I counted no less than six offers for discounted gift cards when I visited Costco in St. Louis Park Wednesday. Costco offers a 20 percent discount on cards from Caribou Coffee, Nutrisystem, SpaFinder, AMC movie theaters, Nickelodeon Universe Park at Mall of America and local restaurants. Each of the cards is discounted 20 percent. The recent offerings, which can change without notice, include Build a Bear workshops for $39.99 (reg. $50), two $25 Caribou Coffee gift cards for $39.99, Nutrisystem program for men or women for $259.99 (36 days worth of breakfasts, lunches, dinners and desserts), SpaFinder gift certificates at Twin Cities and nationwide salons, AMC movie theater tickets for $15.99 (reg. $20), two $50 gift cards to Palamino, 2021 in the Walker Art Center, or McCormick & Schmick’s restaurants for $79.99, and an unlimited ride wristband for $23.49 at Nickelodeon Universal Park at MOA (reg. $29.55).

The Costco website offers even more gift cards including iTunes, bed & breakfasts, Napster, San Diego restaurants, Baja Fresh, Rosemary’s Restaurant (Las Vegas) and On Point Sports but not all are discounted 20 percent.

Inexplicably, Sam’s Club doesn’t seem to care that Costco kicks its butt in this department. I called Sam’s stores, the PR department, and checked online for gift card discounts and came up empty-handed. Am I missing something? If I hear back from Sam’s PR people about this oversight, I’ll let you know.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 at 4:14 pm and is filed under Warehouse clubs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.