Sam’s Club

The Sam’s Club Optical is great for adults and teens, but I would not recommend it for children. I had been going there since early 2000, and they have super kind and helpful staff that work hard to help pick out the perfect frames. I suck at picking out glasses, and every time they have been absolute saints. The doctors have always been very informative and friendly as well. The prices really are reasonable for contacts and glasses, and they have types for all budgets. The hang up at this point would be our experience with our 5-​year old daughter. There is something up with getting child glasses right. First time we went to pick up glasses, one pair actually never had lenses put in them. The next time we went in, the pairs weren’t seated right, and the assistant had to screw them in more. Even after that we had them popping out constantly, not seated right, and they were held in with some sort of double sided tape. Glasses like these for children are just not going to work. We decided to go elsewhere to get glasses for her from now on. If you’re an adult or teen in need to glasses or contacts, I would recommend them. If you have children that need glasses, I would look elsewhere.

Every single time we are at check out it takes forever if you the cashier needs Manager assistance. The last time we were their the Manager didn’t know what to do the cashier had to show the Manager. They either need more managers, better trained manager or give their cashiers more authorization.

I was a Sam’s Club member for years, but when Costco opened in Pewaukee, I was won over by their great fresh produce, meat department and seafood. I let my Sam’s Club membership expire and haven’t been there in a couple of years, but a recent Groupon deal for a Sam’s Club membership was too good to pass up – so, I decided to give Sam’s another shot.
The «Customer Service» desk at Sam’s is a lot like the DMV. The employees seem a little more cheerful, but the pace is just as glacial. I kid you not, when we got in line at «Customer Service», we were the next to be served. By the time we had our membership card, over 30 minutes had passed. As I waited for my own transaction to occur and observed other customers being «served», it seemed that EVERY transaction required that a manager be paged. And apparently, all managers hang out on the other side of the warehouse.
Our particular transaction required moving between three different computers and involved paging managers in two separate instances. The first manager simply initialed a form that I guess allowed us to proceed. The second time we needed a manager, it took 4 pages to get her over to authorize a gift card. She slowly waddled over, keyed in 6 digits to the keypad and waddled away without a word.
In terms of shopping, there’s not a lot of difference between Sam’s and Costco — there’s a huge overlap in the products they sell. Costco seems like there’s more room to move between aisles and feels like it has a better produce and meat department. Sam’s Club has more candy and microwaveable «calorie bomb» food. So I guess it kind of depends on what you like to eat huge quantities of.
Checkout was kind of awkward. The cashier examined every thing we bought with a curiosity normally reserved for the latest Apple product — and he wanted to talk about it. «Hmmm… What’s this? Are these good? I’ve never seen these before… Have you ever tried???» And because we had four «new membership» coupons, it was necessary to – you guessed it – page a manager. Apparently, the average blue vest at Sam’s is not granted the authority to accept a coupon. I’ve never seen such an ordeal over a coupon.
Overall, my experience with Costco has been much better — mainly due to the urgency with which the employees go about their job. They work together and help people flow through the process — be it the Customer Service desk, the checkouts, or the «pretend to count your items» process at the door.

Sam’s Club in Waukesha on Springdale. I assume most people know what Sam’s is all about, so I’ll spare you those details.
I live about equi-​distant from this store, the West Allis store, and the north side store. This one is my favorite of the three. It seems to be better organized, and the people always seem to be really helpful and happy with their jobs.
I had lunch here today, and you really can’t beat the $ 3 hot dog/​soda combo anywhere.

Order for a whole pizza togo, takes less than 8 minutes. Call ahead if around lunch. The tables and seating were very clean. They were not too busy today at noon on Monday. BTW the pizza was great. crust was soft and cheese was hot and slightly chewy. I might try a hot dog and large pretzel with a coke next time.

When you come from a large family, buying bulk is the only way to go to feed the multiplying mouths. As a family, this is our place of choice for our family’s annual food pantry donation shopping spree. Many of their items can be broken down into smaller packaged units which is great for sharing/​distributing.
I love the lunchtime hours when the «sample ladies» (and men) set up shop and break out the goods. Whoever said there is no such thing as a free lunch never frequented Sam’s club!
Best prices for tires and batteries I have been able to find in town. Scheduled on a first come first serve basis, so being early is important. Lucky for me the in-​laws have an Advantage Plus membership which got us special «early» entrance to the store, the Business membership also allows for special early shopping hours.