Sam's Club — Restaurant in Reno

We've been members for over 8 years & we love it there! Costco had half of their lights off (who wants to shop in the dark? It was creepy) & the customer service was nil when we checked them out again a couple of months ago. I had a been a Costco member for over 5 years before Sam's Club opened in Reno. We were considering getting a card there in addition to Sam's (this was the Plumb Lane location), but were very unimpressed by them. The lines to get in when they open are insane in & of themselves.

Sam's is always well lit, the employees are always willing to help & there's a never a line to get in. Honestly, the prices were & products are better anyway, so I'll stick with Sam's Club. Didn't see anything better about Costco when we went there.

The sample people (like some of our favorites, Karen & Windy) are very helpful if you like a product they're showing but don't know where it is. The door greeters upon entering & receipt checkers upon leaving are the nicest, kindest people you'll ever meet. That's especially true of Darlene & Ed who make you want to come back again each time just to see them (and we're not overly social people mind you), but they're so friendly to us and our children.

Their food court has delicious, well priced food and the employees there are nice and quick too. Thank you to Rose and the others for always working so fast to get my large family fed once we order!!! The hot dogs w/sodas and the pizzas (I recommend the 3 meat kind) are family favorites. Fellow moms & dads let me tell you, it's so helpful to be able to be able to grab a snack or drink to shop with when you're in tow with bored children. (Ha-Ha!)

The other employees there have always been helpful to us, we've never had issues personally. A couple of times we've had them offer to get something out just for us, because they saw that we couldn't find what we were looking for. Once they even pulled a new pallet of dog food down immediately just for us, so we could buy one bag. We & our dogs thank you for that Sam's employees! We bought our BBQ with island there over 6 years ago and it's still going strong, they have great sales.

We once bought a box of Eggo waffles that had molded up somewhere between packaging and shipping (they'd defrosted somewhere along the line), they gave us a full refund and apologized profusely (it was pretty gross). That's the ONLY problem we've ever experienced there since March 2006 when we joined. I know other members who have done returns there and it was easy for them too. Again, great customer service. If you have an issue with something you buy there, go return it and I guarantee it will be hassle free!

I know my family will keep our Sam's Club membership as long as they're here!!! I wish they had other locations in the Reno/Sparks area and hope they expand sometime soon. That's the only advantage Costco has over Sam's Club in my opinion, as there are at least 3 locations I can think of (Reno/Sparks/Carson City) and just the one Sam's on Kietzke Lane.

I can't find a flaw in any aspect for Sam's and that's a rarity for places these days. I definitely recommend getting a Sam's Club membership. We even upgraded to the Sam's Plus membership about a month ago. You now get money back at the end of the year based on what you spend throughout the year just for shopping there. The instant savings (sales) now apply to all members, I used to hate how it was only for Plus members but that was recently changed. You also get in earlier with the Plus card, at 7am most days!

Thank you Sam's Club for always going above and beyond for my family, you've made this stay-at-home mom of 12+ years a happy & loyal customer for life! My overall review for them which I based my 5 stars on: Customer service, return policy, item selection, employee quality, item quality, location quality and overall...

Great place to shop; however, one thing that's frustrating is when they discontinue selling an item I've been buying for a long time (e.g., chocolate milk & Snapple). I did have one incident one time in all the years I've been shopping there that was off-putting. I pushed my flat-bed cart up to the cash register just as I had done hundreds of times before. The cashier used the hand scanner to shoot my items (I watched her as she hit every thing in the cart). I paid, took the receipt and headed for the door. I arrived and the receipt checker looked at my goods and looked at the receipt. She stepped towards me and stuck her face inches from my face and, while pointing at the receipt (which she was holding up between our faces), said in a very loud voice, "Explain this!" It was busy at the time so lots of folks were in line and immediately part of this vignette. "Explain what?" You have two things of Diet Pepsi and you only paid for one. "Sorry." She took the receipt and walked over to a book located between the entrance and the exit. She wrote something down then returned to me. I said lamely, "The cashier must have missed one flat of Pepsi." She stared at me. I asked if she could just remove the unpaid-for flat and we'd be done. She grabbed it off the cart and threw it on the ground. It made for a good show. I'm sure the audience was thoroughly entertained. I was thoroughly humiliated and slinked out the door.

The cashier made a mistake although I watched her scan both flats of Pepsi. I made a mistake by not checking a receipt with an error although in the nearly 20 years I've been shopping at Sam's I've never encountered an error before. The miserable person at the door had no business interacting with customers. The rest of the checkers have always been very nice. But, Cujo's mom has got to go. Put her in the stockroom where she can insult bottles and boxes. With intense training and dedicated folks to train her, I believe that one day she could become a marginally adequate stockroom girl. Just don't let her out...

How this place stays open is beyond me. Got a deal on membership and all the Sam's Club from the bigger city I moved from since closed - go figure. So decided to give it a try partly out of curosity, partly because they had a good deal on a gift card that Costco didn't have. First visit was week prior to Xmas. It was like a Ghost Town compared to Costco. Which if you are getting gas, that's great but that's where the benefit of being a member here ends. This is essentially like a slightly downscale Costco as far as their selection of food and goods. It's always 1/4th the crowd level of Costco or less - like a plague hit the place. I compared prices to Costco on things I buy that both places have and Costco on most items was slightly cheaper. I did notice that some things at Sams are a little cheaper than Costco, but, in some cases, the brand/quality is lesser or portion is a little smaller. I doubt many people have walked through and took pictures of price signs here so they could compare to Costco. I did. So claims that Sams is in general cheaper I would take with a grain of salt. A good one to compare is the toilet paper. Take the price and divide by the the total square feet as shown on the bag. Costco is cheaper. Wine (exact same bottles) is cheaper at Costco as are other things.

Only reason to come here is maybe your work or something gives you a free membership or you absolutely despise crowds and waiting in line to get gas. Their gas prices are the same as Costco.

Oh and the hot dog and soda deal is a few cents cheaper here than Costco! LOL. Obviously they are using that as a marketing ploy to try to insinuate all their prices are cheaper. They're not.

Most thrifty people aren't going to be members of both places. There's a reason Costco is a lot more crowded. Duh. I wouldn't be surprised if this place closes down like many of the other locations unless they consider it a backup warehouse for the...