On the surface, Costco and Sam’s Club have a lot of similarities.
Both are sprawling warehouses stocked with palletized displays of bulk goods at bargain prices. Both charge an annual membership fee to access the deals. Both were directly inspired by the visionary entrepreneur Sol Price‘s original club stores.
However, digging a little deeper into consumer data reveals some notable differences between the two brands’ customer profiles.
For starters, the typical Costco shopper spends nearly twice as much a year and visits more than 50% more frequently than Sam’s Club members do, according to 2024 data from consumer analytics firm Numerator.
The typical Costco shopper visits about 32 times a year and spends a total of $3,086, while the typical Sam’s Club shopper makes 20 trips and spends $1,583 in a year, according to Numerator.
As part of their overall retail budget, Costco shoppers spend roughly one in eight of their dollars at warehouse stores, which is almost 65% higher than the overall US average.
That wallet share is a bit lower for the typical Sam’s Club member, who spends about one in 12 of their dollars at wholesale clubs — still higher than the US average by about 13%.
Costco shoppers also tend to be wealthier — earning more than $125,000 household income on average — while Sam’s Club shoppers tend to have more mid-range incomes of between $40,000 and $125,000. Even so, Sam’s Club members are slightly more likely to be homeowners than Costco members, Numerator finds.
And while both chains are unsurprisingly popular in the suburbs, Sam’s Club is more popular among rural households and Costco has more strength with city dwellers, according to Numerator.
The data indicates that both chains tend to be equally popular among shoppers who identify as white. Walmart-owned Sam’s Club is slightly favored by shoppers who identify as Black or Hispanic/Latino.
Meanwhile, Costco is exceptionally popular among Asian-identifying households, who are nearly twice as likely to shop there as at a typical retail brand.
Costco shoppers are also much more interested in organic foods than their Sam’s Club counterparts.
In terms of age, Sam’s Club shoppers skew slightly older than Costco shoppers, though Gen X shoppers are equal fans of both.
Kantar retail analyst Gina Logan told Business Insider that Gen Z and Alpha shoppers are increasingly seeing the appeal of the club store model, which could bring down the average customer age at both chains.
And 2024 was a big year for Sam’s Club that saw the rollout of new AI-powered checkout technology and the grand opening of its first new store in seven years.
Sam’s Club also managed to snatch the top ranking for customer satisfaction in retail from longtime winner Costco earlier this year.
Lastly, both chains are seeing a strong start to 2025, with visits up more than 7% from last year — double the increases for Walmart and Target — according to foot traffic data from Placer.ai.
Numerator’s data indicates nearly half of American households shop at either Costco or Sam’s Club at least once in the past year, underscoring that US shoppers love finding a good deal.
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