8 Sam's Club Items You're Better Off Avoiding

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Among the big box warehouse stores, Sam's Club is one of the most popular thanks to its great membership perks, like deals on an array of products and cash back opportunities. The first time I signed up, I was like a kid in a candy store, perusing the aisles for items you can't get anywhere else, like the company's Member's Mark products. There are definitely tons of fantastic finds in the warehouses, but one of the things first-time Sam's shoppers should know is that there are also a few duds.

Like most warehouse stores, Sam's Club keeps things interesting. Some staples stick around for years, although the formulas and packaging aren't set in stone. Every so often the company tweaks a recipe, switches suppliers, or changes how an item is sold. At the same time, new products cycle in and out constantly. Some of those launches turn into cult favorites, while others don't quite win over members, so they fade into obscurity. With all that in mind, it helps to keep on top of what's worth buying and what might not be.

As a Sam's Club member, I've tried plenty of products over the past few years, and while there are several that I go back to time after time, there are also a few that I bought once and swore I'd never buy again. And I'm not the only one. Plenty of members are very vocal when it comes to declaring their disappointment with certain products in social media groups and on forums. Based on my experiences and reviews from other members, these are a few items you may be better off avoiding at Sam's Club.

One of the great things about warehouse clubs is they often have ready-to-eat foods that you can simply unpackage for a full meal that requires little to no preparation. At Sam's Club, you can pick up an array of pre-made meals, including salads, pastas, and grilled or roasted meats. If you're looking for an easy dinner or a dish to bring to a barbecue, the Member's Mark Rotisserie Baby Back Ribs might be tempting. Unfortunately, many members find they don't quite hit the mark.

At first glance, the baby back ribs (which are different from spare ribs) sound like they could be great. They consist of seasoned pork loin back ribs that are hickory smoked. They're set out warm, so you can eat them right away or reheat them in the oven at home. They come with a packet of barbecue sauce. Plus, they ring in at roughly $13, which isn't bad considering you get about a pound and a half of meat. However, several members say the meat is dry and chewy, even when doused in the sauce, which many say doesn't taste great either.

A Sam's Club employee revealed on Reddit that many stores have stopped carrying the baby back ribs because they get so much bad feedback. They also offered an explanation for why they're not great, stating that the company switched to another brand for both the ribs and the sauce. They said, "They are cooked offsite by another company, frozen, and sometimes are frozen for months before being reheated. I work in Rotisserie and we stopped ordering them a year ago. They are terrible."

Frozen foods are usually good buys at warehouse clubs because you can store them for months at a time, and they make for easy no-frills meals when you're pinched for time. Among the foods you'll find in Sam's Club freezer section are several brands of frozen pizza, including its own line of Member's Mark Rising Crust Pizza. Frozen pizza is probably never going to rival what you'd get in a restaurant or even for delivery, but by most accounts, the Member's Mark pizza drops the bar especially low.

The rising crust pizzas come three to a pack, and you can choose from several flavors, including pepperoni, three meat, supreme, and four cheese. The packaging claims that the pizzas rise in the oven to give you a soft crust that tastes freshly baked. It's a lofty claim, considering that many members report that the crust turns out spongy, even when reheated in an air fryer. Many also say the toppings leave something to be desired.

It's pretty telling that the negative reviews aren't confined to one particular pizza flavor. For example, a reviewer for the four cheese pizza on the official Sam's Club page said, "The sauce is off, the cheese tastes like chemicals, and the crust doesn't cook through." Another member reviewed the supreme pizza on Facebook and said, "If you had to feed some people you didn't really like, this would be a good option." Considering Member's Mark pizza is priced comparatively to other frozen pizza brands, you may be better off going with DiGiorno or Red Baron.

If there's one grocery item you should avoid buying in bulk, it's fresh produce. Sure, it may look fresh and have a low price tag, but are you really going to eat a four-pound bag of apples or six heads of Romaine lettuce before they go bad? Unless you have a big family to feed or are prepping for a party, the answer is probably no. Beyond that, Sam's Club often gets called out for not having the freshest produce or not even having prices that justify buying fresh fruits and veggies and freezing them for later.

I always find that the produce can be hit or miss at my local warehouse. It's usually pretty decent, but every so often, I buy something that goes off within a day or two. Other members have also commented on how that seems to be happening more often these days. On a Reddit thread, a Sam's Club employee said, "Produce opener here. And yes, the quality of stuff we've been getting has gone down hill the last six months or so. Stuff comes in and only looks good for a day or two and then we're pulling to either donate or throw out."

Even if the produce at your Sam's Club warehouse is fresh, you might not be getting the best deal on it. Several members have done price comparisons between Sam's Club and other grocery stores and found that some of the produce at Sam's Club was pricier. In some cases, the produce at Walmart was cheaper than Sam's Club, which is pretty lame considering Sam's Club is owned by Walmart Inc. 

It's hard to pass by the Sam's Club bakery without grabbing at least a few goodies to throw in your cart. One item that used to be a huge fan favorite was the Member's Mark Iced Cinnamon Rolls. They used to come in packages of eight cinnamon rolls, each in its own muffin paper wrapping and featuring a substantial, soft, cinnamon-infused roll topped with a thick layer of sugary white icing. Just this year, though, Sam's changed the format, and members are seriously unimpressed.

The new cinnamon rolls come in a tray with 10 rolls instead of eight, and they're priced at about $9, which is the same price they were before. However, even though you're getting two more rolls, the rolls are actually smaller and contain less icing than they did before. They're also sold in a single block instead of being wrapped individually, which makes them harder to serve without making a mess. The actual rolls taste the same, but without the ample icing, it's just not the same overall flavor.

To say that members are disappointed by the new cinnamon rolls would be an understatement. One Reddit user said, "This is 100% outside the SPIRIT of a cinnamon roll." Another Redditor on the same thread said, "Normally I'd say that 'not enough' is better than 'none.' In this case though ... I can't quite put it into words, but that frosting job is somehow worse than if they had skipped the frosting entirely." Countless fans call for the return of the old version, and I'm totally with them.

If you're looking for a quick and easy meal solution that isn't frozen and doesn't come with powdered mixes, Sam's Club offers several refrigerated meals that you can just heat and eat. The Member's Mark Seasoned Angus Beef Bites seem promising with chunks of beef that look like they'd be great with sides such as mashed potatoes and veggies or as additions to salads, stir-fries, or wraps. Sadly though, they disappoint on a number of levels.

The biggest problem with these beef bites is that they tend to be dry and the texture is a bit grainy. That may be because they're made from USDA Choice beef, which is in the mid-range based on the meaning of USDA beef grades. Then again, it may just be because they're pre-cooked. After all, re-heated beef is never going to be as juicy and tender as freshly cooked beef. In addition, the portion size is a bit small. The package states that you get 1.5 pounds, but part of that is the two packets of compound butter that come with the beef.

In terms of flavor, many people find that the seasoning is too salty and doesn't bring out the best of the meat. As one reviewer on Instagram said, "This particular seasoning fell short of delivering the robust steak flavor I was hoping for, and I wasn't a fan. It lacked the deep, savory richness that would have made these bites truly stand out." The compound butter is actually pretty good, but at the end of the day, the beef really should be the star.

For many people, one of the major draws to wholesale clubs is the great deals on alcohol. Sam's Club offers brand-name bottles that are often cheaper than what you find elsewhere. Even with price comparisons of alcohol at Costco and Sam's Club, Sam's Club often costs less. The Member's Mark wines, spirits, and pre-made cocktails can be particularly good value, although there are a few where you truly get what you pay for. The Member's Mark Strawberry Lemonade Vodka is a case in point.

At just $10 for a one-liter bottle (depending on location), this pre-made concoction looks like a great deal, especially with an alcohol by volume of 30%. It also looks pretty innocuous with its pale pink hue. But what you get is a sickly sweet concoction with a harsh afterburn. As one reviewer said in a YouTube video, "That alcohol is intense. That's $10 alcohol for sure." Plus, neither the strawberry nor lemonade flavors shine through. It's mostly just sugar and vodka.

It's surprising that this product is as bad as it is, considering many of the Sam's Club spirits actually get good reviews. In fact, the Member's Mark American Vodka has a Gold Star rating on Tastings with 91 points out of 100. With that in mind, it makes more sense to buy your vodka and mixers separately. Plus, that way you can measure the proportions to your tastes, instead of relying on the misguided mix that someone in R&D thought made sense.

Deli meats can be another great bulk buy because they're so versatile. You can use them to create charcuterie boards, slap them into sandwiches, top your pizzas with them, and even slice and toss them into salads or pastas. Sam's Club has pretty much every sliced deli meat you could ask for, but one that you may want to steer clear of is the Member's Mark Uncured Pepperoni. To be precise, the new version of the uncured pepperoni.

About a year ago, Sam's Club changed the packaging of the pepperoni (along with many of its deli meats), and since then, customers have been complaining. Now, you get 22 ounces of pork and beef pepperoni in a flat plastic package with a lift tab on the front that you can reseal. You might think that would keep the meat fresh, but several people say it's the opposite. One Reddit user said, "I detest the new MM pepperoni. It spoils in just a few days once it's opened."

Some members also say that the taste isn't the same as it was before the packaging change came about. Some say it's too peppery, while others say it tastes artificial. One reviewer on Facebook said. "They taste like moth balls. Very chemical taste." In response to their post, one person commented, "I just opened a pack and it smells and tastes like plastic. My guess is the bags themselves are low quality and release their smell into the bag and the fatty pepperoni absorbs it." 

If you peruse through the star ratings of Member's Mark products, you'll find that most get at least four out of five stars. In some rare cases, certain products will dip into the three-star range. So, when a product can only muster up a measly 2.9 stars, you know that something must be wrong. Let me introduce you to the Member's Mark Chicken Al Pastor, a refrigerated "heat and eat" product that sorely fails to meet the expectations of Mexican food fans.

When you think of al pastor, you probably think of tender, roasted slices of meat laden with notes of cumin, citrus, chiles, and a touch of sweetness from pineapple. However, heat up the Member's Mark Chicken Al Pastor and you'll find that it's jarringly acrid tasting. That may be because the marinade goes heavy on smoked chiles, paprika, and lime juice powder. The chicken itself isn't bad, but that spice mix is just bitter and utterly inauthentic.

I'm somewhat of a Mexican food fanatic, so I thought maybe I was just biased about this product. However, if you read through the reviews, countless people comment on the off-putting flavor. On the Sam's Club product page, one reviewer said, "While you get a ton of chicken for the price, we found it overly spiced and no pineapple pieces, like traditional." Another reviewer said, "There wasn't a hint of lime flavor. After warming ⅓ of the package and tasting it, I dumped it in a colander and rinsed it under hot water, trying to get as much of the flavorings off it."

Obviously, taste is subjective, so a few bad reviews don't necessarily mean a product is horrible. But when numerous people call a product out and many are saying the same thing, it's probably worth taking note of. To compile this list, I drew on some of my own experiences, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't just relying on my own particular tastes, so I also took to the internet to scour reviews. For many of the products, I discovered that other Sam's Club members have also had similar experiences. In addition, I uncovered some products that I haven't tried with too many negative reviews to ignore, so I added those to the list as well.

When it came to the reviews, I wanted to make sure that the info was as up to date as possible, so I only looked at comments from within the past year. I also wanted to ensure that I was getting details from real reviewers, so I looked at platforms where Sam's Club members often share their opinions, like Reddit, special Sam's Club groups on social media platforms, and Sam's Club product pages. Based on my experiences and what other people are saying, these are the products that you may want to skip the next time you're at Sam's Club.