Sam’s Club is restructuring its membership plan, and one major change has a lot of customers fired up. The warehouse club currently offers two membership options: Club and Plus. The basic Club tier, which comes with an annual $50 fee, gets you same-day delivery, members-only fuel savings, and quick access to the Sam’s Club auto center. However, for $60 more, members can enroll in the Plus tier and take advantage of free shipping on all orders, no minimum required. However, that last perk is about to change.
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Starting on Aug. 19, Plus members will only get free shipping for online orders with at least $50 worth of eligible items pre-tax. The controversial update first appeared on the Sam’s Club membership homepage in early July. For Plus orders under the $50 minimum, a flat-rate $8 shipping fee will be tacked on.
Of course, free shipping isn’t the only incentive for signing up for a Sam’s Club Plus membership. Priced at $110 per year, the elite tier also comes with exclusive pharmacy and optical savings and free curbside pickup, which is a big lure for families.
However, as many Plus members will argue, the best perk is free shipping. Therefore, in response to the forthcoming change, Plus members are canceling their memberships and turning to competitor Costco.
On Facebook, one Plus member exclaimed, "Like after all the millions of dollars they already make aren’t enough...They’re gouging us and we should stand up to them."
“I use their free shipping all the time with under $50 purchases. Guess I’ll need to cancel my plus membership and spend more time at Costco,” wrote one fed-up customer in a separate Facebook post.
Another commenter agreed: “I'm definitely downgrading my Sam's Club membership. I did the math and the extra cash back for being a plus member is maybe enough for me to break even. Free shipping is what tipped the scale in favor of me keeping a plus membership.”
“Just downgraded my plus membership no point in having it way pay more for nothing,” reads a third comment.
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On X, one Plus member said Sam’s Club “should’ve cut Exec salaries” instead of making it harder for customers to get free shipping on online orders.
“@SamsClub you state that you ‘highly value’ our memberships but if that were true, you would not be eliminating free shipping - why ALL of us upgraded to Plus. Living more than an 1hr from a club, I’m struggling to see the value of being a member” they wrote.
A fellow angry Sam’s Club member replied, “Totally agree with this. What is the purpose of being a premium member? Bad move. Especially in this [expletive] economy. Greed. Pure greed.”
“Yeah, I’m going to ‘look into’ leaving my @SamsClub plus membership really quickly when this changes. I might even cancel it all together and go with @costco,” said someone else. “I might even walk in the day before renewal and request a refund, since you can get one at any time.”
In a July 7 interview with Fox Business, a Sam’s Club spokesperson said, “Our members are at the heart of everything we do.” They reiterated that the wholesaler is "continuously working on providing an easier and more convenient shopping experience for our members."
