If you like Sam's shop at Sam's. Bottom line is that Costco quality is far superior to Sam's. Basically Sam's is just another WalMart.

Just sent an email as well. Encourage others to do the same

tnlakepanda: Wow what's up here people are taking this too personal.
No matter what grocery store, you will always find some prices lower and some higher when comparing stores. its a given and its why my professional shopping wife spends hours and hours studying prices. she's impressive and many a clerk and even manager compliment her on her shopping acumen.

Secondly I am not against increasing wages that is not what I said. what I said is that those higher wages will be transfer to the customer....name just one business that does not transfer some of their operating expenses to their consumer.

Finally I am not one inclined on defending or holding brand loyalty for the most part but I am inclined to compare in order to gain utility for my dollar
And yes I am aware that there are people who understand everything about price and nothing about value but again that is not what I am say beside which it often is highly subjective because its one's perception only.

I am sorry if I hurt someone's feelings that is never my intention.

Personal Best Regards:

I just emailed them. Sure hope it helps!

Dottie,

My wife and I each bought two pair of progressive eyeglasses from Sams, and paid about double what we used to pay at Costco back home. Even worse, we each needed lenses replaced within the return period. We never needed the Costco lenses replaced. While we can't justify the trip to Altamonte Springs for regular shopping, in the future we will go there for eyeglasses and major electronics.

BTW - I just sent an email to Robin.

Sent e mail to robin. I truly hope we get a Costco here or closer to the villages. I recently heard a rumor that a Costco is being built near Russell Stover, is this just a rumor or is there some truth to it? Thanks. Kathy

Take out the word dot and replace it with a .

We currently belong to both Sam's and B.J.'s. There are one or two items we like at each, and we find ourselves in Clermont somewhat regularly, so stopping at either one is not a hardship.

We gave up our Costco membership simply because I could not justify having memberships at all three. A friend of ours recently needed the use of our large Town and Country to pick up some items at Costco, so I went with them.

Each one has their strengths and weaknesses. I was disappointed at not finding a few things at Costco when I was there that I thought they would surely have. It would be ideal to have all three close, as it would promote competition, etc.

I think we will surely downsize our memberships and stick with one, as I cannot justify having all three or even two memberships. One has to buy a lot of stuff to offset the membership

The crazy thing is that when I got my Costco membership it was to buy a special order Pergola kit. I could have bought the kit directly from the manufacturer, but they themselves told me their Costco price was hundreds cheaper for the exact same thing. It was drop shipped right to my home, so I did not even need to go to Costco to buy it...just had to have the membership. Even with the membership cost I saved hundreds on the Pergola.

Choices are almost always a good thing. Frank

Personally, I would rather have a BJs close by. We've been members for several years and have saved quite a bit over that time. We did belong to Sam's, but dropped it after one year - not worth the hassle of the crowds and thought their selections weren't all that great.

Like Frank, we are near Clermont at least once a month so we stop at the BJs there. We also have a college student son over in Melbourne and stop by that location when we are over there. Our experience has been that BJs carries what we buy and their stores, both here and up north, seem considerably cleaner to us.

Just cancelled my membership after costco cancelled a option to build closer to me. Will stick with bjs.

For those of you that love Costco and still have a membership you can buy almost anything from their store at Google Express and have your entire order shipped for $4.99. Right to your doorstep. They also have online ordering right from Costco.com. Not sure about their shipping costs...

The Raleigh NC area is just getting its second Costco and the county (Wake) has just under a million people. I don't know what kind of population density they require before building.

Make sure you use the email address w01026mkt04@costco.com

We too would really like it if Costco came to the villages. I emailed Robin and I suggested that Costco begin adapting to the changing population of the US. It's time for a Costco Silver store. We don't need baby diapers or family sized cereal boxes but we still buy meats, electronics, and lots of pharmaceutical products and wine. We'd be a great place for the first Costco Silver store which would be a model for others near large retirement communities. If some of you have ideas that might make such a store profitable and convenient pass them along. At some point the higher ups at Costco might think that they just thought of a great idea....Costco Silver.:a040:

Robin is an old friend of mine that I reconnected with at a home show in Tallahassee Florida several weeks ago. With my calls to headquarters and finding that our calls and emails were not going to the people that make decisions at Costco, robin said she would coordinate our email requests and get them to where they need to go at the Costco headquarters. So I'm hopeful with Robin that our voice as one will not go unnoticed. She has asked that we keep on sending her emails so she can bundle them and send them on to corporate. Robin has relatives in the villages and loves this place so she is an advocate as well. If you are In contact with residents in the surround areas such as mount Dora and leesberg please have them put email requests in as well. Together, we have a chance to make this happen. Thank you everyone!