It’s well known that most Walmart stores welcome free overnight stays in self-contained recreational vehicles. In a recent survey, slightly more than half of RVtravel.com readers reported that they had stayed overnight in a Walmart parking lot. For many RVers, it’s a very regular (and money-saving) thing.
But you don’t hear much about RVers overnighting in the parking lots of Sam’s Club stores, with its approximately 600 locations spread around the county.
Sam’s Club, owned by Walmart Inc., competes with Costco with its huge warehouses, low prices and spacious parking lots. It plans to open more than 30 new clubs across the United States within the next several years, its biggest expansion in years.
We’re curious if Sam’s Club is as welcoming as Walmart: They are owned by the same company, after all. So have you stayed overnight with your RV at a Sam’s Club? Have you been welcomed, or maybe even kicked out? Please leave a comment.
Emphatic “no”. I promised Fern (my RV) when we first bonded that she would never be subjected to such a place. 75,000 miles later, I am still living up to that promise.
Have not even thought of doing so.
If the situation arose where I found it necessary, I would. Just never found myself in that situation (yet).
We stayed once. It was a bit scary since we were new to RVing. We no longer have a membership with Sam’s so probably never again.
Never have and don’t plan on ever doing so.
If it was close to the interstate than Walmart I probably would.
No Costco, Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Cracker Barrel. Have done truck stops and rest areas a couple of times. I find it just creepy thinking of over nighting in those locations giving the surrounding areas.
That’s what Harvest Host is for.
Harvest Host is not free.
Maybe not free but next to free $79 a year with unlimited stays and oh so quiet and the wonderful people you’ll meet!
Our coach had taken a hit that we managed to repair and limp her home. Along the way of a hard day’s drive, we came on a Sam’s club. It had fuel available, a more or less level place we could park for the night a pizza on tap….. This was what we needed when and where we needed it.
I would, if there was a Sam’s location on our north-south travel route
Stayed a few times at Walmart’s and it was quite entertaining.
We have not and plan to continue. We have only overnighted at Cracker Barrel stores if we cannot find a campground for an acceptable price.
Stayed on the Walmart side of a combo WM/Sams in Kansas once, after about a 13hour push, but since we don’t have Sams Clubs here in the PacNorWest I have never researched staying there. We have stayed in plenty of WM’s, and a few Cabelas/BPS’s, but since we don’t frequent Cracker Barrel (food was ‘meh’ the one time I went and they have a troubling history of racism) I don’t stay there either.
I am shocked at the number of people that turn their nose up at the thought of boon docking at box stores. We’re 17 years retired full time. We’ve stayed at box stores from coast to coast, Houston to Fairbanks, with never a problem. When you’re traveling from point A to B, stopping for only 8-10 hrs, why in the world would you go through the hassle of finding, entering, and setting up in a CG? They aren’t providing the short term product I need. We have passed up a few stores that were in a sketchy location, but the same for some CGs.
Yes to Sam’s club parking lot… but not by choice! RV park looked like a worse choice!
Not a member so no.
Yes at least a couple times with no issues. Once we started out in one when around midnight a group started street racing in the parking lot. We moved down the road to a old empty Walmart parking lot.
I wanted to answer “sort of” because the WalMart and Sams Club we next to each other.
I prefer a Sam’s Club parking lot versus ANY Walmart. If they are together, I will find the best parking spot between the two. We shop at each any time we stop. That’s how we “pay back” for the “free” overnight parking.
At Walmart a few times but I’ve never come across a Sams club when I needed to stop and rest..
We have stayed several times at a sam’s club. We like that it closes at night, since walmart sometimes is open 24/7. Call ahead as I seem to remember Sam’s club was stopping the service.
This could be another Winter activity: people-watching in a Sam’s Club parking lot.
Yes, several times and all were quieter than overnighting at Walmarts since SC isn’t open all night. One time, however, we were awakened at Sam’s by the “street sweeper” cleaning the parking lot. 🙂 We always ask permission to stay overnight while we’re shopping in either WM or SC. Once a Sam’s Club mgr. said no. We told her we’d leave right after eating our supper (we’d been driving all day, were tired, and we knew we could go down the street to WM and park overnight). While we were eating the mgr. knocked on our RV door and said we could stay. She was on her way to her car to go home, saw how nice our 5th-wheel looked, and changed her mind. We appreciated that, and did stay there.
Yes, when we first bought our motorhome we went to Sam’s to shop and buy stuff we would need to start our full time adventure. We were parked there 2.5 days total. Nobody ever came out and said we had to move. It was great! Quiet at night since it’s closed. Plenty of space. We even opened our slides at night because we were way back in a secluded corner of their lot where nobody ever parks.