- Walmart-owned Sam’s Club saw a huge jump in this year’s customer satisfaction rankings.
- Meanwhile, longtime leader Costco’s score remained flat.
- The report credits Sam’s Club’s spiffy new checkout tech with helping improve the shopper experience.
It appears Sam’s Club has had enough of waiting in line.
The Walmart-owned wholesale club jumped ahead of rivals to place first in this year’s customer satisfaction rankings for general merchandise retailers, scoring a whopping 85 points.
Sam’s Club posted the biggest improvement of any major general merchandise retailer, and it also managed to unseat its chief rival and longtime category leader, Costco, in the top spot.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index, which publishes the annual rankings, cited Sam’s Club’s popular Scan & Go app feature and its new AI-powered exit tech as driving a big share of the company’s appeal to shoppers.
“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 in a statement, adding that digital features continue to have a significant impact on younger generations’ satisfaction ratings.
Costco’s score of 82 remained flat for a third year, while BJ’s Wholesale Club’s score fell by two points from last year to 78.
Costco and BJ’s did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the rankings.
The report, which is based on nearly 42,000 completed customer surveys, doesn’t suggest Costco did anything wrong — it was at the top of the heap for years with its very respectable 82 points, but Sam’s Club is showing that the ceiling can be higher than it has been.
Beyond Sam’s Club’s app and receipt-free exit, which makes it easy to shop in the warehouse without waiting in slow lines, the report also notes that the company has outperformed its peers when it comes to the speed and accuracy of online order fulfillment — especially at curbside.
For its part, Costco has dipped its toe into the digital water in recent months with a few updates like ID scanning and inventory availability, but it has nothing yet to match Sam’s Club’s tech, as embodied by the AI-powered exit gateways.
These rankings suggest that Costco is doing quite well with its customers — Sam’s Club is just raising the bar.
Sam’s Club CEO Chris Nicholas told Business Insider back in October that he wants shopping at Sam’s Club to be a “delightful” experience.
“My hope is that Sam’s Club, when you shop, feels like what it’s like to shop in the future,” he said. “This is a glimpse of that.”
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