Retail Competition – Live Laugh Love Do

Walmart's Sam's Club makes bold move to steal Costco customers

admin — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 10:41:50 +0000

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Considering Walmart’s (WMT) domination in the retail space, it’s probably reasonable to expect that Sam’s Club, its membership warehouse offering, would be able to compete with Costco (COST) .

However, that’s not actually the case. As of Q1 2025, Costco held 77.7% of the market share for the warehouse club industry, per data from CSIMarket.

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Part of Costco’s advantage may be that it was first to the game. It began in 1976 as Price Club, eventually opening the first Costco in 1983 and then merging the two businesses.

Walmart was quick to follow once Costco launched, also starting Sam’s Club in 1983. But Costco’s experience with Price Club gave it eight additional years of opportunity to experiment and innovate, which may be a contributing factor to the company’s success.

Because of the significant gap between the two, Sam’s Club is constantly under pressure to find ways to compete with Costco and potentially spirit its customers away.

One key way it does that is by undercutting Costco on membership price and running annual specials that make a membership very affordable. Sam’s Club’s current promotion, which runs through June 30, allows new customers to join for $30.

Now Sam’s is trying something new by taking aim at Costco’s famously affordable food court — and it just might make a dent in the warehouse giant’s sales.

Sam’s Club wants you to know it means business when it comes to undercutting the competition.

Image source: Beth Hall/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Sam’s Club has a deal that Costco doesn’t

In May, Sam’s Club decided to launch an unusual service: pizza delivery.

Much like Costco, Sam’s Club has a food court that serves inexpensive eats like hot dogs, pizza, pretzels, yogurt, and drinks.

A new service the retailer added in May allows members to use the Sam’s Club app to order a Members Mark 16-inch pizza and schedule a delivery window or pay a few extra dollars for express service.

For Plus members, delivery is free when they place an order over $50, while Club members pay $12.

The pizza itself retails for $8.98, and customers can choose from pepperoni, cheese and four-meat options. Costco charges $9.99 for a pizza of the same size.

After a month, Sam’s Club says that the new service is a grand success.

“Since launching pizza delivery in late May, we’ve been encouraged by the strong response from members,” said a Sam’s Club statement to FOX Business.

“Early performance has exceeded expectations, with robust demand, high repeat order rates, and enthusiastic feedback from members seeking affordable, high-quality meals delivered hot and fresh,” it said.

Sam’s Club makes a clever move in an uncertain economy

Sam’s Club is not only making a move to undercut Costco’s pizza prices, but also taking aim at pizza delivery shops in general, where pies have become more expensive in recent years.

For example, a large pepperoni pizza from Domino’s is $17.49, while the same pizza from Papa John’s is $18.53 including delivery fees.

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In an economy where people are pulling back on unnecessary spending and looking for the best deal possible to feed their families, Sam’s has a clear advantage here — and you don’t even have to go to the store to get it.

Costco does offer its own large pizza deal, as mentioned above, but it does not offer any kind of delivery. Instacart can get it for you if you are ordering other things using that service, but naturally that comes with an additional fee, defeating the purpose of getting the cheap pizza deal in the first place.

While this move may not rake market share away from Costco by the fistful, it is a small way through which Sam’s Club stands to gain — and a lot of small moves, when added up, can make quite an impact.

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Costco to make generous offer to frustrated phone customers

admin — Sun, 15 Jun 2025 04:43:37 +0000

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Costco (COST) , the largest warehouse club in the U.S., has been gaining a leg up on its competitors as its membership numbers continue to grow rapidly.

During the first quarter of 2025, the number of Costco’s paid household members increased to 78.4 million, up 6.8% compared to last year.

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This comes at a time when Costco’s products and deals continue to go viral on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.

Costco’s U.S. comparable sales also spiked by 8.3% year-over-year during the quarter. This contributed to its net income of $1.7 billion, which is 2% higher than what it earned during the same quarter a year ago.

Costco even outperformed its competitors by drawing in higher levels of foot traffic during the quarter. While Costco’s foot traffic climbed by 6% year-over-year, Sam’s Club’s only increased by 2.7% and BJ’s spiked by 4%, according to recent data from Placer.ai.

A staff member speaks to a customer inside a Costco store.

Image source: VIEWpress/Getty Images

Costco to offer a wild new deal to members

As Costco welcomes new members to its warehouses, it reportedly plans to launch a generous new deal next week that targets members who are frustrated with their current phone plans.

According to a recent report from Costco Insider, Costco’s July 2025 Coupon Book will feature a deal that offers members $450 if they switch to T-Mobile (TMUS) and purchase/activate a new phone on either its Experience More or Experience Beyond plan.

Members who switch from AT&T, Verizon, Xfinity, Spectrum, USCellular, Claro, or Liberty Puerto Rico will receive a $200 Costco Shop card and a $250 Virtual Visa prepaid card, equivalent to $450.

Customers can even stack the deal, meaning they can receive up to 12 $200 Costco Shop cards and a maximum of four $250 Visa cards if they add 12 lines to the account. The promotion is valid between June 18 and July 20.

T-Mobile recently suffered major loss after angering customers

Costco’s upcoming deal comes amid an exodus of T-Mobile phone customers after the provider implemented a series of price hikes.

The phone carrier revealed in its first-quarter earnings report for 2025 that the number of customers who cut their phone service increased by 5 basis points year-over-year.

Also, while T-Mobile added 495,000 new postpaid phone customers during the quarter, that number is 6% lower than the amount it welcomed during the same time period last year.

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During an earnings call in April, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert said the recent spike in churn is mainly due to consumers becoming more nervous about the state of the economy.

“So overall, you saw across the industry churn was just on the margin a little elevated, and I think there’s a number of dynamics there,” said Sievert during the call. “That probably has more to do with kind of macro questions than with competition. You know, I think there’s a certain element out there where people are in a time of uncertainty about the future, grabbing what they can afford now. And so you’re seeing [more customer] upgrades and switching.”

Amid this concerning trend, many consumers have been flocking to cable companies to sign up for phone plans.

Spectrum, Comcast, and Altice USA have added 886,000 new phone customers during the first three months of 2025, which is up from the 804,000 it added during the same time period last year, according to a recent report from MoffettNathanson.

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