Sam’s Club

This store is lacking alot of finis. The door check out women accused a lady of stealing when CLEARLY the checkout girl messed up. How dare the employee accuse a customer of stealing. I personally will try to avoid this store.

This place is fine if you are a business owner and come here to get bulk supplies. Merchandise is fine. Business owners can even come in before the store opens and get in and out very fast in the morning. I wish they had better/​more selections of sodas and snack foods. I don’t like having to buy food at Jewell.
The only real complaint I have is the company reps they allow in the store to try and sell you things. They are pretty annoying and pushy. I’m not interested and I’m in a hurry, don’t bother me!

My family comes here for 2 reasons: gas and a few bulk items. Other aspects of this store are just so disappointing that I wouldn’t come here if it wasn’t so close. Here are the biggest reasons that make a trip to Sam’s Club a horrible experience.
1.) Their fresh produce is awful. Several times I have had to return items because they were bad (granted, that’s my fault for not checking thoroughly) and the times that I have checked, the produce has already started to go bad.
2.) A few times I had to go back to exchange things once I got to my car because of a broken juice box in the pack or a loose top on a large water bottle. So annoying to notice those things after I already left the store.
3.) The constant harassment of Direct TV representatives trying to sell me on their service. For the last time — NO. I DO NOT WANT DIRECT TV! It’s a shame that I go out of my way to avoid them if I can. I already pay a freakin’ membership fee to Sam’s Club. I don’t want to be solicited by other companies too. Shouldn’t a store membership exempt you from that!!!
4.) Gas is cheap, but the lines are usually REALLY, REALLY long. The drive-​up on one side arrows are a joke as no one adheres to them and it’s all just a big mess.
5.) This one just happened a few days ago (on Thursday at 4pm) and it still really makes me angry every time I think about it. I was walking out, about to pay at the self checkout and I heard Nelly’s song, Ride Wit Me. (Please look up the lyrics if you are unfamiliar with the song.) For a split second, I thought I heard a curse word and thought «Nah, of course I wouldn’t hear that.» I stopped to listen real close and, yep, sure enough, I was hearing the explicit version. I couldn’t believe it. I have a 4-​year-​old and would have been LIVID if he was with me, but I was alone and just told the person at the front desk how offended I was that I had to hear that in a public retail store. As I was walking out, I heard her telling someone else about so-and-so’s music (I can’t remember the guy’s name), leading me to believe that the employee’s are responsible for bringing their own music to play. The music wasn’t on the store-​wide speakers, but rather on a large speaker set-​up in the electronics department. Totally unacceptable for a big-​box retail store.
Despite this store’s many, many flaws, I will continue to stop here for my gas and a few staple items… mainly because Costco is just too far.

I don’t know that many people feel awesome about this place. It’s not a company that is even concerned with reviews. It is what it is, a big, cold environment to buy lots of stuff.

This place is very convenient for somebody like me with a large family and a small budget .I shop here all the time. The staff is like zombies. The checkout clerks never smile and just look like they want to say” I cant believe I am still working here another day, dont talk to me“The auto staff is very blunt about how they hate working there, so I dont bother them anymore I go elsewhere, thats why youll see others mention problems here with them. The carts always have old food cups that people discard so the carts overtime have to have germs all over them from people eating samples all day. Too often they are selling expired food. I brought home potato salad over a month expired and a giant box of pretzles as well. I still shop here because I have a huge family and need to buy in volume.

The store is fine, just be careful when purchasing tires. We purchased a set of tires and Sam’s didn’t have them in stock so they said it would be a couple days. I received an email stating they were in so I drove 20 minutes to get the tires installed. When I got there, they said they didn’t have them and weren’t sure how the email went out. Two days later I received a call stating they were in, hopefully they were.
Back to Sam’s for a 2 and a half hour wait, but they didn’t say it was going to be that long — I asked after waiting an hour. Well, had to leave because my son had an appointment in an hour and I couldn’t miss it. The Service Manager Brian was extremely rude. Well, figured I’d get the installed the following day so I called in the am. Ugh, Brian answered. He stated it would be 2 ½ to 3 hours to install them, continued to be rude and abruptly stated I would just have to drop the car off. So I did. In the 20 minutes it took me to drive to the store, supposedly many other customers had also come in that timeframe. The new estimated wait time was six hours. This is why people go to a dedicated player store. Whatever you saving money you will definitely spend in time at Sam’s tires.

The optical center doc and receptionist are horrible, the costumer service that they give is horrible i prefer to drive all the way to stream wood than to come here again

When this place first opened, the customer service suffered. Not anymore, it is awesome and I am very proud of them! This is a great store filled with anything you need!

This store isn’t the awesome-​est place you’ve ever been, it’s a grocery store when push comes to shove. They have strong managers and the store is well maintained and clean though. They have good deals and essentials at good prices. Not a lot more you can ask for.

*This pertains to the gas station only*
The sign clearly states to pull forward only — yet, there are ALWAYS cars that go around and face the other direction — essentially cutting in front of honest people who are waiting their turn in line. There is also ALWAYS a worker just standing around. Why not have that worker direct those cars that cut in line and face the opposite direction to get back in line and follow directions like everybody else? Just a suggestion, especially on a cold snowy day like today.

I buy a lot here for my large family. I like the prices and save a lot because I can use the large quantities effectively. The service has gone down over time and the turnover is fast. The guy at the phone station is great and really helpful. I had one incident where a guy loading freezers with sams club vest on was throwing obscenities left and right and insulting customers that just were walking by. This guy should be fired as he shouldn’t be anywhere near customers.

Been there a few times before I wrote a review… Let me start by saying the batavia sams club is leaps and bounds above this one even though this one is brand spanking new! Selection is ok, quality of meats is average, but the management needs to get more of the products similar to the batavia store. Have memberships at both cost co and sams, and went to both on a Saturday… the difference cost co was slammed, tons of samples, every associate said hello, and even though lines were long didn’t mind waiting due to friendly staff. Sams in elgin… busy inside, sold out of the item I needed, took 25 mins to find it and that was a manager looking, and one stand giving out fruit. Really, come on?!? I bought twice as much as cost co cause I was able to sample, before I invested in the purchase! Come on sams club stop being so cheap, membership next year… hmmmm I think not!

I mostly come here to fill up on gas.
When I shop inside, I tend to get their avocados (although I think they’re priced the same at Walmart), blueberries, spring mix, 6-​pack of bell peppers, SunChips, etc. I’ve also had their Alaskan king crab legs priced at $ 19.99/lb, which was an amazing value. Usually they’ll have samples offered too.
The employees are nice, never had a negative experience. I was looking at a car charging kit for my phone, and an employee offered to help, even opening a package to make sure that it fit my phone.
I’ll admit though that I’d rather be a patron of Costco, but they’re a longer drive.

Everyone,
My own imposed rules for any review:
1. Must visit at least three times. Two of which must be distinctly different formats; i.e. one weekday night and one weekend night.
2. The food category is rated on fresh items, not processed or boxed items since those should be the same everywhere. Although, processed food pricing can be compared to other stores.
Thanks.
Sams Club — Elgin
Location/​Layout — ⁵⁄₁₀: Located on Randall Rd in Elgin, this store is very easy to find and convenient for most of the greater Elgin and Northern Fox Valley residents; especially since we now longer have to travel 30 minutes in a eastern or southern direction to get to a store. The store is a full sized format which means they carry most items and have both a tire department and filling station. Parking is ample, but the lot can get hectic with patrons traveling to the other stores/​restaurants which will only get worse as more shops open in the complex. The lots are fairly well maintained but the carts need to be collected and corralled more often, as the limited corrals fill quickly allowing the over flow carts to ride the breeze.
Service — ⁵⁄₁₀: Service is fair and friendly throughout the store if you are able to locate someone; with the pharmacy and tobacco area having the stellar service reps. You are put through the normal card interrogation at the gate, which I still don’t understand since you can not check out with out a card, along with the receipt highlighter anti-​shop lifting technique. The receipt validation is fine but there are two main issues: 1) there is only one person at the door doing the validation ever, no matter the day or time which creates huge backups. 2) We only usually buy a few things and it never fails that there are between 1 and 15 business owners ahead of us buying a months supply of everything. This is completely fine as that is what this store is actually intended for but there should be an express interrogation lane or a second person put at the door.
Food/​Item — 6.5÷10: The main reason that we go to Sam’s is that they offer unique items that are not available elsewhere, ex. include frozen items and brands that are not available at other stores and shelf stable items such a Olive Garden salad dressing. We also purchase other items that are at a very good discount, including seasonal items, alcohol and tobacco products, and even clothes. The food in general is hard for us to take advantage of because even though they do offer fresh meats, produce, and dry goods, they are usually in such quantities that we can not use them quick enough and end up not saving because of waste. Although, the meats are a good value and are quality cuts if you are able to use or store them effectively.
Overall Experience — ⁶⁄₁₀: We shop at Sams for very unique items, pharmacy, and to use the filling station quite frequently. This store is a good addition to the greater Elgin area and offers great convenience for those that are looking for purchasing in bulk or to supply a small business.