Sam's Club is betting that speed wins the warehouse-club fight. The Walmart subsidiary rolled out an enhanced Express delivery option on April 2 that promises to put bulk items on a member's doorstep within one hour, and early numbers suggest shoppers are biting.
Since the company-wide launch, nearly 65,000 Express deliveries have been fulfilled, The U.S. Sun reported, citing figures from Mass Market Retailers. The average Express order, from the moment a personal shopper pulls items off the shelf to the moment the bag hits the porch, lands in 55 minutes.
Greg Pulsifer, head of Sam's Club e-commerce, put a finer point on the operation's ceiling in a statement:
"Our 10 fastest deliveries to date were all fulfilled in less than 12 minutes."
Twelve minutes. That is not a grocery run. That is closer to a pizza order, and, as it happens, Sam's Club is now delivering those too.
The service runs on what Sam's Club calls its "Delivery from Club" model. Orders are picked directly from the shelves of the nearest Sam's Club location, then handed off for last-mile delivery. No separate fulfillment center. No third-party marketplace markup. The items come straight from the same warehouse floor where in-store shoppers fill their carts.
Pricing is tiered by membership level. The standard three-hour Express delivery costs a flat $17 for basic Sam's Club members and $5 for Plus members. The new one-hour window adds just $5 on top of either tier, meaning a Plus member can get bulk goods at the door inside an hour for $10.
Pulsifer framed the upgrade as a direct response to member demand:
"Members love our three hours or less Express delivery, but they told us they wanted an even faster option, so, we delivered."
The play is straightforward. Sam's Club is leveraging Walmart's logistics backbone, the same infrastructure that has made Walmart a genuine rival to Amazon in last-mile fulfillment, and applying it to the warehouse-club format. For families juggling tight schedules and tighter budgets, the math matters. A $10 delivery fee for bulk staples in under an hour is a competitive proposition, especially when the alternative involves loading kids into the car and navigating a 100,000-square-foot warehouse on a Saturday afternoon.
Costco, the dominant player in the warehouse-club space, relies on Instacart for its delivery service. Business Insider has reported that item prices on Costco's Instacart orders run higher than what members pay in store. That gap is a structural disadvantage. Costco shoppers who choose delivery are paying a premium on top of whatever service and delivery fees Instacart charges, a layer of cost that Sam's Club is trying to undercut by keeping fulfillment in-house.
Costco is hardly standing still. The retailer has laid out plans to open roughly 30 new warehouses a year in a decade-long expansion push. But brick-and-mortar growth and digital delivery speed are two different battlefields. Costco's physical footprint keeps growing. Its e-commerce convenience, at least for now, trails what Sam's Club is offering.
The broader question for families trying to decide which club actually saves them more on groceries is whether delivery speed and cost transparency shift the calculus. A membership card is only as valuable as the savings it delivers, and if one club can get the same bulk goods to your door faster and cheaper, the loyalty equation changes.
The one-hour delivery rollout is not happening in a vacuum. Sam's Club has been stacking moves for months. The retailer launched hot baked pizza delivery in late May, offering 16-inch Member's Mark pizzas, pepperoni, cheese, and four-meat varieties, for $8.98 with delivery in as little as three hours. A Sam's Club spokesperson told the New York Post that early performance "exceeded expectations, with robust demand, high repeat order rates, and enthusiastic feedback from members seeking affordable, high-quality meals delivered hot and fresh."
The company has also rolled out tech-forward in-store features, including its Scan & Go checkout system and an AI-powered "Just Go" exit verification process. Kurt Hess, Group Director of Operations and Implementation at Sam's Club, told the Post: "When we talk about innovation, it's not just about what's new, it's about what makes life easier for our members."
That convenience push extends to the shopping cart itself. Sam's Club has been mounting tablet-equipped carts and rolling out targeted advertising inside its stores, another signal that the chain sees tech investment as its path to closing the gap with Costco.
The e-commerce numbers back the strategy. In the most recent quarter ending January 31, 2026, Sam's Club e-commerce sales grew 23 percent year-over-year, Mass Market Retailers reported. That is not a marginal gain. It suggests the delivery and digital investments are translating into real revenue.
None of this is charity. Sam's Club is a business, and Walmart is not spending on faster delivery out of goodwill. The warehouse-club model depends on membership fees and high-volume purchasing. Every delivery that keeps a member renewing, or pulls a Costco member across the aisle, is worth the logistics cost.
Sam's Club has not been shy about raising prices on those memberships, either. The chain recently hiked membership fees even as household budgets tighten. The bet is that faster delivery, lower per-order fees, and a wider range of delivered goods, from paper towels to hot pizza, will make the higher annual cost feel justified.
For Costco, the pressure is real. Its third-party delivery model through Instacart adds cost and removes control. Costco members already navigate a strict policy environment, from receipt checks that can cost them their cards to limited online selection. If Sam's Club can consistently deliver the same bulk value with better speed and lower fees, Costco's legendary member loyalty will face its most serious test in years.
Competition like this is exactly how the market is supposed to work. Two giant retailers fighting over who can serve families faster and cheaper is the kind of pressure that benefits every shopper with a membership card in their wallet, regardless of which logo is on it.