1 day Ago By [email protected] (Amber Winston)
Almost everyone is looking for a way to put a little extra money back in their pocket nowadays, and cutting back on the cost of groceries is one of them. The average American household spent $6,053 a year on groceries in 2023, according to the , with many of us likely spending much more, especially when attempting to satisfy the appetites of a large family. With paid memberships like Sam's Club and Walmart+ promising lower prices on groceries, you may be left wondering if shelling out extra money for these services is worth it.
To answer that question, we scanned price tags and compared some of the most popular groceries in consumer carts to see if a membership to Sam's Club or Walmart+ will actually help you slash costs. Please note that this guide only details items sold in physical Sam's Club and Walmart stores and doesn't include items exclusively available for shipping (though we will detail the shipping perks of each membership). All prices mentioned are subject to change, may vary by location, and do not include sale prices.
With all that said, sit back and relax as we do all the price comparisons to help you determine whether a membership to Sam's Club or Walmart+ will actually help you save money. Meat When it comes to meat, expect Sam's Club to topple Walmart+ in terms of pricing. Sam's Club's store-branded 80% lean, 20% fat ground beef costs only $4.
58 per pound when purchased as part of a large chub. Sam's Club also offers amazing deals on grass-fed beef; a 3-pound pack of Member's Mark 85/15 Organic Grass Fed Ground Beef is priced at only $5.38 per pound.
While sold in smaller packages, Walmart+ ground beef costs around $6.33 for one pound of 80% lean, 20% fat ground beef. As for grass-fed ground beef, you'll pay $6.
29 per pound for a 3-pound pack of Marketside Organic Grass-Fed Ground Beef with Walmart+, which isn't as strong a deal compared to the aforementioned Sam's Club savings. If you love crispy chicken wings as much as we do, you'll be interested to know that you can pick up a 10-pound bag of frozen raw chicken wings for $29.98 at Sam's Club at the time of publication, which is just under $3 per pound.
Picking up a similar bag of Great Value frozen wings using Walmart+ will cost $12.48 per 4 pounds, equating to roughly $3.12 per pound of meat.
Obviously, the amount of money you'll actually save when shopping the meat department using a membership at Sam's Club or Walmart+ will depend on your exact purchase. Still, it's worth noting that Sam's Club tends to be cheaper and is likely the membership that will save you the most cash when buying meat. Cereal and oatmeal If you're looking to stock your pantry full of cereal and oatmeal, Sam's Club is once again the place to go.
Like so many other grocery items on the list, Sam's Club offers both its cold cereal and oatmeal varieties at a lower price than you'd get using Walmart+ on select brands. Honey Nut Cheerios, for example, cost $7.64 per 48 ounces of cereal at Sam's Club, which calculates to about 16 cents per ounce.
When shopping in-store with Walmart+, you'll get the same cereal for $4.93 but for only 18.8 ounces, meaning you'll pay 26 cents per ounce.
That's nearly 10 cents more than what you'd pay with a Sam's Club membership. In the same vein, expect to save money using a Sam's Club membership versus Walmart+ when buying oatmeal. At Sam's Club, you'll find Quaker Old-Fashioned Oatmeal for $9.
98 per 160 ounces. While this may initially seem somewhat expensive, it's actually only 6 cents per ounce. When purchased via Walmart+, however, you'll need to pay $5.
12 for a 42-ounce canister, meaning your oatmeal will cost you 12.2 cents per ounce –- over double what Sam's Club charges. In general, Sam's Club outperforms Walmart+ in terms of pricing for both cold and warm cereal, making Sam's Club our winner in the cereal and oatmeal category.
Milk As for milk, both a Sam's Club and Walmart+ membership will score you competitive pricing, but it's Sam's Club that once again offers the best deal. Shoppers can find Member's Mark 2% Milk going for only $3.12 per gallon, while Walmart+ members will pay $3.
47 per gallon for Great Value milk at the time of publication. That's not all. Sam's Club also offers affordable organic milk options, including the well-known brand Horizon.
For only $13.22, Sam's Club offers 1.5 gallons of Horizon 2% Reduced Fat Milk, which is the equivalent of about 7 cents per fluid ounce.
Walmart+, on the other hand, offers a single half gallon of Horizon 2% Reduced Fat Milk carton to customers for $5.67, meaning you'll pay close to 9 cents per fluid ounce. Not into dairy milk? No worries.
Both Sam's Club and Walmart+ carry milk alternatives. Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk, for example, can be found at Sam's Club, sold in units of three half-gallon cartons for $7.88, making each carton a measly 4 cents per ounce.
You can find the same almond milk in-store with Walmart+ but expect to pay considerably more for it. A single half-gallon of Silk Almond Milk costs $3.37, which is 5.
3 cents per ounce. No matter how you slice it, Sam's Club is the best option when it comes to buying milk -– both dairy and non-dairy alike. Water If you happen to find yourself at Sam's Club, be sure to pick up a case of water before you leave.
The store offers a significantly cheaper alternative to Walmart's Great Value brand, making it our winner in the bottled water category. You can find a 40-pack of Member's Mark Purified Bottled Water for only $3.98 using a Sam's Club membership at the time of publication.
At Walmart, the same-sized 40-pack of 16.9 fluid-ounce water bottles costs $5.47.
That's quite a significant difference! While bottled water brands can range from high to low quality — and a string of of customers over the years — most Sam's Club customers seem pretty satisfied with Member's Mark Purified Bottled Water, judging by the number of five-star reviews on the store's website. Still, if you'd rather opt for brand-name bottled water, try Ice Mountain Spring Water, which is sold at Sam's Club for $6.48 per 40 bottles.
Opting to purchase it with Walmart+ will leave you missing out — you'll pay the same price but only have 35 bottles to show for it. Bread Finally, a grocery item that can sometimes be cheaper when purchased using your membership at Walmart+ versus Sam's Club — even if only by a few cents. At Sam's Club, you'll pay $5.
52 for two 20-ounce loaves of Sara Lee 100% Whole Wheat Bread, but when shopping Walmart+, you'll get the same bread for only $2.54 per loaf, which roughly works out to $5.08 when purchasing two.
Does this stroke of luck apply to all bread brands when comparing Walmart+ to Sam's Club? Not necessarily. While we couldn't compare every brand to find out, we did at least compare Dave's Organic 21 Whole Grains bread to see if Walmart+ still proved cheaper. At Sam's Club, Dave's Organic 21 Whole Grains bread comes with two 27-ounce loaves for $9.
98. With a Walmart+ subscription, you'll get a 20.5-ounce single loaf (smaller than those sold at Sam's Club) for $7.
80. This means you'll pay a whopping 38 cents per ounce at Walmart compared to Sam's Club's 18 cents per ounce. This just goes to show that the savings you'll encounter between Sam's Club and Walmart+ really depend on what you purchase.
It's worth conducting a close price comparison between brands to ensure you get the best deal. Also, don't forget that you can always make a loaf at home. While slightly less convenient than picking up a loaf in-store, Eggs Amid , saving money on eggs — even if only by a couple of cents — is always welcome.
At Sam's Club, you can grab Member's Mark Cage Free Grade A Large White Eggs for $9.34 per two dozen. This makes each egg a little over 38 cents.
Using Walmart+, you'll pay $4.97 per dozen for Great Value Cage Free Large White Eggs, coming out to about 41 cents per egg. If you'd rather go down the organic route, both Sam's Club and Walmart have you covered.
Member's Mark Organic Cage Free Grade A Large Brown Eggs from Sam's Club costs $9.47 per two dozen, making each egg around 39 cents Meanwhile, Walmart Marketside Organic Cage-Free Large Brown Eggs go for about $5.54 per dozen.
This means you'll pay 46 cents per egg. Even organic brown eggs are a steal at Sam's Club, once again making it the most cost-effective option compared to Walmart+. Produce Produce is perishable, which means it isn't always feasible to purchase in bulk.
When you do need large amounts of produce, a Sam's Club membership is the one that will usually score you the best deals. At Sam's Club, you can snag a 5-pound bag of Gala Apples for $6.26, which breaks down to approximately $1.
25 per pound. Customers state that the apples are consistently high-quality, making them well worth the buy. On the contrary, Walmart offers a 3-pound bag of Gala Apples for $4.
24, which equals $1.41 per pound. Not only are they more expensive, but a significant number of reviews criticize the quality, citing issues such as rottenness, dryness, and even worms.
Yellow onions are another staple in many home pantries, so we were curious which store would offer the best deals. At Sam's Club, the chain sells enormous-sized bags of onions at 10 pounds per bag for $7.58.
This means that you can expect to pay about 76 cents per ounce. Comparatively, Walmart+ members will get onions for $2.78 per 3-pound bag, which is around 92.
7 cents per ounce. While buying a 10-pound bag of onions may not be practical for everyone (especially if you aren't using them on a daily basis), Sam's Club is the place to go if you need a lot of them to use in an onion-rich recipe, such as this . Curbside and delivery Sam's Club membership may have reigned supreme throughout most of our price comparisons between itself and Walmart+, but when it comes to specific perks like curbside and delivery from your local store, Walmart+ takes the lead.
In addition to regular delivery options, Walmart+ offers unique benefits rarely seen elsewhere — including and InHome Delivery, both of which Sam's Club does not (currently) offer. To take advantage of these perks, you'll only need to hit the $35 minimum for your order, and you'll be able to enjoy nearly all delivery options (drone included) for free. Some types of delivery, such as 3 hours or less delivery, may still incur a small fee.
However, without Walmart+, you'd pay between $7.95 and $9.95, even for regular delivery.
Need to pick up your groceries curbside? Walmart offers free curbside pickup for all orders above the $35 threshold for Walmart+ members and non-members alike. Walmart+ even offers you the opportunity to have your returns picked up at your home. Talk about convenience! You won't find nearly as many options at Sam's Club, but there are still several benefits.
Curbside pickup is $4, or free for orders over $50. Plus members — the highest tier of membership — receive free curbside, with no minimum spend. Home delivery is similar.
Same-day and next-day delivery are free for Plus Members on orders over $50, while express delivery costs $8 extra. Without a Plus Card, delivery costs at least $12 per order. Shipping Shipping is another area in which Walmart+ shines, with the membership offering free shipping to Walmart+ users.
Using Walmart+, you can have an assortment of regular and bulk-buy items shipped directly to your door. With no minimum order amount or hidden fees, there's seemingly no strings attached with this free shipping beyond the fact that it doesn't apply to anything sold by marketplace sellers, freight, or extremely large items. On the other hand, Sam's Club only offers free shipping to Plus members.
This means that Sam's Club will still impose a fee for shipping, even if you are a standard member. A Plus Membership costs about $60 more than a Club Membership (which costs $50), so it's something to think about. Not only this, but some orders at Sam's Club may still incur stiff fees if the order isn't $50 or over, even for Sam Club Plus members, making shipping a slightly more complicated and expensive venture for Sam's Club members when compared to shoppers with a Walmart+ membership.
Verdict: Sam's Club is best for instant savings on groceries While Sam's Club and Walmart+ memberships both offer significant savings to customers, they do so in different ways. Which of the two will save you the most money depends on your grocery needs and shopping habits. You'll need to ask yourself .
Even so, with all things considered, Sam's Club is hands-down the best place to shop if you're looking for lower price tags on grocery items sold in-store. Across all categories, Sam's Club consistently offers impressive deals, making its membership well worth the purchase. Having said that, if you do most of your grocery shopping out-of-store through methods such as shipping, delivery, curbside pickup, or otherwise, Walmart+ might be the better membership option.
Though the membership doesn't (typically) reduce the prices of grocery items, it does so indirectly by not requiring a minimum order amount to grab your order curbside, boasting no minimum threshold for shipping, and, on top of those perks, offering Drone Delivery and InHome delivery at select locations for Walmart+ members. Ultimately, we'd encourage you to consider your needs and examine each membership carefully to determine which is best for you. As for us, we're walking away most impressed with Sam's Club deals — even if its shipping, curbside pickup, and delivery restrictions and fees are a bit more of a headache than Walmart+.
Methodology This analysis of whether a Sam's Club or Walmart+ membership will actually save money on a grocery bill was primarily based on comparing grocery prices across the two chains. Both memberships are quite different and could potentially save shoppers money in a variety of ways, but the answer to which one comes out on top will depend on each customer's spending and shopping habits. As Sam's Club offers the most "instant" savings (meaning the discount comes at face value and isn't merely associated with costs on shipping, curbside, or other shopping methods), it is the one we've deemed most cost-effective.
Prices compared across both Sam's Club and Walmart were reflected at face value, meaning no sale prices were considered. As always, pricing and availability are subject to change. Membership prices were not included in our consideration of the perks involved.
However, buyers should do their due diligence to ensure that the cost of each membership fits their budget. Recommended.
