How often do you shop at a warehouse club?
When we’re short on time and our shopping lists are long, it can be tempting to just make a single stop at a warehouse club.
After all, Sam’s Club and Costco stock everything from groceries and cleaning supplies to electronics and clothing… often in bulk quantities and at low prices. Also, you should get your money’s worth from your annual membership fee.
Smart shopping move, right? …Well, not necessarily. While many warehouse club deals are reasonable, you might want to skip over some items. Frugal shoppers know that these outlets don’t generally accept coupons for discounts on items.
While you can save money on some pantry items and paper goods like toilet paper, when you’re buying in bulk, you can spend hundreds more each month by taking the easy way out.
Let’s take a look at the 7 everyday items stocked by warehouse clubs that you might want to pick up elsewhere.
I live alone and buy Dawn dish soap at Costco in their largest container and put in smaller containers. Never seen a change in quality using Dawn over the years.
I never found those club stores to be much of a bargain considering what they want you to pay for a yearly membership You have save that on shopping to begin with The prices at local grocers can be just as good price wise Some sell in large quantities at better prices Staple goods can be very reasonable at local stores especially if you use coupons and they all don’t raise prices on buy one get one free Buy one get one is usually a good deal but you need to know your prices When all is said and done big box stores are not that much of a bargain except maybe in the bakery goods
Costco is very disappointing to me. My wife got hearing aids there and has bought nothing else. So even if she did save a little on hearing aids….btw she found lower prices later elsewhere….we haven’t saved enough to pay for the membership. It IS very popular as the parking lot is always jammed. But I think a lot of that is their special on a meal or two. And try to get one of those with a seat to sit in. People go and park their butts and stay like it’s a coffee shop in a rural area. They haven’t hurt me so I shouldn’t be so critical, but to advertise as a discount store and not have many discounts, it’s all deceptive as can be. One does need to learn the color coding of prices to see if things are on sale. I haven’t found anything enough on sale to justify my walking thru their door. My membership will be canceled. My wife will probably keep hers.
Living a LOOOOONG way from town, some of these reasons are valid, others are not !
We buy our Meat from Sams Club, and a few other things, dog food, paper-goods, Produce in the off season.
But then again, 50 miles for a stick of butter or bag of cereal is a bit far, besides we get paid once a month, and so Stock up when we do shop, we do NOT, do designer clothes.
some of your arguments do make sense, like expiration dates.
All I can say is thank you for saving this household money
Great job