ORLANDO, Fla. – America’s warehouse clubs – Costco, Sam’s Club, and BJ’s Wholesale – are booming.
“When consumer sentiment is high, shoppers spend more time shopping and buying extra items. Conversely, when consumer sentiment is low, warehouse clubs and superstores draw a larger pool of consumers as households seek to cut expenses by buying in bulk for the future.”
That paragraph is from IBISWorld.com and their 2025 analysis of the warehouse club industry. Read between the lines: when the economy is bad, people flock to warehouse clubs. When the economy is good, people flock to warehouse clubs. Very few industries get to have their cake and eat it, too.
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In an era marked by economic uncertainty, digital disruption, and rapidly changing consumer habits, each of the three warehouse clubs is thriving in its own different ways by reimagining what shopping means for millions of households and businesses. Their unique blend of paid membership, technology-powered convenience, and “treasure hunt” value has made them standouts in the U.S. retail landscape.
But are warehouse clubs a good deal? That all depends on several factors, including what you buy and how you use it.
Right off the bat, each club is going to charge you a yearly fee just to get in the door.
For Costco, their lowest membership is $65, and their highest Executive Membership is $130.
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Sam’s lowest membership is $50 per year, with their upper-tier Plus membership available for $110 per year.
BJ’s Wholesale sits kind of in the middle: $65 for their basic membership and $120 for their Club+. Paying over $100 a year for a warehouse membership might seem steep for some consumers, but many of the higher-level memberships come with extra benefits such as cash back, extended shopping hours, exclusive savings, and free same-day deliveries.
Even at the lowest level memberships, warehouse clubs specialize in bulk pricing, which often translates to lower unit pricing. As an example, when we checked in November 2025, a 112-count of Tide Free & Gentle detergent was priced at $27.49 at Target. You can get that same item at BJ’s Wholesale for $23.98 (and you get 8 more detergent packs). At Sam’s Club, the same item retails for $29.98 ($2.49 more than Target), but comes with 40 more detergent packs. At Costco, the same 152 count is a buck less at $28.99.
That’s just one product, and savings vary widely by item, quantity, and location. Multiply that across a year’s worth of repeat purchases, especially during sales cycles, and the savings can add up quickly. However, purchase it just once to save a couple of bucks, and suddenly spending $60 to $130 a year on a warehouse club membership might not be worth it.
Even if you’re not buying that 152-count laundry detergent or a 24-pack of paper towels, smaller items also benefit from lower prices. Warehouse clubs typically mark up items on average about 11% while most brick-and-mortar retailers go anywhere from 25% to 50%.
Each of the warehouse clubs also benefits from its own private label merchandise , which is generic brands often made by well-known retailers but packaged as in-house brands and retailing at a much lower price:
- Costco has its Kirkland brand
- Sam’s has Member’s Mark
- BJ’s Wholesale has Wellsley Farms (food and beverage) and Berkley Jensen (general merchandise)
But wait, there’s more.
Beyond price, another differentiator is how warehouse clubs position themselves as one-stop shopping destinations (groceries, electronics, apparel, automotive, household goods) like Super Center concepts by both Target and Walmart. Warehouse clubs also serve up the “treasure hunt” items previously mentioned at the top of this story. Treasure hunt items are uniquely priced, limited in quantity, or exclusive to that one retailer, creating a sense of excitement and urgency among shoppers.
Treasure hunting is also the idea that items get moved around stores regularly , so shoppers sometimes have to “hunt” for a product. It’s not unusual for warehouse clubs to re-arrange entire aisles overnight to keep the shopping experience fresh for customers.
These treasure-hunt strategies tap directly into well-studied psychology: scarcity, loss leaders, price anchoring, and what some analysts call “treasure-hunt loyalty.” They’re designed to make the savings feel bigger, and the shopping experience feel more rewarding, even when the math doesn’t always work out in the shopper’s favor.
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Warehouse clubs also offer ancillary products and services for their members: think of things like (optical) glasses and contact lenses, car-buying concierge services, tires and batteries, photo printing, hearing aid centers, pharmacies, and travel clubs.
And lastly, don’t forget about food, food courts, and gasoline. Costco is famous for its $1.50 hot dog and drink combo, rotisserie chickens, and inexpensive gas. Most warehouse clubs sell gas for anywhere from $0.05 to $0.25 a gallon, less than your typical corner gas station.
Costco and BJ’s combined have 88 million paid household members (Sam’s Club, part of Walmart, does not disclose its membership totals). Industry analysts, however, estimate 56% of American consumers belong to at least one warehouse club, and of those, about half have multiple club memberships.
By the way, the fastest growing spending segment at clubs: customers between 25 and 34.
Meanwhile, the membership math tells its own story, and for the clubs, it’s a lucrative one. Unique to its segment of retail, revenue from membership fees help insulate warehouse clubs from some market volatility.
Warehouse clubs outperformed traditional superstores by 2.7% to 6.1% year-over-year in January of 2025. Sam’s Club CFO Todd Sears recently estimated that warehouse clubs make up about 7% of total U.S. retail sales, underscoring how much room the format still has to grow (industry research generally supports a range between 6.5% and 8%). January 2025 also saw warehouse clubs outpacing brick-and-mortar supercenters and online retailers for both store traffic and sales. Memberships are growing and Wall Street likes what it sees.
In the past five years, Costco’s stock is up 215%. BJ’s stock is up 305%. Sam’s Club doesn’t have its own stock – again, they are part of Walmart. Nevertheless, Walmart stock is up about 114.4% since the pandemic. Industry sales for the whole warehouse club segment are now estimated to top $768.3 billion this year.
The dynamics of how warehouse clubs make their money – and the items they sell – are a unicorn in American retail. Unlike supercenters and most online sites, warehouse clubs get a little extra boost in revenue from annual membership fees. It’s a business model that helps with the bottom line, turns loyal customers into recurring revenue streams, and could be the difference between an operating quarter (or year) in the red or in the black.
Here’s a breakdown of each retailer and their membership streams:
- Costco earned over $4.8 billion worldwide from fees in 2024, with $1.72 billion from just the most recent fiscal quarter and renewal rates above 90%. For 2025, analysts project Costco will make $5.17 billion in membership fees and by 2035 that amount could be as high as $10.5 billion. Membership fees represent a small amount of Costco’s revenue (about 2%), but, according to one independent analyst estimate, membership fees account for roughly 73% of Costco’s gross profit.
- In 2024, Sam’s Club made about $3.1 billion in annual membership revenue, bolstered by rapid growth, rising renewal rates, and successful Plus membership upgrades. For 2025, membership revenue is projected to top out at $3.8 billion.
- In 2024, BJ’s Wholesale Club said it brought in roughly $456.5 million in income from membership fees citing strong membership growth, retention of previous members, and alongside its first fee hike in seven years.
Costco leads the industry with about a 62% market share, followed by Sam’s Club at 31%, and BJ’s holding at about 7%. Globally, Costco maintains the strongest presence with 914 warehouses worldwide (they have 629 locations in the U.S.). Sam’s Club is expanding in Mexico and China (they have about 821 clubs worldwide). BJ’s remains a U.S.-only focused operator with about 255 clubs.
Technology is also quietly reshaping the clubs – not just how people shop, but how quickly they get in and out. Sam’s Club leads the way with its combination of Scan & Go and its AI-powered Exit Arches.
If you’re unfamiliar with the two technologies, Scan & Go allows shoppers to scan items with their smartphones as they put them into their carts. When they’ve paid for the items through the app, shoppers then pass through electronic arches that electronically verify the contents of the cart all without an associate doing a manual check of items and receipts. Sam’s Club says the new tech speeds up exits by nearly 23%. I’ve tried Scan & Go and the Exit Arches – it’s a night and day difference getting out of the store once I’m done shopping.
Costco is piloting Scan & Go and cart pre-scanning features, streamlining the member exit experience at trial locations. The company has also rolled out Costco Same Day – customers order online and have items delivered via Instacart. BJ’s Wholesale’s ExpressPay, Tap & Pay, and curbside pickup also give members advanced digital checkout options previously rare in club environments.
So, are warehouse club memberships a good deal?
The answer is less about the clubs themselves and more about the shoppers walking through the door. The value proposition isn’t hidden or mysterious: it’s the math. Some families save hundreds per year, while others walk out with a year’s worth of snacks they don’t actually need and won’t ever eat.
Ultimately, the value of a membership comes down to what a shopper puts in the cart.
As long as Americans balance convenience, cost, and a little bit of “treasure hunt” excitement, the warehouse club model will keep thriving. Warehouse club memberships may be optional, but for millions of households, they’ve become part of the modern budgeting strategy – a calculated bet that, for now, still pays off.