Do you think that shopping at wholesale places like Sam's Club is a bargain?

After comparing shopping at regular stores and wholesale stores I only found a few pennies difference. I think the only great thing is buying in bulk. Plus paying $40 for a membership is way over the top for a regular person (not business)YOU tell me.

I think the members prices are quite high. I only shop there once every 2-3 months, so when you consider that you are not saving much. The main thing I like about it is that I can stock up on paper products, pasta sauce, and frozen items. It does save me time, because if I can't get the the supermarket one week we still have food.

I live an hour from Sams and I think it is a complete waste unless you are buying big ticket items. For groceries and day to day suppiles I find better deals at the local grocery store, at least they have weekly sales.

It is only a bargain if you know what the prices are at the supermarkets. You have to shop smart. I go to Costco for meat and coffee, all the other things I can find at better prices.

I think you get a better quality product (I am speaking of Costco-not much experience with Sams). For example, I buy a HUGE bag of frozen wild blueberries for $6....the kids love them. At the grocerystore I buy a bag about 1/6 the size for $3 and they are cultivated which aren't as good. I like it for things like that.

It works out costly since one ends up shopping in excess and unplanned purchases.

For me some of the stuff I buy regularly is cheaper at the warehouse store, other stuff, no. So I buy products at the most reasonable price. The warehouse store has lower prices on things like snack food items, cereal and meat. I go to the warehouse store once a month and the regular grocery store once a week. I can use coupons at both places.
Also I get a discount on my club membership through my employer, check to see if yours offers a discount, also some unions, trade organizations and clubs also offer discount.

You hit the nail on the head. Sam's Club when it first started was intended to be for people who were in some kind of business where they needed to buy in bulk quanity at competitive prices. Then they thought it was probably not a bad idea to just extend the service to everybody.
We used to shop there years ago, but, gee, is it $40 a year for membership now? Wow, I think we used to pay about $25. We went about four times a year and bought mainly things like toilet paper, and household supplies. Also because we have a lot of freezer storage, we'd buy some food items in bulk. But when we sat down and just did some serious figuring, turned out by the time we paid our membership fees, even at $25 we were just about breaking even over what we would have paid at our local grocery store. and that didn't take account of the gas it took us to go the 80 odd miles there, and back.
Unless you just want to go there once in a while for the heck of it, and shop as a visitor, without membership, I'd say if you aren't buying in serious bulk as a business person, you just aren't saving a thing. Probably spending more even, because you save on gas, and save on grocery coupons at your local store, especially if you have one that doubles coupons up to a dollar.
Yikes, I'm still processing that $40 membership now, lol.

Sam's is not a bargain. Coscto has much better quality and lower prices.