Sam's Club Vs. Costco: Which One Has Lower Prices?

If you live in an area where you have the convenience of having a Costco and a Sam's Club and you don't know which one you should pick over the other, here are some tips that will hopefully help make your decision easier. I have the privilege of having access to both wholesale clubs, so here are my two cents on both.

Costco
This wholesale club has a minimum membership fee of $50 a year. There are higher levels of membership, but the basic level is sufficient. I have noticed that most Costco warehouses that I have been to are a lot larger in comparison to various Sam's Club locations. I have also noticed that most Costco carry greater variety of inventory, but this only matter depending on what category you shop most for in wholesale clubs. Pricing can be decent depending on the season, however I noticed that newly released items (such as DVDs and books) tended to retail for the same or even higher than other mass-merchandise stores. Certain food items, if calculated in detail amounted to the same if you bought them individually at your local grocery stores. However, some special DVD packs and CD combos do come up as good deals from time to time and their clothing sections appear to have much more to offer than Sam's Club. One major thing that Costco is know for is for their free food sample, which on weekends are abundant, which is a big plus over Sam's Club where I have rarely seen food samples being handed out. They also offer coupon packs every once in awhile where you can save an additional percent on select items (I have never received any coupon deals from Sam's Club before). The only bad part about this wholesale club is that they only accept American Express as their major credit card, which is not a common credit card that most people have.

Sam's Club
This wholesale club has a minimum membership fee of $40 a year ($10 cheaper than Costco's basic membership level fee). There are also higher levels of membership, but the basic level is also sufficient. Although the inventory carried and the size of the location may be smaller in comparison to most Costco's, their categories of products that are generally cheaper in price cater to me better. I am big fan of collecting DVD's and books, and I have noticed that Sam's Club's pricing and selection is more competitive in comparison to Costco. For example, there was a certain DVD series that I had purchase at a regular mass-merchandise store that ended up costing me around $13 per DVD (4 DVDs total = $52). However, when I went to Sam's Club I found that the DVD series was sold for a total of $20 amounting to each DVD being $5 each! Costco couldn't even compare since they did not even have this DVD series available. Another plus about Sam's Club is that it accepts major credit cards such as Discover and MasterCard, with MasterCard being one of the most popular credit cards that people have along with VISA. Both Sam's Club and Costco locations have self-serve gasoline stations with pricing significantly cheaper (and average of 10 to 15 cents per gallon cheaper) than name brand gasoline stations such as Shell and Mobil and lasts just as long. However, I have noticed that Sam's Club's gasoline pricing is generally somewhat lower than Costco's, although only by a couple of cents.