Costco has lost its crown as the country’s top warehouse club for customer service – overtaken by Sam’s Club.
Customers raved about the new high-tech Scan & Go checkouts at Sam’s Club, Walmart’s version of Costco.
They allow customers to scan and pay for groceries with an app on their phone and just walk straight out. One in three shoppers use them, and they are able to skip checkout lines completely.
On the back of that, Sam’s Club climbed to the top of the annual American Customer Satisfaction Index with a score of 85 out of 100, a four-point rise.
Not only did they leapfrog logtime winner Costco – whose score remained at 82 – but Sam’s Club also outperformed all other major retailers.
‘My hope is that Sam’s Club, when you shop, feels like what it’s like to shop in the future, this is a glimpse of that,’ Sam’s Club CEO Chris Nicholas said.
Being able to scan items on the way around aisles and then walk out is a major draw to shoppers, according to ACSI.
‘We’re seeing a clear divide emerge between brands that are meeting the needs and expectations of younger consumers versus those that are falling behind,’ ACSI director of research emeritus Forrest Morgeson said.
Sam’s Club has been rated the best retailer for customer experience, beating Costco
Digital features such as those used by Sam’s Club are a key factor in the satisfaction of younger shoppers, Morgeson argued.
Furthermore, Sam’s Club won praise from its members for its accurate and timely fulfilment of online orders, especially at curbside.
Costco’s score remained flat at 82 while BJ’s, which came in third, fell to 78.
Costco has made tentative moves into introducing tech to its services, but is yet to rival Sam’s Club’s digital offerings.
The retailer recently introduced ID scanners to prevent those without memberships shopping at its stores.
Costco has also introduced inventory searches for local stores online, allowing customers to search their most convenient store to check if the product they want is available.
The survey was made up of 42,000 shoppers who detailed their experience of using the popular stores.
Costco has hit headlines in recent days for their defiant stance against Trump’s anti-DEI policies.
Sam’s Club is the first retailer to deploy the AI checkout technology at exit and at scale, it said
Costco lost its long-held spot at No.1 on the The American Customer Satisfaction Index
An ID scanner at a Costco in Issaquah, Washington, to ensure all those shopping are members
The company and its shareholders recently voted to stick to their DEI policies.
At the company’s annual meeting, they voted strongly against a proposal from a conservative activist group that challenged diversity, equity and inclusion policies at Costco.
The vote was seen as an early test of investor views about the value of corporate DEI programs, which many companies added or beefed up starting in 2020.
A top Costco executive warned that the retailer may be forced to raise its prices this year if Donald Trump brings in his proposed tariff policies.
‘When it rains, it rains on everybody,’ Gary Millerchip, the chief financial officer of the budget big-box retailer, told investors on an earnings call last month.
‘Of course, tariffs raise costs. That’s not something that we see as a positive in general,’ he said.
The exec added that it was unclear what impact Trump’s planned tariffs would have on the ‘timing and scope of changes’ at Costco.
