Sam’s Club is raising its annual membership fee by $10 starting May 1.
Basic membership goes from $50 to $60. The higher-tier Plus membership moves from $110 to $120. The last time Sam’s Club raised fees was in October 2022. Current members won’t see the increase until their next renewal.
The new prices put Sam’s Club directly below Costco (for now at least), which charges $65 for basic and $130 for its top tier after raising fees in 2024. They land exactly in line with BJ’s Wholesale, which charges $60 and $120 for the same tiers.
Sam’s Club cited expanded hours, better curbside pickup, and delivery improvements as reasons for the increase. Plus members will also be able to earn up to $750 a year in Sam’s Cash rewards on eligible purchases, up from $500.
Why rivals may be paying attention
Analysts note that the fee hike demonstrates strong pricing power in the warehouse club sector amid robust membership demand and elevated gas prices. Some even go so far as to suggest that this could pave the way for similar increases at competitors, with Costco and BJ’s potentially next in line.
Higher gas prices are making warehouse-club fuel perks more valuable. Gas prices hit a national average of $4.018 this week. That’s the highest since August 2022, when the Russia-Ukraine war pushed energy prices up.
CNBC reported that the recent global oil-market supply shock has helped drive fuel prices higher. Warehouse clubs sell cheaper gas as one of their main membership perks. At $4 a gallon, that perk starts doing a lot of work.
Sam’s Club doesn’t disclose its membership count publicly, but said it hit a record high in the quarter ending January 31. Analysts at Mizuho Securities estimate membership at more than 30 million. Based on that estimate, the $10 fee increase could add more than $200 million in annual membership income — about a 2-cent annual earnings per share bump for parent company Walmart.