Costco Soft Serve Vs Sam's Club Soft Serve: The Winner Is Clear

Sam's Club and Costco have been fierce rivals for decades. The similarities between the two warehouse stores are striking. Quite frankly, you would be hard-pressed to figure out which store is which based solely on a snapshot of the inside.

It's not just the towers of bulk goods and rows of items just begging to be purchased that create this members-only double vision. It is a fact that the two stores also bring surprisingly similar items to the table. Both Costco and Sam's Club offer dine-in and takeout from the companies' respective food outlets: Costco's food court and Sam's Club's café. In particular, each place offers soft serve.

People have big feelings about the Sam's Club versus Costco feud. I am here to put at least one small part of this battle to rest. I have pitted Costco food court soft serve ice cream and Sam's Club café soft serve frozen yogurt against each other in the ultimate battle.

I will be looking at the taste, quality, and quantity of the soft serve at each establishment. As a long-term ice cream connoisseur, I have ranked ice cream and other frozen desserts before, eaten a shocking amount of ice cream in a week, and also am an avid membership warehouse shopper. Who better to put these two to the test? This will be your ultimate guide to the world of membership warehouse soft serve.

Before we go any further, we must examine each establishment's history and how these soft serve options came to pass. The same family behind Walmart, the Walton family, also brings us Sam's Club. Sam Walton founded the club in 1983. It was originally called Sam's Wholesale Club, and it was a members-only shopping club. In the beginning, there was no café as we know it today. However, that same year, Sam's Club introduced the Sam's Club Hot Dog Cart, a precursor to the café, and another hot battle between Sam's Club and rival Costco.

Fast forward to 1997, and Sam's Club opened its first café. This is when our story starts, as soft serve finds its way onto the menu. One crucial thing to understand is that Sam's Club soft serve is not ice cream; it's frozen yogurt. While this is a frozen treat, frozen yogurt contains slightly different properties than ice cream because, well, it's made of yogurt. In fact, according to one Redditor who claims to work for the company, Sam's Club uses a rebranded Dannon YoCream low fat frozen yogurt mix. I'll get back to some of the differences between the two later.

You may notice some shocking similarities between Costco and Sam's Club as we continue forward. Rest assured, you are not seeing double; the two really do have this similar history.

The original version of Costco opened in 1976; however, at the time, it was called Price Club. At the time, Price Club did not sell to the general public; instead it supplied to businesses and restaurants, similar to Restaurant Depot today. In 1983, the first named Costco opened, coincidentally the same year as the first Sam's Club. When Price Club and Costco merged, they kept the Costco name but retained the prize of being the first members-only wholesaler.

You will not be surprised to find out that by 1984, Costco began to offer food — first, in the form of a hot dog cart. In the same decade, Costco opened a natural food court inside one of the stores, then known as Café 150, which sold the famous and super cheap Costco $1.50 hot dog and soda combo we still know today. Eventually, Costco expanded its offerings at the café to include soft serve. Over the years, Costco has added and taken away options in terms of flavors, but it has always offered this creamy, delicious treat.

Frozen yogurt and ice cream are similar but not the same. Both contain dairy and sugar. However, the kind of dairy varies. Ice cream, for example, has legal restrictions on it. The USDA states that ice cream must be at least 10% milk fat, for example, and must hit certain weight per volume measurements to be allowed to be sold as ice cream.

Frozen yogurt, on the other hand, has no such restrictions. Frozen yogurt is made with cultures that turn the dairy into yogurt. However, because there are no legal restrictions on fat, frozen yogurt can be entirely fat-free and still be sold under the same name.

Because of these slight differences, frozen yogurt tends to be tangy and can rely on added sugar to balance out the tang and make up for a lower fat content. Both offer a luxurious, soft, and silky texture, though, and have additional air whipped in to keep them soft and luscious.

Soft serve is a general term that is used to describe any soft frozen product. This term encompasses frozen yogurt, as well as soft-serve ice creams, and even some soft dairy products that don't legally meet the definition of ice cream. This is why both Costco and Sam's Club treats, while different, fall into the same category.

There is one key difference between Costco and Sam's Club soft serve: access. I would be remiss if I did not bring up. While Costco requires you to have a membership to shop at its food court and, thus, enjoy the soft serve, Sam's Club's cafe is open to the public. This was not always the case. Pre 2020, Costco allowed members of the general public into the food court area, but sadly no more. This is bad news for those who do not want or need a bulk club membership. It also hands a clear advantage over to Sam's Club.

However, there is one additional thing to consider. While hours of operation vary depending on which location, in general, Costco's food court is open during all operating hours, whereas Sam's Club's café tends to close before the warehouse and, in some cases, doesn't even open until an hour after the warehouse opens. The late opening isn't as big a concern unless you desperately need some soft serve at 9 a.m. on a Saturday. But if you want a sweet after-dinner treat from Sam's Club, this could mean going for an early bird dinner, or simply eating dessert first.

Of course, with either of these stores, we are taught to expect a big portion, and we are not disappointed. Both cups are visually about the same size. But we didn't want to leave anything to chance. We brought out the handy dandy kitchen scale and weighed the cups against each other.

For fairness, we only judged the soft serve cups that did not have toppings on them, which meant pitting chocolate against chocolate. Sam's Club chocolate soft serve was 11.8 ounces and was so full that it practically spilled out of the cup. Costco's was 12.1 ounces and sat comfortably in the cup. I don't believe this was a fluke of serving. Sam's Club lids provide more space on top for extra ice cream, like a Starbucks Frappuccino cup. Costco uses flat cups, as obviously overfilling is not a problem.

I consider this to be roughly the same size, but it is interesting to note that the cups hold the same volume. Based on how full each cup was, it seems like the Sam's Club Soft Serve physically weighs less than the Costco one. Both are generous portions, especially for a single person, but the overflowing appearance of the Sam's Club cup may make you feel like you've eaten more with Sam's Club when you are arguably eating less.

Since we are on the subject, it is not just the physical weight that comes into play here. There is a noticeable calorie difference in the two cups. According to Sam's Club, one cup of either chocolate or vanilla frozen yogurt is going to run you between 330 and 350 calories. This isn't necessarily a small amount, but it is a fraction of the Costco calorie count, which will run you 550 to 570 calories.

The caloric difference is not entirely surprising. Frozen yogurt tends to have less fat than ice cream, as I mentioned earlier. It does not have the same weight requirements, and as I noted in the previous section, Sam's Club frozen yogurt does physically weigh less than Costco's soft serve ice cream.

However, calories and fat are just two components of nutrition. There is also sugar, and buckle up because there is a lot. Sam's Club has 53-54 grams of sugar per serving, while Costco reportedly has 56 grams per serving. Again, we see Costco coming in at a higher level but not necessarily in the way we would want. The average person is only supposed to consume around 37 grams of sugar in a day, so both options are coming in well above that threshold.

The whole point of bulk stores such as Costco and Sam's Club is getting large quantities of products for a low amount of money. We already know both places bring it with the large soft serve options, but what about the price?

Sam's Club makes it easy. A basic cup will cost you just $1.00. If you want some toppings, the price goes up to just $1.58. This is almost an unimaginably low amount of money. It is hard to compete. And Costco arguably doesn't.

Costco ice cream starts at nearly twice that, with the price of $1.99. If you want toppings, you are looking at $2.49. If this were a pricing competition, Sam's Club would win hands-down. You can get an entire sundae for less than the price of just a cup at Costco. Fortunately for Costco, there are more metrics at play.

In terms of price, the one saving grace for Costco is that you are getting slightly more soft serve by weight than at Sam's Club. But again, we have to point out that by volume, the Sam's Club's cup is overflowing with ice cream.

What bulk warehouse stores have in pricing and quantity, they lack in options. And that is very much the case with both stores. Both Sam's Club and Costco have limited flavors available. As of this article, both Sam's Club and Costco offer basic vanilla and chocolate. Costco has a slight upper hand as they offer twists as well. Twist is great if you don't want to choose, but it isn't exactly a separate flavor.

I would be remiss though, if I didn't bring up some of the drama surrounding the flavors available, especially around Costco. In 2018, Costco did the unthinkable and discontinued the chocolate soft serve in favor of an açai bowl. People were not happy. But it took until 2024 before we saw the glorious return of Costco's chocolate soft serve. The problem is this time we had to say goodbye to a new favorite.

In the intervening years, Costco has been experimenting with its food court offerings. One of the options they eventually offered was a strawberry soft serve, and it was popular. Sadly, Costco discontinued the strawberry soft serve to bring back the chocolate instead of just offering both. I get that space is limited, but frankly, this constant give-and-take with Costco serving options is sad. Sam's Club may not branch out in the same way, but at least the company's flavors have been consistent, and we know what we are going to get.

In addition to the ice cream itself, there is one other component we must take into account: the toppings.

Costco offers two kinds of toppings, strawberry sauce and chocolate sauce. They are pretty basic, but if you are someone who misses Costco strawberry soft serve, the strawberry sauce (while not exactly the same) can really hit the spot. It is not overly syrupy and offers a nice number of real strawberry chunks. We wish there was an option to have both on a sundae, though, because chocolate and strawberry are a winning combination.

Sam's Club also offers two options. Instead of just strawberry, Sam's Club offers a mixed berry sauce made with strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries. The company also offers a brownie sundae that has caramel sauce swirled around the cup, and pieces of brownie on top. We have to say this does seem to show a little more effort than Costco, especially when it is still at a much lower price tag. However, it does seem weird that Sam's Club doesn't offer chocolate sauce, as that is the quintessential sundae topping.

Not all soft serve is created equal. Visually, these two companies have some similarities but also a lot of differences.

From a functionality standpoint, there is one big difference: Costco's cup has a sippy top, whereas Sam's Club has an open top. This was the first thing that struck me when I saw them. Because while I love not using straws, I was not planning on eating my soft serve with one. I had to take the lid off to get to the soft serve. This also squished down the top of each cup, crushing that picturesque soft serve swirl. While this is not a big deal, it did make me a little sad.

As mentioned previously, the Sam's Club cups appeared more full. But there was one other major difference that became apparent while taking pictures of the treats. Sam's Club soft serve melts a lot faster than Costco soft serve. As you can see on the side-by-side, Sam's Club frozen yogurt was quickly becoming non-frozen, whereas Costco's was just chilling and mostly holding its form. Both cups spent some time in the freezer, and neither had more than a 15 minute drive from the starting location to final photographs. But a difference in speed of melting is clear.

Taste and texture are where I saw the biggest differences. Costco's soft serve ice cream was incredibly smooth and creamy. It was rich and luxurious. The chocolate offered a good amount of cocoa flavor, which was perfect for the cup. My one small complaint is I felt the vanilla could have had a more pronounced vanilla flavor. It was mild, which paired well with the toppings, but on its own it could have offered a little bit more.

By contrast, the Sam's Club frozen yogurt was noticeably less creamy. The texture was icier and contained more crystals than the ultra-luxurious texture of the Costco soft serve. For me, this is where the difference between ice cream and frozen yogurt really comes into play. It is just hard to match that ice cream richness. That said, the vanilla ice cream offered a more distinct flavor, likely due to being frozen yogurt, which allowed it to stand on its own slightly better than the Costco vanilla flavor.

To me, there is a clear winner. If you want a solid basic ice cream cone, get to Costco. The texture and quality of this ice cream cannot be beat. It simply offered a decadent-tasting treat that was not available from the frozen yogurt.

That said, if you are conscious of nutrition and want something that is delicious but doesn't have the same calories as ice cream, or you want to save a little money, go with Sam's Club. This is the only way for me to believe that Sam's Club frozen yogurt beats Costco ice cream.

Let's be clear: Yes, frozen yogurt is cheaper, but only by $1. With inflation today, a $1 difference feels smaller and smaller. Frozen yogurt just cannot match ice cream's texture. While those of us around in the 2010s know all too well, ice cream doesn't need to be loaded with fancy toppings and add-ons to be a treat. Costco may be charging more, but what you get in return is a higher-quality product.

To put these two to the test, I had to eat the soft serve ice cream cups back to back. Because soft serve melts so easily, I opted to do the initial tasting at each location's respective food courts. This was to preserve peak freshness and texture. I then brought a sample of each home and put them in the freezer so I could try them next to each other to get a really good comparison.

For the purposes of this ranking, I did not take into account how close I was to the two stores or how accessible each was specifically for me. Instead, I focused on the quality and options of the stores as a whole.