Sam's Club making big new Costco-style membership change

Customers will notice the pivot right away.

Apr 8, 2025 - 13:38

Sam's Club making big new Costco-style membership change

If you ask your average bystander what they'd consider to be a modern wonder of the world, you might get a mixed bag of relatively predictable answers.

Some may tell you it's the internet. Some may say it's modern medicine. Some might say it's air travel.

Some may even mention the Empire State Building in New York City or the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

To be sure, these are all marvels of the past several decades.

But if you surveyed people making their weekly grocery run outside of a Costco or Sam's Club, they'd tell you you're looking at the best modern marvel of our time.

It's hard to understate just how devoted customers are of warehouse grocers like Costco and Sam's Club.

Some folks schedule their entire weekends around making the trip to their local warehouse grocer, procuring supplies, and meal prepping -- and sometimes even posting online about what they found.

It's not surprising, then, that the Sam's Club subreddit boasts over 48,000 members, and Costco has just shy of one million.

Customers are incredibly loyal to big box membership stores like Sam's Club.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

Warehouse grocers continue to make gains

Warehouse clubs and super centers like Sam's Club and Costco are popular for a variety of reasons.

For one, they buy their inventory in bulk, which affords them the best access and prices (in many cases) to in-demand products.

And since they can buy these items for cheaper, they tend to sell them to customers for cheaper than average. So most folks know they're getting a good deal -- and, often, a lot of whatever it is they're buying.

More Costco:

But these grocers also offer their own in-house brands. Many members believe these brands are better than the traditional national brands, and will go out of their way to buy the (typically more affordable) generic brands that they can only get at a warehouse grocer.

Costco's Kirkland, for example, is bigger than Nike and Coca-Cola in terms of revenue.

Sam's Club makes a major change

Every once in a while, however, these members-only grocers make big changes that can cause ripples throughout their customer base.

Such is the case at Sam's Club right now.

Sam's Club will now be encouraging members to stop using physical cards, instead moving them toward its app.

This means that when customers enter a Sam's Club, they'll need to scan their app to prove membership, rather than just flashing their plastic cards. Customers will also need to use the app for payments.

Costco made similar efforts to move members away from its cards, though it still offers physical cards in addition to its mobile app.

The move is ostensibly to crack down on membership sharing and to streamline the payment process. Sam's Club also says it's more secure.

But not everybody is happy about the move.

"Canceled elderly grandparents membership because they couldn't get a card. Neither has a smartphone," one Reddit user wrote of the change.

"Tried getting a physical card at 2 different stores over a year ago and was told they ran out," another wrote. "I don’t know how to set up an account for the secondary person and was always so worried I’d get in trouble for using my mom’s account because I have no idea how that works with digital cards. Didn’t renew."

"Yes. I got my parents a membership as a gift. They refused to give them a physical card. They had to set it up on their phones. It's bogus. Half the time they don't carry their phones," another said.

Sam's Club isn't saying it's eliminating physical cards outright, though many members report it being difficult to obtain one.

"If you’d still like a physical card, you can request one at the Member Service Desk during your next club visit," Sam's Club writes on its website. "You’ll need your membership number and a government-issued ID to pick up your card."