The Nasty Reality Behind Sam's Club Prepared Foods, According To Reddit

Sam's Club is a popular members-only warehouse with approximately 600 locations in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Business magnate Sam Walton founded the club in 1983, 11 years after opening the first Walmart, to provide heavily discounted bulk goods to individuals and small business owners. However, despite low prices, some people think there are areas where Sam's could use some improvement. Indeed, a few Redditors have pointed out downright gross conditions in the Sam's meals-to-go kitchen.

According to a Sam's Club subreddit thread asking, "What's something you shouldn't buy at Sam's Club?" multiple Redditors warn to stay away from the prepared foods. One person asserts, "I work in the prepared foods area and the cleanliness of the room is....not up to standard. At all. I have pictures of things and its not good." 

The same Redditor claims that, "There is black mold in/on everything. We had a wall replaced recently and the mold was everywhere. Rust next to where we keep our dishes. We cant really do anything about it because it keeps coming back and management doesn't care." 

Another person confirmed this, stating, "Yep, it's just how Walmart Inc. operates. I was a night merch manager and the things I've seen in HMS/Cafe....got an entire folder on my phone of gross sh** at Sam's." The self-declared Sam's employees also claim to have reported issues multiple times to management to no avail. However, in other posts, it appears the cleanliness of Sam's kitchen may largely be based on location.

According to the OP in the Sam's Club subreddit thread, "Are all HMS kitchens disgusting?", the quality of the warehouse's prepared food kitchen leaves much to be desired. They state, "I only worked at Sam's for a short time and the HMS kitchen I worked in was the dirtiest kitchen I have ever worked in. I was wondering if they are all like that?" 

HMS stands for Home Meal Solutions, which includes Sam's oven-ready meals and grab-and-gos like mac and cheese, stuffed peppers, rotisserie chicken, chicken alfredo, soups, salads, and sushi (check out the best pre-made meal at Sam's Club). Many of these meals are made in-house in what's known as the HMS kitchen. 

Redditors' responses to this post are good news for Sam's Club fans. One person responded, "NO! Holy cow, our HMS room looks like they assemble spacecraft in it! They make stuff, they clean the cutting boards. They make stuff, they clean the counter. They make more stuff, they clean some more." Others affirmed, "We clean as we go all day long, I think it's the most sanitary area in the store," and, "The moral of this story is to not judge all Clubs based on the condition of one location. Our HMS preparation room is well supervised and received no complaints of Member sickness."

Indeed, one bad kitchen doesn't mean they are all unsanitary. For more shopping tips, learn about the most popular Sam's Club pre-made meals, ranked worst to best.