Sam’s Club Gas for Members Only
Tip It!I stopped for gas at Sam’s Club the other night and noticed a sign on the pump saying that, as of February 1st, gas sales will be limited to members only. Thus far anyone has been able to buy, but Club members have received a $0.05/gallon discount. I’m curious to see what (if anything) this will end up doing to their prices. When they first started selling gas at our local Sam’s, it was a pretty good deal… The ‘list price’ was the same as all of the local stations, so we really were getting a nickel off per gallon. Their base price has, however, floated upward over time, such that we’re now only saving a penny or two per gallon relative to ‘typical’ prices in our area. This hasn’t been a problem, though, as our local Kroger has since opened a gas station. Not only do they have low prices, but we also get a $0.10/gallon discount for every $100 worth of groceries that we buy. Needless to say, we buy most of our gas there. Still, it sure would be nice if Sam’s Club would couple their move to members only gas with more aggressive pricing. I doubt it’ll happen, but a guy can hope, can’t he?
Published on January 30th, 2006 - 11 Comments
Filed under: Automotive
About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
Related articles...
» Sam’s Club Checks Arrived» Why Doesn’t Sam’s Club Accept Visa Credit Cards?
» Sam’s Club Now Accepting MasterCard
» Sam’s Club and a Bad Battery Deal
» Five Frugal Shopping Tips
» From the Archives (December 23rd – December 30th)
» Why You Should Join an Investment Club
» Lending $100 Giveaway Reminder
Was this article useful? Please sign up to receive our content via e-mail:
11 Responses to “Sam’s Club Gas for Members Only”
Leave a Reply
Top Cards by Category
Earn $200 Bonus Cash Back after you make $500 in purchases in your first 3 months. 5% Cash Back on up to $1,500 spent in bonus categories each quarter.
Earn 3X points on airfare, 2X points on gas and groceries, and 1X points on everything else.
Receive 10,000 Membership Rewards bonus points when you spend $1,000 in 3 months of Card membership.
Enjoy a 0% introductory rate for 18 months on Balance Transfers and 6 months on Purchases. Earn up to 5% cash back in categories that change.
Enjoy no balance transfer fee for a limited time. 0% introductory rate on Balance Transfers and Purchases. Earn up to 5% Cashback Bonus in categories that change like gas, restaurants, department stores and more. Limitations apply*
Enjoy no balance transfer fee for a limited time. 0% introductory rate on Balance Transfers and Purchases. Earn up to 5% Cashback Bonus in categories that change like gas, restaurants, department stores and more. Limitations apply*
Enjoy amenities for you and your business, like: complimentary airport club access, including American Airlines Admirals Club(R) lounges.
5% Cashback Bonus in categories that change like gas, restaurants, department stores and more. Limitations apply*. Up to 1% unlimited Cashback Bonus on everything else. No annual fee
Earn 3X points on airfare, 2X points on gas and groceries, and 1X points on everything else.
Reports to 3 major credit bureaus monthly and acceptance at millions of locations worldwide, including website purchases and reservations.
- How to Become a Millionaire
- How to Get Out of Debt
- The Best Dollars I've Ever Spent
- How Our Estate Plan is Structured
- How We Paid Our Mortgage In Less than 10 Years
- Money Making Ideas
- How to Manage Your Asset Allocation with Multiple Accounts
- Consumption Smoothing - Save While the Saving's Good
- How to Save on Groceries
- How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?
- Eleven Great Books About Money
- Dave Ramsey is Bad at Math
- Dish Network Customer Service SUCKS
- $8,000 Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Pay Off Mortgage Early or Invest?
- How to Claim the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Reduced Credit Limits? Share Your Experience
- $15,000 Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Ethanol Blended Gas = Lower Mileage?
- Termite Control: Sentricon vs. Termidor
- How Much Should You Pay a Babysitter?
- Federal Income Tax Rates Went Down but Your Federal Tax Withholding Increased. Here's Why...
- Would the "Fair Tax" Gut the Economy?
How to save money on insurance
- Double-Check Your Ally CDs
- Stocks are Not Bonds, CDs, or Savings Accounts
- The Best Values in Colleges - 2012 Edition
- Five Myths About Renter's Insurance
- Own Your Investments, Rent Your Fun
- Citibank to Issue Credit Cards in China
- Heartstrings and Pursestrings
- Saving Money at the Grocery Store: Store Brand Pricing on the Rise
- Missing Tax Paperwork?
- Is Your Investment Allocation Right?
January 30th, 2006 at 1:59 pm
Our local Costco sells gas to members only and the price is about $.10 lower than the BP station in front of the store (I’m sure BP didn’t really appreciate Costco’s choice of location.)
With any luck, your Sam’s club will follow suit.
January 30th, 2006 at 2:40 pm
My local BJ’s has a member price that is on par or a few cents more/less than the best in the area, which is generally about 10-30 cents less than anywhere else in town (I know where to get the cheapest gas).
One of the gas stations that tends to be cheap doesn’t get my business anymore, though, even though they are on my way to/from work; bad service I can understand, but not from an owner/manager.
BJ’s non-member price tends to be 20-30 cents more expensive than the stations right nearby.
January 30th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
I use Costco too. Good prices all the time! (Plus free munchies around 11 am on Saturdays and Sundays!)
January 30th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
Oh! And I forgot to mention — my company picks up the annual membership fee to Costco as one of my benefits.
January 30th, 2006 at 6:38 pm
Our Costco doesn’t take credit cards at their pumps. I find that I can do better with my gas rebate card at a nearby gas station. With gas prices as they are, I save a dime a gallon with the 3% rebate.
January 31st, 2006 at 1:26 am
FWIW, Sam’s Club here has always required membership in order to buy gas. But then again, I’ve always been able to get a much better deal by driving across the state line. (The _closest_ I’ve seen prices get between the two states is 30c/gal. 50c/gal is not uncommon and 75c/gal is not unheard-of. I might pay city prices if I drove enough that I had to refill on weekdays, but I don’t, so I don’t.)
I do miss the Speedway 2c/gal discount for rewards members, though.
January 31st, 2006 at 7:21 am
mbhunter: That’s one thing that I forgot to mention… While Sam’s Club doesn’t take credit cards inside the store, they do take them at the pump. So I can still cash in on those juicy 5% credit card rewards for gas purchases.
February 2nd, 2006 at 5:53 am
Generally speaking, gas stations don’t usually make a lot of money from the gasoline sales. They often have to sell it at a loss of a cent or two per gallon in order to stay competitive with others in the area.
They make money from people buying candy bars and extra services. So it really makes a lot of sense that Costco would make the gas ‘members only’ as the members are the ones who buy the junk inside so they can afford the pumps.
February 2nd, 2006 at 8:51 am
I can echo Todd’s point about where gas stations make the most money, on the convenience store. Costco’s just doing the exact same thing… except they have a WAREHOUSE.
I rely on Costco to suppress the prices of gas stations around it so I can take advantage of the extra 5% cashback using a card Costco won’t take at the pump.
January 1st, 2008 at 10:45 am
Our Sams club(Boston) doesn’t do gas but our Stop and Shop does. They do 5 cents off if you have a S+S card and another 5 cents if you bought $50 in groceries. I’m not positive, it might be 10 cents. In calculating the price of their food I don’t think it is a great deal since you end up spending more on less food.
November 1st, 2008 at 6:16 am
Hi, All I would like to know is can I use my Sams card for Gas
or do I need a New Card ?