Category: Warehouse electronics

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Costco vs. Sam’s Club for Electronics: Which warehouse giant wins for your tech needs?

Where should you go for tech deals in an uncertain economic environment? We recently established that Costco and Sam’s Club, as well as other warehouse retailers, are increasingly interesting to us when we look for places to shop for electronics. But the “and” does a lot of lifting. If you’re already sold on the value of these warehouse retailers, which one should you choose? This time around, we’re mashing the two main warehouse stores head-to-head a little harder. What is the value proposition of Costco vs Sam’s Club electronics? What is the experience like shopping at Costco vs Sam’s Club for TVs, laptops, and more?

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Membership costs and structures

One of the first things you need to consider when comparing the two warehouse giants is their memberships. As we discussed in our previous article, warehouse retailer memberships have an odd basic premise: pay to pay less. If you buy a membership, you are promised lower prices. And, as before, the advice is the same: only get a membership if you are planning on using it, as they are only worth the cost if you are going to use them enough. It sounds obvious, but it is worth stopping for a second and thinking if you are really going to use that Costco or Sam’s Club membership more than once before snapping one up for a deal.

We went into the details of the memberships and all of their benefits (including those beyond electronics) before. For a quick summary, know that Sam’s Club has a lower upfront cost than Costco and has some perks along with their “Plus” membership plan that can make getting your $110 back much easier. That being said, Costco memberships are not that much more expensive and there is a wonderful value calculator on the Costco membership page that can guide you to a more precise value of the membership.

Winner: Sam’s Club (Slightly) The slightly lower cost to entry from Sam’s Club makes it the winner of this category.

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Electronics selection and brands

Costco

Since we’re looking at Costco and Sam’s Club as an ideal best place to buy electronics cheap, it only makes sense to look at what electronics are offered at each store, because you can’t get warehouse retailer electronics savings on products that aren’t sold at the warehouse. As such, it makes sense to get a feel for the average Costco TV on sale vs. a similar Sam’s Club TV on sale.

First of all, there’s good news when it comes to category selection. Though it is easy to think of Costco and Sam’s Club as glorified grocery stores if you’ve only heard about them from afar, both stores have about every type of tech you might want. Costco does a slightly better job of breaking down the categories, offering 20 primary categories to Sam’s Club’s 16, but you can find everything from the best tablets to the best speakers at either store. And, if you keep scrolling, there is an extended category range down near the bottom of the Sam’s Club electronics page. For some brands, such as Apple, there may be more product categories available at Costco.

And that brings us to brands. Again, you’ll be happy to note that both warehouses offer Apple products, even highlighting Apple as a special store section in their online electronics store pages. Costco has a tendency to show off their brands more, as can be seen by the “Shop by Brand” panel in the Costco computers section. Upon closer inspection, however, two things become apparent. One, all of the brands represented here are also available at Sam’s Club. Two, some of the brand labels are doing some heavy lifting for more niche brands — Costco only had one iBuyPower PC on offer at the time of this writing (for comparison, Sam’s Club also only had one). At the same time, we are able to find FitBits at Sam’s Club but not Costco.

Winner: Tie Both companies have some brands they are lacking in, so check your brand loyalties at the door.

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Pricing and deals

Now that you know what is on offer, it comes time to figure out the all important question: Is Costco or Sam’s Club cheaper?

[Note: One interesting aspect of buying at a warehouse is the interesting way that minimum advertised pricing (or MAP) rules are circumvented by warehouses — unique, store-specific model numbers. By getting special models for their store alone, a warehouse can sell that model much cheaper than they would be allowed to if they were selling the same model numbers that regular stores have. A consequence of this is that it can be difficult to directly compare prices on a one-to-one basis from warehouse to warehouse on certain, individual items.]

If you aren’t careful, you can fall into a quick trap of just looking at price numbers. Take the single iBuyPower PC available at both stores. The one at Costco costs $1,200 while the one at Sam’s Club costs $899. So surely Sam’s Club is cheaper, right? Well, not so fast. The Costco one has an RTX 4050 (among other superior features) while the Sam’s Club one has an RTX 3050. This isn’t to say that the Sam’s Club offering isn’t the better deal, that would take more time than eyeballing to figure out, it just means that you can’t quickly glance at prices to determine which store has the best prices.

So, to avoid comparing apples to oranges, let’s compare apples to apples. Or, at least Apple products against each other. The following prices are taken from the Costco Apple brand page and Sam’s Club Apple showcase at the time of this writing to give you an idea of how the prices match:

Apple Product	Costco Price	Sam’s Club Price
Apple AirTag 4 Pack	$70	$80
Apple AirPods 4 with ANC	$149	$169
Apple iPad Pro 11-inch Wi-Fi with M4 (2024 model)	$1,500	$1,549
Apple MacBook Pro with M4, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD	$1,550	N/A

So, what can we see? When both places had the product, Costco tended to be cheaper. At least for the items I tested. That last comparison, however, shows something that matters for comparisons like these — you can only get what a store has, and Sam’s Club doesn’t have MacBooks right now.

I also compared two 14-inch Asus laptops that both cost $250. The Costco one has 8GB of RAM and 128GB storage while the Sam’s Club one has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. From raw stats, the Costco product gives more for the money.

Note that both stores have regular deals and sales, with Sam’s Club having an “Instant Savings” program and Costco has a “coupon book” and that any deals currently going on are reflected in the sample prices above.

Winner: Costco Costco seems to have better electronics prices, if only slight, but remember you’ll need to buy more to offset the upfront cost of membership.

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Customer service and return policies (for electronics)

But what if you don’t like something? Can you return it?

The Costco electronics exchange/return policy is actually pretty great — it lets you return items within 90 days and, for select products, you will also be able to get assistance from Costco’s technical & warranty services representatives. If you bought online, you can return online or via any Costco warehouse. However, if you buy from a physical location, you must return to another (it doesn’t have to be the same one) Costco warehouse. If you buy a smartphone tied to a particular carrier, there may be some special limitations based on the carrier, however.

And what about the Sam’s Club electronics return policy? It’s actually nearly identical to Costco’s. You have 90 days with most electronics and, just like with Costco, you can either return it to a store or (if you bought it online) ship it back. You may have to ship some extra large items back instead of returning to a store location, but there is a helpdesk number to support you with this. The main difference between the two is for smartphones; at Sam’s Club you only have 14 days to return smartphones.

Winner: Costco (Slightly) Costco offers more easily accessible chances to get help from staff before needing to make a return and has a longer return window for smartphones.

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Which is better for electronics, Costco or Sam’s Club?

To summarize:

Quality	Winner
Membership	Sam’s Club (Slightly)
Product and brand selection	Tie
Pricing/deals	Costco
Customer service/returns	Costco (Slightly)

However, these qualities are not everything when it comes to doing your electronics shopping. So, if you want to figure out if Sam’s Club is worth it or if Costco is worth it for more particular scenarios, read on.

Sam’s Club is better if you’re happy to pay less upfront and intend to spend less throughout the year.

Costco is better if you don’t mind the higher upfront costs and know that you’re going to spend more throughout the year. It also has a slightly more premium experience outside of just being able to shop for electronics.

Conclusion

Ultimately, both of the warehouse retailers are good options, but you might be more inclined to choose Costco vs. Sam’s Club electronics based on your particular situation. And even then it can be a very tight choice. Sam’s Club has a lower cost to entry and requires you to spend less per year to make up for the upfront costs.

As you’re surely aware the availability of some Costco vs Sam’s Club TVs, printers, tablets, and more will differ throughout the year and as new wares trickle in and old wares sell out. Additionally, prices will change and offers will, too. As such, if you aren’t sure about which one to pick, it may very well be in your best interest to start with the one that has a physical location closest to you for added value in the non-electronics parts of your life.

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March 28, 2025

Unlock Tech Savings: Why Costco & Sam’s Club are your hidden gems for electronics
After years of a pandemic, it can feel like a tired line, but we’re about to face a “period of uncertainty.” Many of our favorite electronic items are getting more expensive due to inflation, tariffs, and market demands. Indeed, we have already seen an Acer laptop price increase announcement of 10% to help cover tariff costs. Meanwhile, we’re seeing expensive price leaks on next gen AMD chips. Whether your personal worldview is to cheer or jeer when it comes to incoming tariffs, the outlook is clear: You need to brace yourself for tariffs because, evidence suggests, the extra costs are going to be passed along to you, the consumer.

While you can purchase TV deals and laptop deals now, to get ahead of the damage, the party won’t last forever. In the long-term, shoppers are going to have to look elsewhere. Here, we’re taking a second look at warehouse retailers for electronics. That means we’re talking about Costco electronics, Sam’s Club electronics, and the like. These retailers, who buy in bulk, pass on those savings (at least somewhat) to the customer — and have surprisingly good customer service to boot. So, are warehouse retailer electronics savings the be all, end all solution to tech tariff woes? We think so, and here’s why.

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The warehouse advantage

Gary Friedman/Getty / Getty

The warehouse formula is refreshingly simple: Buy in bulk at a discount, store it all in a large warehouse, sell off items to retailers and warehouse members.

Typically, there’s less focus on appealing displays and gorgeous stores for these warehouses. Instead, it is all about passing on the their bulk supply to individual members at a discount. Your membership (entrance usually costs a small fee) helps pay for staff, as some low cost products can have very thin margins. That’s why Sam’s club warehouse hours, for example, are still so good — my local Sam’s Club is open 7 days a week, for instance.

But it isn’t just small dollar items with tiny margins that get the warehouse advantage, big items that can handle deep price cuts are also available. And that’s why we’re starting to think a warehouse just might be the best place to buy electronics cheap.

It isn’t a perfect science, but you can look at current deals to get a sort of idea about the kinds of margins we’re talking about. For example, when we look at the best printer deals at the moment of this writing, we see numbers like 50% off, 46% off, 36% off, and so on. Retailers don’t do this out of the goodness of their heart, of course. Instead, these large numbers can give us quick hints at what kinds of margins electronics have and, with it, a small idea of where savings might lie. It is by no means a perfect system, and if you find really good Amazon deals on something you want, by all means go for that, but as economic uncertainty rises, every little dollar will count, and these warehouse stores just might be the way to save.

Beyond Price: Quality and customer service

It’s not all about money, either. Costco and Sam’s Club are genuinely respected as great places to shop. Costco is already infamous for the $1.50 hot dog combo at the food court, but you should also know that the Costco return policy on electronics is particularly generous at 90 days. Meanwhile Scan & Go at Sam’s Club allows you to skip annoying lines.

These stores also have quality brands, and aren’t just filled with third party generics. For example, you can get Brother Printers at Costco or the latest iPads at Sam’s Club.

Membership value

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / Getty

So, to reiterate and get back to our main point, here’s the summary: You pay for a membership, then get access to discounts.

Paying for discounts, in and of itself, can seem somewhat convoluted. However, you get a lot more than membership electronics savings with your purchase. First of all, you get discounts on all of the other items in the store, too. You can buy groceries and eggs (yes, eggs) at these stores.

Then, there are special programs that make memberships even better. For example, the Sam’s Club Optical Center gives you 40% off pairs of glasses after your first. And this is just one bonus of many.

Finally, warehouses often feature percentage rewards programs, where members get back a certain percentage back on all of their purchases up to a certain amount. Effectively, this gives you a small (but universal) “deal” on products with that warehouse store. For example, Costco perks include a 2% reward on Costco and Costco Travel purchases if you are a member at the Executive level.

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Is Sam’s Club worth it?

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As it is with any membership from the gym to your Disney+ subscription, it is only worth it if you use it enough to get value from the costs. If you want to join Sam’s Club it will cost you $50 for the basic membership and $110 for the “Plus” tier membership. While the basic Club tier membership gets you in the door, gives you members-only fuel savings, and more, it is still somewhat intangible on whether or not you’ll get your money’s worth. The part of your brain that decides if the gym or Netflix is worth it while also have to be used here.

The Plus tier membership, on the other hand, offers straight up numbers that can help you figure things out. Now, there’s a long list and we’re not going to look at each item, but these three perks alone can give you a big idea if the $110 fee is worth it:
- 2% Sam’s Cash bonus
- “$0 prescriptions” (see below)
- $60 Sam’s Club gift card with T-Mobile
For every $100 you spend at Sam’s Club, you save $2 with the Sam’s Cash bonus at this level. $5,500 in spendings is enough to cover the whole year, which is pretty easy to burn through on electronics alone. The listed “$0 prescriptions” benefit is somewhat misleading, as only some Sam’s Club prescriptions are $0 while many more are capped at $10 for generics. However, the average American spends over $300 on prescriptions each year and if you’re in the nearly 50% of Americans taking two prescription drugs then this benefit could possibly save you $60 or more dollars each year alone if your medicines qualify. Likewise, the T-Mobile gift card also saves you $60. With just one of these savings of $60 you could cover the rest of the Plus tier membership with just $2,500 in spending at Sam’s Club (i.e. one TV and one laptop). And, of course, if you save with both, that’s the whole cost.

Bottom line: Sam’s Club is worth it if you use it. Sam’s Club Plus has more ways to save, and the typical electronics purchaser should see savings in a typical year.

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Is Costco worth it?

KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images / Costco

Much like Sam’s Club, Costco is only going to be worth it if you plan on buying stuff from the store. If you don’t use it, you may as well lose it.

The base level membership for Costco is slightly more expensive than the Sam’s Club offerings at $65. Costco’s basic memberships are actually broken up into two types as well, Business and Gold Star. The Business version even lets you purchase items at the sale for resale in your business.

There there’s the Executive Membership for $130 per year. This is the one that gives you the 2% back. Luckily, there is a Costco value calculator on their signup page to help you decide if Costco is worth it for you.

Bottom line: Though slightly more expensive upfront than Sam’s Club, Costco is worth it if you use it. Use their calculator to decide if you want the more advanced membership level.

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Who should shop here?

Shopping at Sam’s Club, Costco, or any other member warehouse store isn’t for everyone. Individuals, those that don’t do much shopping, and those living far from a physical location may want to think again.

However, if you have a family, are a budget-conscious tech lover, and have a location nearby then you should probably check out Sam’s Club and Costco. Remember that even though you can shop online for tech at these stores, to get the most of the membership you’ll also want to buy groceries at the store, use their gas station for member discounts, and possibly even partake in some of those famous Costco food court wares — which is to say that having a local store in a convenient location near you truly does sweeten the deal when it comes to getting a membership.

In today’s economic climate, ordinary people and tech writers like ourselves are widening the gap in places to search for electronics and electronics deals. One way we’re going about this is embracing warehouse electronics, such as those from Sam’s Club and Costco. In the near future, we’re going to be looking more at what these stores have on offer, from the top tech brands at Costco to regular Sam’s Club deals that we think you’ll be interested in. Looking at Sam’s Club, Costco, and other warehouses is going to be an ongoing project for Digital Trends this year and beyond.
March 19, 2025