What are you supposed to do when the food you love starts tasting like chemicals or turns into the dreaded "spaghetti meat"? That's the crisis of the modern Sam's Club shopper.
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00:00What are you supposed to do when the food you love starts tasting like chemicals, or
00:04turns into the dreaded spaghetti meat? That's the crisis of the modern Sam's Club shopper.
00:09Sam's Club customers have been doing a lot of complaining about the rotisserie chickens
00:12lately. Things really started to go downhill in a big way in 2023, when some shoppers started
00:17noticing a chemical smell coming from the poultry, especially when cooking the carcass
00:21for stock.
00:22Man, that stinks. Grab a mint.
00:25By 2024, more people were having other problems with the chicken. One Redditor said that they
00:30tended to buy the smallest chickens they could find in hopes of finding one that was cooked
00:34all the way through. Others claimed that the quality had gone down in large part because
00:38of understaffing and improper training.
00:40Comments on the Sam's Club website reflect this as well. Although there are some customers
00:44who still give the chicken five stars, there are plenty more who complain about undercooked,
00:48raw, unseasoned, and flavorless birds. As one person put it,
00:52Over the last few months, Sam's must have changed their flavors, not marinating slash
00:56brining or skimping on ingredients, because the chicken now has no flavor. Bring back
01:00the old recipe, please!
01:02One of the best parts of shopping is refreshing yourself at the food court. But it sounds
01:06like the Sam's Club food court just hasn't been the same lately. One recent discussion
01:10on the Big Box Store subreddit kicked off with the comment,
01:12"'I used to love Sam's Pizza and Hot Dogs. They are so bad now. I want the old style
01:18Others agreed, with one chiming in,
01:19"'The pizza is so greasy. I only eat it if I'm starving at this point.'"
01:23The story is similar on the Sam's Club website. Many of the five-star reviews are from years
01:28ago, whereas more recent one-star ratings condemn the pies for a host of reasons. Common
01:32complaints include hard crusts, excessive chewiness, ingredients that are way out of
01:37proportion, and an overwhelming, unbearable saltiness. As one disgruntled customer bemoaned,
01:42Why Sam's? Why? Why did you change the supplier?
01:45Until a couple months ago, this was hands-down the best pizza around, at any price. Now,
01:49it's just average. The sauce is meh, the crust is thinner, and always wet on the bottom.
01:54Used to be a weekly treat, but won't be buying it again. Multiple customers declared that
01:58they would be opting for frozen pizza instead.
02:01Questions have been raised about the cheese dip that Sam's Club sells, with both its fresh
02:05pretzels and its packages of Member's Mark soft pretzels. Some customers have wondered
02:09whether or not it was being discontinued. But the bigger debate has been about the cheese
02:13or lack thereof. Some Redditors have noticed a definite difference, with one person noting,
02:18They sell the little cups at my club, and it must be a new one or something because
02:21it tastes f-----g terrible.
02:22Oh, that was way harsh, Ty.
02:25Others agreed, with one person chiming in to seemingly confirm that their local Sam's
02:28Club had, indeed, changed suppliers. Whatever the reason, there's a significant number of
02:33one- and two-star reviews of the Member's Mark pretzel bites with pub-style cheese dip
02:37on the store's website. Many have complained about gritty, greasy, grainy, and clumpy cheese
02:42that doesn't melt well. More recent comments do seem more favorable, so maybe the cheese
02:46is making a comeback?
02:48Bottled water might seem like the most straightforward thing in the world, but different brands actually
02:53do have their own distinct qualities. And apparently, the same brand can start tasting
02:57different than how it used to, at least according to Sam's Club shoppers who've been drinking
03:01Member's Mark water.
03:02The change reportedly happened around 2023, and it seems that a new bottle design may
03:07have brought with it a strange aftertaste. As one Redditor revealed,
03:10I stopped buying it. They've also added salts to it for flavor.
03:13A presumed employee chimed in, claiming that clubs were seeing many returns on water for
03:18this reason. According to the label, in addition to purified water, the ingredients include
03:22calcium chloride and sodium bicarbonate.
03:25There are still plenty of five-star reviews on the Sam's Club website, but also a bunch
03:28of recent one- and two-star ratings. As one person complained,
03:32The water tastes like the plastic it comes in.
03:34That's a common complaint, with customers condemning the quality of the bottles as well.
03:38Many have suggested that the new packaging and the odd-tasting water are connected. One
03:42person said that it tasted like baking soda had been added to the formula, while also
03:46making the simple declaration that their tap water was better.
03:49In 2018, one heartbroken Redditor posted a thread that detailed how one of their worst
03:54fears had come true — the Food Court hot dogs didn't taste the same as they used to.
03:58And they were right. The dogs used to be Nathan's brand, but they've since been changed to Member's
04:02Mark.
04:03It appears that this was a slow rollout. Customers were talking about it online well into 2020.
04:08In 2023, one Redditor posted that they felt bad for the staff at their local store, who
04:12were constantly struggling to keep up with food orders. The general consensus was that
04:16this was reflected in the quality of the food, with one person writing,
04:19I avoid the hot dogs like crazy. They just aren't appetizing.
04:23One Redditor got really vivid in another thread, by revealing,
04:26The new ones put me on the toilet about one to two hours after eating them. It's like
04:30they include a laxative in the Member's Mark's dogs.
04:32If you worry about always being the guy on the toilet, I mean, Jeff, Diarrhea Head, Daniels.
04:39Sam's Club muffins also seem to have an up-and-down reputation with customers. Back in 2021, some
04:45shoppers noticed changes in the corn muffins specifically. The problem? Freshness. The
04:49general consensus at the time was that various locations were being hit with shortages beyond
04:54employees' control. But it appears that the muffin problems have persisted. As one Redditor
04:58asked in 2025,
05:00Did they change the recipe for the blueberry muffins? Used to be so crispy and fresh. Now
05:04they just seem dense and sad and plain.
05:07On the Sam's Club website, the story is the same, as customers have been giving the Member's
05:11Mark muffins dismal reviews. A one-star rating of the blueberry variety declared,
05:15I don't know what they changed, but they are absolutely terrible. I'm so sad, because I
05:20used to love them. Others have complained of chemical and vinegar tastes.
05:24Similar comments can be found on reviews of other varieties, including chocolate. They're,
05:28amid complaints of dry, flavorless muffins, was one customer who asked,
05:32Looks amazing. Tastes like nothing. Did y'all forget to put the chocolate in these?
05:37What's the deal with the Member's Mark chicken? That's a question that a lot of people have
05:40been posting recently. Complaints really kicked into high gear in early 2024, when customers
05:45started asking questions about the switch from Styrofoam trays to vacuum-sealed packages.
05:50People were already noticing a change in quality and price, and now there were complaints of
05:54poorly trimmed pieces, little edible meat, and even blood vessels that needed to be cleaned
05:59up. When one Redditor posted photos of white meat chicken that was falling apart into shreds,
06:03others identified it as spaghetti meat, which refers to a stringy, spaghetti-like texture
06:07caused by the speed at which the animals are grown. It's reportedly perfectly fine to eat,
06:12though plenty of folks aren't happy about the taste and texture.
06:15Over on the Sam's Club website, there are a slew of recent one-star reviews, with customers
06:19complaining that the poultry is tough and liquid-filled, in addition to tasting unpleasant.
06:23As one person put it bluntly,
06:25"...the breasts are huge and the taste is awful."
06:28If you love picking up some pizza dough for a quick and easy meal, you're certainly not
06:32alone. But unfortunately for Sam's Club customers, there have been, you guessed it, plenty of
06:37complaints about the pizza dough lately. Instead of dough balls, the chain is now offering
06:41flat rounds. While there are some shoppers who are fine with this change, plenty of others
06:45are sad that it tastes nothing like the old dough. As one customer insisted,
06:49"...these are terrible if you don't thaw, form into a ball, then re-stretch.
06:53Even then, they still aren't half as good as the old dough balls."
06:56Some speculated that the change happened so that Sam's Club could stock one type of pizza dough,
07:04both for sale on its own and to use in its fresh pizzas. And as one Redditor complained,
07:09"...I bought a case of dough, and it's terrible. If it had yeast,
07:12it's dead. It doesn't rise, and has no flavor."
07:15Others have noticed the opposite problem, with crusts that form massive air bubbles.
07:20Sam's Club customers appear to widely agree that the Member's Mark acai bowls are very,
07:25very different than how they used to be. But whether that change is a good or bad thing
07:29is apparently up for debate. Nuts have been replaced with granola, and to some,
07:32it seems more fruit has been added. That sounds positive, right? Others aren't so sure.
07:37As one review on the Sam's Club website put it,
07:39"...I've given it a few tries over the last few months, hoping I'd get used to the granola,
07:43but I just can't enjoy it anymore. It's disappointing when a good product gets
07:47changed for the worse." The problem for many is that the texture of the granola is way too hard,
07:52and when you combine that with thawed frozen fruit that's been described as
07:55limpy and mushy, it becomes clear why the new bowls aren't working for everyone.
07:59One person made things abundantly clear by announcing,
08:02"...I loved these until you replaced the nuts with nasty granola."
08:06The Member's Mark pepperoni are yet another area where Sam's Club is getting called out for being
08:11nowhere near as good as it once was. As one Redditor explained,
08:14"...I detest the new Member's Mark pepperoni. It spoils in just a few days once it's opened.
08:19I see lots of bad reviews online saying the same thing."
08:21Another Redditor described them as way too peppery. Reviews on the Sam's Club website
08:26are split on the uncured pepperoni, with some saying that there's not much pepperoni flavor.
08:30As for the bags of sliced pepperoni, there are plenty who love it. Others, however,
08:34are less enthused and have compared them negatively to the Hormel brand that Sam's used to sell.
08:39Other issues include a short shelf life, overwhelming greasiness,
08:45a strange aftertaste, and a rubbery texture. Clearly, it's not a win with everyone.