Why Sam's Club Has An Edge Over Costco

For convenient all-in-one-place shopping, you can't beat the warehouse model of Sam's Club and Costco. The ability to buy products in bulk means lower price points than buying in smaller quantities. The two behemoth chains are always competing for customers and working to get an edge in the market, and internet users love to compare the differences between Costco and Sam's Club to help others decide where to shop. 

Over two years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, we're still seeing supply chain issues affect consumers across the globe (via Morningstar). A key part of the supply chain is how items make their way from manufacturing plants into physical store locations. The reason that Sam's Club and Costco are able to offer such low prices for their inventories is partially that they are experts at cutting costs at different parts of the supply chain — but that can be hard to do when the supply chain itself is causing so many problems. Today, factory outlets are confronting many of the same expense issues that the everyday person is worrying about; think labor shortages and rising gas prices, but on a larger scale than the individual consumer faces, per Avetta. Though in many ways life seems to have returned to normal, places like Costco and Sam's Club are still working to mitigate issues in the supply chain, according to Eat This, Not That.

Sam's Club has made a huge leap over Costco in the battle for improved convenience in the wake of ongoing supply chain problems. Part of the reason that stores are struggling to get goods into consumers' hands right now is that there is a severe lack of truck drivers to deliver products into stores, as reported by LP Gas Magazine. The way that Sam's Club is getting around this problem sounds like a solution from a sci-fi film — but it's happening as we speak! 

In the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas, TheStreet reports that Sam's Club is trying out a futuristic solution to the lack of truck drivers: autonomous trucks. That's right, driverless trucks are here and Sam's Club is using them to get you your essential products. Remember the great toilet paper shortage early on in the pandemic? The first product the autonomous trucks are carrying is Northern toilet paper, as well as Dixie products. The autonomous trucks are 26 feet long and made by the company Gatik. One major perk of this innovation, in the eyes of Sam's, is that the trucks can work to deliver products 24/7. Though the operation is not yet nationwide, the 34 Sam's Club locations in the network of stores in Texas will help the corporation determine the efficacy of the driverless truck as a workaround to driver shortages. Life sure does come at you fast — in the form of a driverless truck full of toilet paper!