12 Things You Should Know About Sam's Club Samples

Whether you love them or hate them, free samples tend to elicit a strong response. That's especially true at your local Sam's Club, where samples can overtake entire aisles on certain days of the week. You might plan your trip around snagging the greatest number of samples before heading out the door — or maybe you try to steer clear of them altogether. If you're a longtime shopper at the warehouse, you might know a few of these tricks of the sampling trade. But if you're a first-time Sam's Club shopper, we've got the inside scoop about how to make those samples work for you.

Samples tend to be a win-win for both the store and customer. You get to try stuff for free, but if you like it enough, it might convince you to pay for the full-size product. Sam's Club offers a range of items in multiple different sample options throughout stores nationwide. You might get to try a new laundry detergent one week, or taste-test popular Sam's Club copycat products. Samples might coincide with sales, so you can scoop up a new favorite dip or sparkling water while you take advantage of the Sam's Club deals of the week.

Sam's Club pros know that some days are better than others for scoring freebies — and there are definitely tricks to wrangling those sample kiosks, too. If you're aiming to step up your sample game, here's what you need to know.

If you're looking to stock up on samples as you make your way through the Sam's Club aisles, your best bet is to go on the weekend — especially on Saturdays. This is also when stores tend to be the busiest in general, so you'll have to decide if a premium selection of samples is worth the crowd. But it makes sense: If Sam's Club wants to get the most benefit from offering samples, the largest selection will be available at peak shopping times.

One former self-proclaimed "sample lady" from Sam's Club shared on TikTok that samples are technically supposed to be offered every day, but the number of employees present can vary from two people to 10. As a result, the number of sample stands throughout the store will also vary greatly. Another person on the social media platform noted that samples normally begin at 10 a.m. They also said samples are given out every day, but the consensus online suggests the biggest concentration is still at the end of the week.

The larger amount of samples on Saturdays and Sundays could be a holdover from the pandemic era. When Sam's Club first brought back samples to all of its stores in the summer of 2021, they resumed on a limited basis that began only on weekends. That has since expanded, but varies based on location.

From the store's perspective, the goal of samples is to get you hooked on a product — hopefully while you're hungry for lunch or dinner — and have you pick up that product right away. In a best case scenario for Sam's Club (or any store offering samples, really), you'll love it so much that it will become yet another item that goes on your always-buy list when you visit your local warehouse.

Some shoppers go about their sample-tasting in a casual way, picking up a few that happen to be in their normal shopping path. Others are much more intense and turn sampling into a quest of epic proportions. If you're the latter shopper, you'll find that you can leave with a full stomach — even if you don't end up buying any of the products.

One Sam's Club shopper whizzed around their local warehouse and scored peaches, egg white bites, pulled chicken, beef and lamb with tzatziki, popcorn, and more — for a total of eight generously portioned samples. She said she was full enough to skip lunch afterward. Another woman on TikTok advised that you can live your "best broke life" by tagging along with a friend to Sam's Club so you can try all the free samples. She rounded up a full chicken wing, a large slice of deli meat, asparagus with shrimp, hummus with chips, and a taquito in one excursion.

If you're shopping with a kid-sized entourage, know that your children will need to stick close to you in order to try samples of chicken tenders or new juice flavors. Though it's likely enforced to varying degrees, parents on Reddit say their children can't get samples from the stands without visual parental approval beforehand.

One parent said their 13-year-old daughter wasn't allowed to get a sample from a stand at their local Sam's Club until a parent was present with her. Others said they've needed to give visual approval for their children to be able to try the food. In a different post online, one employee said they aren't allowed to give samples to anyone under the age of 18 without parental consent. (They didn't clarify if they worked at the samples stands at Costco or Sam's Club, though the rules are similar.)

The internet is naturally divided over this. Some say their children — especially those who are pre-teens — should be able to select samples themselves. But several said it's a smart rule that ensures parents are checking the products their kids are eating, especially if food allergies or other health conditions affected by diet are involved.

While the people behind the sample tables might seem like Sam's Club employees — they're working inside the warehouses, after all — they're actually employed by another company altogether. If you take a minute to slow down and check out their work attire, you'll notice their aprons and hats have a "Tastes & Tips" logo on it — not Sam's Club.

Sam's Club laid off its in-house sample personnel in 2010 and subcontracted the "demos" (aka the samples) out to a third-party company. Tastes & Tips hires and trains all the people who distribute samples in Sam's Club stores. The company gets mixed reviews. Some employees say the work experience has a lot to do with the location's manager. Others say if you can handle being on your feet for the entire shift, it's a relatively easy job. Pay ranges quite a bit by state and location, with reports on Reddit from minimum wage up to $20 per hour in some spots.

The biggest reason this is important for a Sam's Club shopper is because those sample people aren't paid to know info about Sam's Club. While they likely know where to find the products they're sampling, they probably don't know where the jumbo packs of air filters are, or information about renewing your membership card. Don't take it out on them — they're just trying to give you some chips and dip.

When Sam's Club handed over its product sampling to Tastes & Tips, the club announced that the third-party company would oversee all aspects of hiring the sample personnel — including making sure that each employee was food safety certified. While handing out samples might not seem like a complex job, there are certain steps the staff must follow to ensure customers are getting a quality product.

For example, in one TikTok video, a Tastes & Tips employee used an instant thermometer to check the temperature of the Tyson chicken she was distributing. If you're more worried about other people's germs than frozen chicken tenders, the employees are also prepared for that. One sample provider said that if someone puts a sample back, or even if they take the sample but leave the napkin it was served on, they must empty the entire tray and sanitize it before they can serve more food. Things probably get a little chaotic on a Saturdays around the lunch rush, but suffice it to say the sample employees are trained to keep food safety in mind — so all you need to do is enjoy the free treats.

If you turn up at your local Sam's Club, you might be surprised by the opportunity for an impromptu happy hour — on the house. While samples are more regulated and have greater variety by location, some Sam's Clubs do indeed offer free samples of alcohol.

According to Tastes & Tips employees on Reddit, this has been happening for years in certain locations, and is still a relatively new phenomenon in others. According to one employee, the samples are sometimes given out inside the warehouse by the beer and wine section, while other times the stand is in the liquor store. (But if you live in certain states with tricky liquor laws like Pennsylvania, your store won't offer them at all.)

Just like other samples, the products offered are given based on which companies decide to pay for promotion. But unlike the straightforward process of trying chocolate or cheese, you'll need to show a valid ID to imbibe. These samples are also monitored much more closely. While others are given away freely, you'll likely be limited to one or two small sample cups of the beverage. Most times, you'll be able to sample a name-brand beverage that's carried at Sam's Club. But if those run out, Reddit tells us that the good people at Tastes & Tips can choose a Member's Mark liquor to sample instead. Cheers to that!

Though samples are marketed to be primarily a customer perk — try something yummy, maybe buy some for later — they wouldn't be offered if they didn't also give food manufacturers some helpful information. Will a sampled product continue to be popular after the sales period? Will the company get that money back in extra customer purchases? You might not think about the sample of cheese you picked up on your way to the checkout line afterward, but you'd better believe the company that made it will.

That's becoming even more apparent with some slick new technology that allows Sam's Club customers to give immediate feedback about whether or not they like the products they tried. A post on Reddit from August 2025 shows a touchscreen next to a sample for Member's Mark Loaded Potato Salad. Customers are prompted to scan their Sam's Club membership card to rate how much they liked the sample. According to the person who posted the photo, the ratings are considered to determine whether or not the potato salad is kept on store shelves.

You're likely to find at least one of those touchscreens available at your local Sam's Club for rating various samples. If you leave a review, those will immediately go live on the Sam's Club site for other shoppers to see.

Yes, it really did take us this long to mention the Freeosks at Sam's Club. These vending machine kiosks churn out free samples that rotate each week. The sample vending machines have been a staple at Sam's Club since 2014 across all warehouses, and can be polarizing for shoppers.

Samples vary by location but can include granola bars, laundry detergent, powdered drink mixes, toothpaste, and more. The main complaint shoppers have is that their kiosks are either broken or out of stock. And, the machine will allow you to go through the process of scanning your membership card and entering your email, even if you won't get a sample in return. (For what it's worth, Sam's Club employees say they only receive a certain amount of products, and they frequently aren't given enough to last the week.)

However, the internet is also full of happy shoppers who spread the news about a good sample day at their local Freeosk, showing off laundry rinses and travel-sized hygiene items, along with beef jerky or nut bars. If you like living life in mild suspense, you can take your chances at the Freeosk each week to discover what's in the dispenser. Or, you can check out the Freeosk site to find out what the machine is stocked with ahead of time.

While the Freeosks can be mildly frustrating for shoppers when they're out of samples or not working properly, some of those complaints could be disappearing in 2026. Sam's Club announced that the chain was taking over the operations of the in-store Freeosks and rebranding them under the Sam's Club banner.

The new arrangement means that the kiosks will be controlled by Sam's Club itself. Instead of tracking random product sales, it also allows Sam's Club more insights into these sample campaigns. If a product becomes popular, Sam's Club can track those sales over time and see how effective the campaign actually was.

According to Harvey Ma, a Sam's Club executive, these rebranded sample kiosks will also use customer emails to send coupons for related products of items they've sampled, and potentially send coupons or price alerts about products they've already tried. If you really liked the fruit snacks you got one week, don't be surprised if a coupon shows up in your inbox a few weeks later.

If you're getting samples from the kiosks, you're normally allowed one per promotion period (which lasts about a week). Sometimes you can get double samples at the kiosks, either by luck or by scanning for one in the app and with your physical membership card at the machine.

However, the in-person sample tables are much more of a Wild West experience. Occasionally, an in-person sample person will try to restrict samples given, but in general that's not an official policy. In fact, most Tastes & Tips employees are told not to limit how many samples a person takes. Custom might dictate that each person take one sample and move on, but that's not set in stone by the people behind the counter.

The internet is full of people testing the boundaries of this particular loophole. One questionable TikTok video showed a person cleaning out an entire supply of Tyson country fried chicken steaks. The employee giving the samples looked annoyed, but didn't stop them from doing it. Another clip showed a shopper treating the juice samples like their own personal watering hole, guzzling every single beverage cup on the tray. The employee was amused, then annoyed, but again, didn't stop them from hoarding the cups. Is this ridiculous behavior for a free sip of orange juice? Perhaps. But in this economy, who are we to judge?

Reddit is full of customers begging for no more Dude Wipes in the kiosks. Apparently, the controversial product (which are marketed as hygienic wipes for, you guessed it, men) seems to be a default stock item. For every brag about beef jerky or toothpaste that customers snag during a lucky week, there's another dissatisfied Freeosk visitor who says their kiosk is stacked with Dude Wipes all year long. Customers want more food, or at least a larger variety of nonperishable items.

Though it's unclear why Dude Wipes are such a popular item in the kiosks — maybe Freeosk has a special deal with them? — it's also possible that Sam's Club customers won't see them as frequently in the coming months. As the warehouse rebrands the kiosks and likely changes up some of the products available, it's entirely possible that shoppers will have a greater variety to try. Wait, unless ... does Sam's Club have a Dude Wipe dupe?

If your weekly Sam's Club trip includes a personal goal of eating your way through the aisles with as many samples as you can find, you'll need to keep your eyes peeled for the special sample event that warehouses host each year. Taste of Sam's doesn't have a set date, but normally takes place in November or December in the lead-up to major holiday hosting.

The event used to take place over several days in each Sam's Club location, but that has varied lately. In 2025, most locations only had one or two days to get their fill of specialty foods at the sample tables. That said, some customers say it is absolutely worth the crush of carts to try new appetizers, mains, and desserts to add to your holiday spread.

One post on Instagram showed a shopper trying a charcuterie plate, mashed potatoes, hummus, and more. Another post on TikTok showed a sweet tooth's feast featuring cheesecake bites, chocolate-dipped cookies, three pies, and peppermint almonds, along with savory items. The user described it as the "best sampling event of the year."