A Costco shopper at BJ’s Wholesale Club
Author’s Note: Not a paid or sponsored review. I don’t do that. I have no affiliation with BJ’s, Costco, or Sam’s Club. Enjoy my silly opinions, frens!
Don’t hate the player. Hate the game.
I cheated on Costco today. BJ’s Wholesale Club made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. A ten-dollar membership. So here’s my $146 grocery haul. And my weird little thoughts on how the store compares to Costco or Sam’s Club.
BJ’s looks a lot like Costco inside. Not noticeably larger. But, they stock almost twice as many different products as Costco (7k vs. 4k products).
But there’s no food court. And no food samples. Don’t come hungry.
The vibe inside the store reminded me of a well-behaved Wal-Mart. Almost a hybrid warehouse. Wholesale Lite. More about that later.
Navigating the warehouse
BJ’s labels their aisles! Hallelujah! Giving you the stink eye, Costco. They also have a store map on their website. (I would have called this a “treasure map” with some Jack Sparrow references, but heyyyy.)
The store is waaaay less crowded than Costco. In fact, it was sooo empty, it resembled a sneaky drug front. Look at this empty parking lot. My word. Costco could never.
(Does that fancy-pants sports car belong to the manager? Maybe I need a career change.)
Why is the store so empty? Potentially this is because BJ’s offers a curbside pickup option. So folks don’t even need to “shop.” They might just be driving up and grabbing their stuff, and leaving. Tempting, honestly. (There is also grocery delivery, for a fee. Costco doesn’t have either of those options. But Sam’s Club does.)
Do you hate humans?
There’s also a BJ’s Optical, which was completely empty. At 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Like a Western ghost town after a failed gold rush. Disturbing.
Or not disturbing? If you don’t wanna interact with humans on your shopping trip, this might be the ideal store.
But there is Tally.
Speaking of avoiding humans, there’s this bizarre little roving robot that wanders the aisles, chirping loudly every few minutes. It’s name is “Tally,” and you use it to price check merchandise. Tally has little blinky round eyes that stare vaguely into your soul. Again, if you wanna avoid human contact, BJ’s is the place to be.
Books = brain candy.
You can buy clothing, home decor, and small appliances at BJ’s. But what makes it stand out from Costco are the books. BOOKS. Yaaaas. Costco stopped selling books. Because they are meanie-pants. BJ’s has an ocean of books. Well, two oceans: one for adults, and one for kids. Feast yer eyes on this brain food:
There are also the typical displays of fresh flower bouquets and giftable potted plants. The ones I looked at were all in great shape, and reasonably priced. If BJ’s had a garden center, I might hang out here more often.
No weird refrigerator rooms.
If you hate walking into those cruel, frigid, refrigerated rooms, rejoice! At BJ’s, the cold items are stocked neatly on the shelves. More like a Publix supermarket. However, like Costco (AND Sam’s Club), you can buy 4-pounds of butter ($9.59), a box of 3 half-gallons of organic milk ($11.79), and a 2-pound block of cheddar cheese ($5.49). Many items (and prices) are eerily similar between the stores.
I bought butter, cream, and milk. I was impressed that BJ’s heavy cream contains fewer ingredients (no mono- & diglycerides, polysorbate 80, or carrageenan), compared to what my Costco sells. It’s (amazingly) cheaper, at $3.69 per quart. The butter was also cheaper (on sale for $8.09). And, cage-free eggs were cheaper than Costco at only $3.89 for 18. Shocking.
BJ’s doesn’t seem to have as many specialty cheeses as Costco. Less bougie, and more basic. But I bought some delicious Castello Gouda/Havarti cheese snacks, which were on sale for $7.99. And I ogled this huge, spherical Gayo Azul Edam cheese, all wrapped up like a giant piece of candy. Cheese candy. Want.
Wholesale Lite
Since there is only one stomach at my house, I appreciate that BJ’s sells some stuff in smaller containers.
For example, BJ’s has their own store-brand ice creams in half-gallon tubs. But, honestly, this confused me. It’s the same size as Publix ice cream. And not cheaper than Publix. Nothing about this is “wholesale.” Weird. Why bother?
But I was intrigued by this big tub of frozen cream puffs. I may return to buy these. Especially because “cream” actually IS the first ingredient!
BJ’s has smaller containers of Wildbrine sauerkraut (32 ounces for $8.99), which I usually buy from Costco in 50 tubs for $9.49. So, Costco has the better price.
Same with the virgin coconut oil, which is available in 54 ounce jars at BJ’s for $12.99, compared to Costco’s 84 ounce jars for $16.49. Costco is the better deal, but you gotta buy more at once.
You can also buy a wider range of spices (and even fresh herbs) at BJ’s. Much closer to a one-stop shop than Costco, for sure.
Meats
I was not terribly impressed by the frozen fish prices. Hmmph. But the fresh chicken breasts were substantially cheaper than Costco at $2.19 per pound. I ended up buying some Gorton’s frozen panko breaded haddock on sale for $15.99 (34.9 ounces).
You can also buy these ginormous 10-pound logs of ground beef for an eye-watering ~$55.
Beware the rival gangs of rotisserie chickens.
What’s a wholesale club without a 5-dollar rotisserie chicken? BJ’s has $4.99 hot rotisserie chickens. Just like Sam’s Club and Costco. Here they are, defending their turf:
Indeed, I bought one. I’m sad to say, my chicken was super tough. I liked the flavor (it was pleasantly savory and natural-tasting), but the meat was just too dry and chewy. It’s unlikely I will buy another one. (I WAS impressed that the label describes the chickens as “cage free.” Just not impressed enough to wanna eat them. Alas.)
Produce
Overall, BJ’s produce was fresh and plentiful, with more variety than either Costco or Sam’s Club. No stinky rotting smells or sadness. I bought 2 pounds of broccoli florets for $4.29. And onions: 3 pounds of red for $2.99, and 3 pounds of yellow for $1.89. AND cherry tomatoes: 2 pounds for $5.68.
I looooooved these strawberries! In fact, these might be the best supermarket strawberries I’ve ever had. They aren’t dirt cheap (the regular price is $6.59 for two pounds), but they were bursting with sweet, concentrated flavor, and were a beautiful bright red all the way through the center. I will definitely buy these again!
Bakery
I bought a box of imported French butter croissants on sale for a shockingly frugal $2.99/dozen. At first, I despised them. They are flabby. And sad. But I tried baking them for a few minutes in my toaster over, and voilà! That fixed them.
They are extremely different from Costco’s bakery croissants. BJ’s are softer and doughier, with a sweeter flavor. They’re also smaller, and not ideally shaped for sandwiches? Better suited for breakfast.
And I bought a box of giant cranberry orange muffins, which were utterly fabulous. They have a light, fluffy, moist crumb. With tart, juicy, unsweetened whole berries inside. Mine stayed fresh in my refrigerator for 8 days without needing to be reheated. I was impressed by the “mostly” natural ingredients, although I will never be a fan of soybean oil. Neverrrr.
AND I bought a caramel pecan cake. It’s only 7-inches, so not exactly “wholesale-sized.” The flavor is strong, but not particularly natural-tasting. I found it to be sickeningly sweet. And I was disappointed by the ingredients. But, it was attractively decorated, and a good value at only $11.99.
Deli
BJ’s Deli has fewer prepared meals. But (unlike Costco) they DO have a full-service meat and cheese area, where you can get stuff freshly sliced. OR you can avail yourself of the pre-packaged grab-and-go area. This is similar to Publix. But there are more options ready.
Unfortunately, you gotta plan ahead.
Shopping at BJ’s takes way more preparation. It’s not ideally set up for just popping in a browsing. If you want to save money, you have to “clip” coupons in the app ahead of time. If you’re a busy career human (like I am) this is a major pain in the neck. If I wasn’t writing this food blog, I think this would have been a deal-breaker for me. I don’t have hours to sit at home scrolling my phone just to get groceries.
Speaking of the app…
I both love and hate the BJ’s app. I love seeing what is available, and it’s easy to look up details about the products, like the ingredients and nutrition facts. But. Why are things always out of stock?!? Why?! When I clip my coupons and load items into my cart, I inevitably end up with 6-8 items out of stock at any given time. This is massively aggravating.
But even worse: on my first visit, the app logged me out as soon as I entered the BJ’s store. And then I was unable to log back in. I had saved my shopping list in the app, and was unable to access it. I had no idea which coupons I had clipped, and the prices displayed next to the store items do not reliably list when the item is on sale/has a coupon available. This was beyond infuriating.
The only redemptive moment was when I checked out and realized I had saved a whopping $66.03 on my $146.28 order. BJ’s also gave me a $10 coupon my first visit, which paid for my membership. And I got two $10 coupons in the mail a week later. So, the savings are real. Just inconvenient.
Speaking of checking out…
You walk up behind the cashier. It’s super weird. You stand behind them and look over their shoulder to pay. I kept asking if I was even doing it right, because it felt so wrong to stand behind someone like that. Soooo strange.
I would describe the BJ’s employees “quietly efficient.” They’re silent, but available. It took me all of 2 minutes to pick up my new membership card (including waiting in line and having it printed out), and the employee said maybe five words total. I babbled like an idiot, because the silence was unnerving. Maybe they are secretly robots, like Tally. If you hate interacting with bubbly employees, BJ’s is your huckleberry.
Dramatic Conclusion
If you love strategically collecting coupons and hunting down the best deals, BJ’s might be a good store for you. I appreciated the variety of products, and the convenient smaller sizes. They stock more crowd-pleasing favorites, and fewer fancy specialty products, compared to Costco. While not a perfect replacement for Costco (or Sam’s Club), they’ve got most of the bases covered. If they could fix their out-of-stock problems, maybe I’d be sold.
(Want the full list of what I bought? Of course you do: 2 pounds broccoli florets, 2 pounds tomatoes, 3 pounds yellow onions, 3 pounds red onions, 2 pounds strawberries, 3 pounds rotisserie chicken, 10 panko breaded haddock fillets, 10 cans tuna, 4 pounds butter, 2 quarts heavy cream, 1 gallon milk, 6 jars ginger kombucha, 18 cage-free eggs, 24 gouda/havarti cheese snacks, 2.5 pounds whole-bean coffee, 12 French butter croissants, 6 cranberry orange giant muffins, 6 plain bagels, 3 pounds cheese tortellini, 24 Snickers ice cream bars, and one whole caramel pecan cake.)
The End.
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