and I have to say the town was as well. The WalMart in Flower Mound Tx was as nice as ours, and a good area to call home. I could go on and on. Most Sam;s we have shopped at have been very nice though. Notice I said "most"