If you'd asked us back in 2024 which warehouse club was the better choice for conservative shoppers, the answer would have been simple: Costco beat Walmart's Sam's Club on every BWF metric. Costco scored 45/100 on the BuyWokeFree Woke Score. Walmart hit a brutal 90/100. Case closed.
Then 2026 happened. And the script flipped in a way nobody saw coming.
While Walmart spent late 2024 and 2025 quietly dismantling DEI commitments, ending its racial equity center, and severing ties with the HRC's Corporate Equality Index, Costco did the opposite. In February 2026, Fortune ran the headline "Costco defied Trump's DEI directive as Target and Walmart scaled back" — and management has bragged about it ever since. So which warehouse club actually deserves your $60 to $130 annual membership in 2026? Let's break it down.
The Headline Numbers
- Costco Wholesale: BWF Woke Score 45/100 (Woke). Public DEI commitment renewed February 2026, defied Trump's executive order on federal DEI directives, named in Detroit News coverage of corporations "standing up to expand DEI."
- Walmart / Sam's Club: BWF Woke Score 90/100 (Extremely Woke). Rolled back DEI programs in November 2024 after Robby Starbuck campaign, ended $100M racial equity commitment, dropped HRC CEI participation, but Sam's Club CEO publicly defended "openness and connection" in 2025.
The legacy scores still tell a damning story for Walmart — but the trend lines have completely inverted. Conservative shoppers face a real choice: punish Walmart for past sins, or punish Costco for present provocations?
Costco's 2026 DEI Doubling-Down
Costco's leadership made a calculated bet in early 2025 that DEI was a brand asset, not a liability. The board recommended shareholders reject an anti-DEI proposal — and 98% voted with management. Then in February 2026, when the Trump administration issued Executive Order 14398 directing federal contractors to dismantle race-based programs, Costco refused to comply with the spirit of the order.
The receipts:
- CEO Ron Vachris reaffirmed Costco's "long-standing commitment to diversity" in the 2026 annual letter.
- Costco maintained its Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index participation while peers fled.
- Levi's, Apple, and Costco were singled out by the Detroit News as the corporations "rejecting the White House's position on diversity."
- Costco's federal political contributions skewed left in the 2024 cycle, with the company's PAC and employee donations favoring Democratic candidates.
This is no longer a "calculated to avoid the woke mob" posture. It is an active flag-planting operation. If you swipe a Costco card in 2026, you are subsidizing a corporation that has decided to oppose the Trump-era pullback on DEI on principle.
Sam's Club's Quiet Walk-Back
Walmart's November 2024 announcement was one of the largest DEI rollbacks in American corporate history, and Sam's Club — as a Walmart-owned division — inherited every change. The shifts are real, even if the messaging stayed soft:
- Walmart pulled out of the HRC Corporate Equality Index after years of perfect 100/100 scores.
- The retailer ended its five-year, $100 million racial equity center commitment.
- Walmart dropped "DEI" from corporate communications and removed LGBTQ-targeted merchandise from prominent placement during Pride 2025.
- Supplier diversity programs were restructured to remove race and gender preferences.
The catch: Sam's Club CEO Chris Nicholas told Yahoo Finance in 2025 that "openness and connection" remain "the definition of who we are" — a phrase the activist left correctly read as a soft hedge. Sam's Club did not lead the rollback. Walmart corporate did, and Sam's Club followed.
Head-to-Head: 2026 Reality Check
Pride Sponsorship
Winner: Sam's Club. Walmart corporate ended Platinum-tier Pride sponsorships in 2025. Costco maintained Pride Month internal programming and external sponsorships of regional Pride events through 2026.
HRC Corporate Equality Index
Winner: Sam's Club. Walmart withdrew from CEI participation. Costco still scores in the 90+ range and submits voluntarily.
DEI Programs
Winner: Sam's Club. Walmart dismantled formal DEI infrastructure. Costco doubled down with shareholder-backed reaffirmation.
ESG Reporting
Tie. Both still publish ESG reports. Walmart softened language; Costco did not.
Political Donations
Winner: Sam's Club. Walmart's PAC contributions skew slightly more balanced in 2024–2026 than Costco's, which leans more Democratic.
CEO Action for Diversity
Winner: Sam's Club. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon withdrew from CEO Action signatory commitments. Costco's Ron Vachris remains a signatory.
The Verdict
This is one of the rare cases where the BWF Woke Score and the 2026 trend point in opposite directions. Walmart's 90/100 reflects a decade of DEI infrastructure that took 18 months to dismantle. Costco's 45/100 reflects historical caution that has since been replaced with public defiance.
For conservative shoppers in 2026, Sam's Club is the better warehouse club choice. The reasons are forward-looking, not historical:
- Sam's Club is the only major warehouse club whose parent has publicly rolled back DEI commitments.
- Costco has explicitly chosen to oppose the post-2024 corporate consensus on DEI.
- Your dollars at Sam's Club rewarded the largest DEI rollback in U.S. retail history; your dollars at Costco fund the resistance to that rollback.
If you have a Costco membership, the calculus changed in February 2026. If your renewal date is coming up, that's the moment to decide whether you want to keep funding the company that picked a public fight to keep its DEI programs intact. Sam's Club isn't perfect — Walmart's legacy 90/100 is still on the books — but in the only direction that matters going forward, it's moving the right way.
Better-Scoring Alternatives
If neither warehouse giant satisfies you, consider these smaller patriot-aligned options:
- BJ's Wholesale Club — limited regional footprint but lower public DEI profile than Costco.
- Local farm cooperatives and bulk buying clubs — many veteran-owned and faith-based co-ops now offer warehouse-style pricing on staples.
- Direct-from-producer subscriptions — Good Ranchers, Moink, and similar services bypass big-box retail entirely.
The warehouse club industry was once a boring conservative bet. In 2026, it is a battleground. Pick your side accordingly.