Episode 547
Skip the Five Trips — My Dream Sam's Club Door Plan
People are literally designing houses around Costco/Sam’s Club — yep, that tiny 2x2 “Sam’s Club door” that drops you from the garage straight into the pantry. I riff on how it lets you shove the 30-pack of sparkling water, industrial olive oil, and giant bags of rice into your house without five trips or losing circulation in your fingers. A contractor even says about half his customers ask for one, and it’s apparently like a grand to add during construction — ridiculous until you’ve wrestled a Sam’s Club haul. I poke fun about future listings touting “direct rotisserie access” and even break into a goofy do-do-do jingle about cutting a hole in the pantry. Quick, relatable, and low-effort solutions for people who buy bulk like it’s a lifestyle choice.
Takeaways:
- I learned people are adding a tiny "Sam's Club door" from garage straight into the pantry.
- It's basically a two-by-two-foot hatch and builders say it costs about a thousand dollars to add.
- We laughed about skipping the mudroom and avoiding five trips or the classic 'lost circulation in three fingers' struggle when unloading giant bulk hauls.
- Sam's Club and Costco are basically shaping house design now; someday listings might even brag 'direct rotisserie access'.
- One contractor told us about half of his customers ask for that door once they see it, apparently.
- I even couldn't resist singing a goofy jingle about cutting a pantry hole and hiring a contractor to unload faster.
Transcript
Good morning and taste stack.
Speaker A:And Costco and Sam's Club, to some extent, have officially gotten so powerful that people are now designing their homes around it.
Speaker A:There's this growing feature that many are referring to as the Costco door.
Speaker A:I'll call it the Sam's Club door, dad gubbit.
Speaker A:But it's basically a little two by two foot door that connects your garage directly to the pantry.
Speaker A:So you pull in from Sam's Club, you open the trunk, and you just shove the detergent and the giant bag of rice and the toilet paper and the 30 pack of sparkling water and the industrial drum of olive oil straight into your house.
Speaker A:No carrying it through a mudroom.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:No five trips.
Speaker A:No pretending you can get all the groceries in one trip and then cutting circulation off to three of your fingers.
Speaker A:One construction folk fella said that about half of his customers ask for one once they see it.
Speaker A:And it apparently cost about a thousand dollars to add it during construction, which sounds ridiculous until you've tried carrying a Sam's Club hall.
Speaker A:And then you're thinking, yeah, can we make the door a little bigger?
Speaker A:At this point, Sam's Club and Costco not just influencing how Americans shop, they're influencing residential architecture.
Speaker A:I mean, pretty soon house listings are gonna say four bedrooms, three baths, open concept kitchen, and direct rotisserie access.
Speaker A:Okay, so maybe the rotisserie thing's not gonna happen anytime soon, but, you know, a lot of folks are gonna spring for a Sam's Club door.
Speaker B:Got back from the big box store got packages galore but to bring stuff in the house, it's too far to the kitchen and so I am wishing do, do, do for my own Sam's Club door Cut a hole to the pantry for another entry Then I can move the crap I bought in from my garage the.
Speaker A:Packages are.
Speaker B:Heavy and so I am getting do, do, do My own Sam's Club door I'm climbing steps or coming round the back I'll knock down a wall and then I'll just go through through and through and through and hire.
Speaker A:A.
Speaker B:Contractor to unload it faster do, do, do with my own Sam's Club door.
