I have used the Sam's Choice several times now and I like to use it for my initial fire. To start my fire, I put about 15-18 pounds in the fire box, the perimeter of which I've lined with a double row of oak/pecan. Then I dump a large load of "chimney lit" SC on top in a "scooped out" area. That set up keeps my offset at 250 ish for about 5 hours without tending anything except the intake.
When the temp starts to fail, I add RO lump (probably because I have a bunch of it). At the time of "rebuilding the fire", I do have to rake out a lot of ash from under the fire grate. But that's not a big deal if you're prepared to do it. My pit has a moveable plate that virtually closes the passage between the fire box and the cooking chamber.
When its time to re do the fire; I shut the plate to the cooking chamber, reline the pit with pre heated wood, dump in unlit lump and spread to to the sides with long tongs, dump in a chimney full of lite lump and scrape out the ashes from under the fire grate. This all takes less than a minute with no notable loss in heat.
I like Sams Choice because its cheap ($5 for 20#s), has very little unusable pieces (as compared to lump), has a great carrying bag (that I use as a trash bag at the pit when empty), and is a geat size (60% larger) that doesn't fall through the fire grate.
After using this stuff, any other charcoal is WHIMPY. I had some old Kingsford that was dwarfed by the Sams Choice.
And... this is not a paid advertisement for Walmart!!