I'm with you on the "paying for the priviledge to shop there" thing being kinda silly. I've heard lots of people say that unless you shop there a whole lot or need to stock up on stuff, you don't really save all that much overall. I remember years and years ago my parents received a free membership of some sort to Sam's Club but when we went to the store we could only buy certain things with that particular membership. My dad had the card and they were being real a-holes and not wanting to even let me and my mother in the store. Granted this was like 15 years ago