While Costco plans to lock its warehouse doors for a full 24 hours this Memorial Day, Sam's Club will keep the lights on, opening all 602 of its locations nationwide on May 25 with modified hours designed to give its paying members one fewer thing to worry about over the holiday weekend.
The Walmart-owned warehouse club confirmed that stores will open at 8 a.m., with Plus members getting exclusive access for the first hour. Club members can begin shopping at 9 a.m. All stores will close at 8 p.m. on Monday, The Sun reported.
The contrast with Costco is hard to miss. Costco is set to close all of its warehouses for the full 24 hours next weekend. Banks and the U.S. Postal Service will also shut down for the federal holiday. For families trying to stock up on grilling supplies, drinks, and bulk groceries before a long weekend, the list of places actually open is getting shorter, and Sam's Club just made sure it stays on it.
Data from ScrapeHero, cited in the reporting, pegged Sam's Club's total store count at 602 as of April 28. The majority sit in the eastern half of the country, with Texas leading the pack at 82 locations. Florida follows with 46, then California at 30.
After those three, the numbers drop steadily: Ohio has 27 stores, Illinois has 25, Pennsylvania and Georgia each have 24, Michigan has 23, North Carolina has 22, and Missouri rounds out the top ten with 19.
At the city level, Dallas and Houston each claim seven Sam's Club locations. San Antonio has six. Las Vegas has five. El Paso, St. Louis, Orlando, Austin, and Oklahoma City each have four. Jacksonville has three.
But not every state has a Sam's Club at all. Shoppers in Alaska, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Washington, D.C. are out of luck. Residents in those states who want to load up before Memorial Day will need to find another option, and with Costco closed, that option just got harder to identify.
Memorial Day has always been a major shopping weekend, and in recent years, the question of which retailers stay open, and which don't, has taken on added weight. Consumers are paying more for groceries, fuel, and everyday goods. A bulk-buying trip before a holiday cookout isn't a luxury for many families. It's a budget strategy.
Sam's Club's decision to stay open reads like a straightforward play for foot traffic that Costco is voluntarily surrendering. The two warehouse giants compete fiercely for the same membership dollars, and holidays are a natural battleground. When one chain closes its doors, the other gets a free run at every shopper who didn't plan ahead.
The broader retail picture adds context. While Sam's Club holds steady at 602 locations, other major chains have been pulling back. 7-Eleven recently announced plans to shutter 645 stores in fiscal 2026 as it shifts toward bigger formats.
That pattern isn't limited to convenience stores. Across the retail sector, familiar names are shrinking their physical footprints at a pace that would have seemed alarming a decade ago.
Carter's has laid out plans to close 150 stores nationwide, with California bracing for especially heavy losses. The children's clothing chain joins a growing roster of retailers that expanded aggressively and are now retreating.
Sam's Club's early-access window for Plus members, the first hour, from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., is a small but telling detail. Tiered access rewards higher-paying members and gives them a quieter, less crowded shopping window before the general membership floods in.
It's a model that warehouse clubs have leaned into more heavily in recent years. The pitch is simple: pay more for your membership, get more convenience. On a holiday when most competitors are dark, that extra hour could matter to families running on tight schedules.
The modified closing time, 8 p.m. instead of the usual hours, is worth noting, too. Sam's Club isn't running a full regular day. But it's running enough of one to serve customers who need it, which is more than Costco can say.
The states without any Sam's Club presence, Alaska, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and D.C., highlight a gap that becomes more noticeable when other retailers close for holidays or shut down permanently.
When a chain like Macy's extends its store-closure timeline through 2028, or when luxury retailers restructure and gut their physical locations, the remaining stores in any given market carry more weight. Every open door on a holiday weekend is one fewer errand that turns into a frustration.
Costco's decision to close on Memorial Day isn't new, the company has a long-standing policy of closing on several major holidays. But the decision still forces its members to plan around it, and it hands Sam's Club a clean competitive window.
Other retailers have faced their own reckoning with overexpansion. Grocery Outlet recently admitted to rapid overexpansion and announced 36 store closures. The lesson is consistent: growth without discipline catches up with you.
Sam's Club, for its part, appears content with 602 locations and a strategy built around keeping them open when competitors won't.
A few practical questions remain unanswered. The reporting does not specify what time zone the listed hours apply to, which matters for a chain spanning the continental United States. Whether the 8 a.m. open and 8 p.m. close are local times at each store, the most logical reading, isn't explicitly confirmed.
It's also unclear whether every single one of the 602 locations will follow the same schedule without exception, or whether individual stores might adjust. Sam's Club did not provide a detailed public statement in the reporting, and the method of the confirmation, whether by website posting, spokesperson, or corporate release, isn't specified.
None of that changes the bottom line for shoppers: Sam's Club says it will be open on Memorial Day. Costco says it won't.
In a retail environment where stores keep disappearing and doors keep closing, the ones that stay open on the days people actually need them earn something no membership fee can buy, trust.