Do you think warehouse clubs save money or encourage you to waste money?
January 26, 2009 by Jennifer Chait
Filed under Shopping Issues
I honestly hate warehouse club type stores. I’ve never been a member of one, but I do have family and friends who have been members and love them.
Why I don’t like them:
I think they encourage over consumption. I have never, not even once, seen a friend or family member walk into a club store and not come out with something not on their shopping list. Maybe it’s the people I know? I don’t know, but people like a perceived deal, whether or not they need it. If you’re into shopping to shop, it’s better to avoid warehouse clubs.
Bulk is overrated. I support some bulk buying, but paying for the privilege of loading up on 100 rolls of toilet paper is just silly unless you own a business. 400 bags of chips, 40 muffins, 80 pens – seriously? If you don’t live out in the middle of nowhere you can get to a store for these items. Buying bulk a lot, usually means you are somehow paying for it – the more you own, the bigger the space you need to store it, the larger the car to tote it in, and you’re paying for that membership.
Warehouse stores don’t always show unit pricing on items, which makes comparing savings to a regular store tough.
If you have excellent control of your shopping habits, a warehouse store could be a decent options for you. It might save you money.
I’m just one person though – what do you think?
We debate this every year, yet continue to renew. Our warehouse club has a restaurant, where I can feed all four of us for under $10.
I also love the fresh produce. The sister to our warehouse club’s produce quality is not near as good. The prices are not always the cheapest, but the quality is so much better.
I love the big stores. It’s true that you have to be careful though. I only go there for certain things and I make sure I don’t leave with too much extra. I live alone, so most of the stuff in bulk is wasted on me.
I do like warehouse prices. I am able to keep my spending in control, mainly because I only go in with a certain amount of cash, that is what I have for what I am going to buy. I can see how they can get out of control, especially if you have a credit card to that particular warehouse, but for me, they have been a life saver (mainly for diapers and wipes, as that is the stage in life we are at right now
I am delurking in defense of the ware house store. We are avid Sam’s Club shoppers. We buy all of our meats there and wouldn’t have it any other way. It is also great for hair and body care products. Frozen veggies are a real steal there. There are other things we buy there but this all I can think of right now. Meat is where we save the most money.
I understand your point of view. It would be very easy to go over board in a place like that. But our family is careful and doesn’t.
BTW, love your site. I stop by often.
We love our Sam’s Club membership! As small business owners, just the price difference between their credit card paper and Staple’s pays for the yearly membership. As with Kellie, we’re very careful with the amount of money we bring and our grocery list. There’s a short list of things we buy there, things that could not be bought generic elsewhere. And…we only go on Saturdays, so we can eat all the free samples instead of paying for lunch (I know, how cheap are we?!?!?).
We think of the warehouse store mostly like a grocery store. I go in with a list; we might buy a few luxury items (like a special cheese), but even those, I don’t think cost us more — instead, we’re more likely to eat in on a night when we want luxury instead of going out to eat. We rarely look at the home or electronics aisles, although the book section tempts us into unplanned purchases sometimes. I always check prices on certain purchases, like the tax software I use to prepare my own taxes, which was at least $20 cheaper at Costco than I’ve seen it anywhere else. And we get good deals on clothing there … like my husband’s $60 three-part heavy duty parka, or $20 designer jeans. Best of all, in the clothing section, having so few choices eliminates most impulse buying.
I went into Costco with my SIL this summer, and asked her something about it. She said – don’t you have it near you. I told her we don’t do these stores anymore since we quit buying baby stuff, we usually spent more than we needed to. So now we stay away and don’t overspend our money. I like my grocery stores to be grocery stores for the same reason.
Warehouse clubs are a good deal if you have room to store things in bulk. (Ahhh… how I wish I had a pantry!) But for the most part, I think you can find deals that are just as good at most grocery stores if you watch the ads closely.
I love our Costco membership! We use it for produce, like the 1lb baby organic spinach for $3.50 & the 1lb organic salad mix for $4, eggs, milk (organic soy & cow), goat cjeese, diapers, & occasional other produce & specialty items like other cheeses, sourdough bread from the bakery, etc. Other regular purchases are 6 packs of organic chicken broth cartons, organic fair trade coffee from an Austin coffee shop for a great price, organic cereal, almond butter, organic olive oil, organic tomato sauce & diced tomatoes. I do major couponing for my shopping, so I know what is a good price & what’s not, and you do have to be careful. But overall, there are good deals to be had if you know what you’re going in for!
It is very, very rare for me to come out of Sam’s Club with something that’s not on my list – mainly because our budget doesn’t have room for any impulse buys. We use our membership for photo prints, gas (much cheaper than anywhere else in town), meat, sliced cheese and frozen ravioli (which my kids *love*). I *hate* going, especially on Saturdays, it’s a flipping madhouse. I’d much rather go on a weekday morning.
i will say this about sam’s…one, my mom and i split the business membership…two, we send out over 150 Christmas cards d/t my husband’s business~we buy the 2 photo cards w/envelopes at Sam’s and come out for well under $40. no one can touch that price. three, for frozen items that my son likes to eat…their prices cannot be beat at the grocery store, and i am an avid coupon mommy. four, i pay with cash wh motivates me to not overbuy.
I totally agree with you! Besides being a pain to park and schlep all that stuff into your car and house, I thought I was the only one who thinks these stores tempt you to spend unnecessarily. My parents are totally into Costco and come home with huge bags of dried fruit and 5 pound bags of frozen blueberries in addition to the 2 or 3 things on their list, exclaiming “look at all this – for just $9!” That’s $9 you didn’t need to spend, I say! I buy my son’s Kirkland wipes and diapers there but have my mom get them so I don’t waste $50 on the membership and so I’m not tempted to pick up things I didn’t have on my list. I think you have to be very disciplined when you shop there.