Long Lines, Supply Shortages Plague Costco, Sam’s Club Shoppers Looking For Relief From Rising Gas Prices

Shoppers have recently flooded Costco and Sam’s Club gas stations as they look for cheaper gas prices amid a spike in fuel costs around the country as the Russia-Ukraine conflict rages on.

But consumers were in for quite a surprise this week when they showed up to the retailers to fill up their vehicles and not only were hit with long lines, but some people said on social media that the gas stations had run out of fuel.

Costco and Sam’s Club offer gas at a discount to their club members, but many shoppers took to Twitter to complain about long wait times despite receiving gas at a significant discount.

One Sam’s Club member said the line for gas at her store was 30 cars deep, while another shopper of the retailer said the wait time was 45 minutes to fill up.

At Costco, people weren’t faring much better.

One customer said there were eight lines with 20 cars in each line waiting to fill up their vehicles, while another shopper said the line at their store was around the block.

And if there wasn’t a line, it was most likely because Costco or Sam’s Club had run out of fuel, many club members reported on Twitter.

As of Friday, the national average gas price per gallon was $4.331, according to the American Automobile Association’s gas price tracker – an all-time record for the U.S.

Warehouse clubs such as Costco and Sam’s Club typically charge upwards of 30 cents less per gallon for gasoline than a traditional gas station, Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at IHS Markit's Oil Price Information Service, told WLS-TV, an ABC affiliate out of Chicago, last year.

These companies are “winners when gasoline prices go skyward,” Kloza said.