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Are Warehouse Store Wearing Out
Your Wallet?
by Jill Cooper
It’s Saturday morning. With grocery list in hand, you drag a very
unwilling family out to the car where you proceed to take them on a mega
shopping spree at Sam’s or Costco. Marching down each isle you tell your
family members “We need 3 cases of corn, 4 cases of green beans and --
Oh! That’s a good deal on peanut butter so let’s get 3 gallons. Of
course Susie, your can get a bag of cookies. They are so cheap! …and
Billy you can have a few bags of your favorite chips! Yum! Oh look --
samples! These taste great. Let’s get some! What a great buy on chicken
– we need 20…” At the dog food aisle the excitement mounts as each
member of the family grabs a corner of the 50 lb. bag of dog food to
stack on top of the basket. (We won’t mention you only have 1 toy poodle
at home.)
After waiting in line and waiting in line and waiting in line you push
your agonizingly heavy and overloaded baskets out to the car. Getting
everything into the trunk of the car makes putting together a 1,000
piece puzzle a breeze, but finally home you go. After you lug everything
into the house, it’s time to spend the next few hours repackaging things
for the freezer. You double wrap your 20 chickens (they could be in that
freezer for quite awhile) and frantically try to find places for
everything else in your cupboards and panty. By the time you are done,
you are so exhausted that you couldn’t begin to lift a finger to cook,
so you all go out to eat.
A few weeks later you gingerly sniff the gallon of half used peanut
butter as you try to decide if that strange taste is because it has gone
rancid or simply because you are sick of peanut butter. You threw out
that partially used gallon of maple syrup yesterday because it had
sugared and was looking really strange. You still have ten of your
chickens left but if you bathe them in some spicy sauce you are pretty
sure your family won’t notice the freezer burned taste. In spite of
having to throw out most of the 50 lbs. of dog food (after a growing
family of mice had invaded it), you’re sure you saved money because
“they” said you would.
Time and time again, people ask “can you really save money at Sam’s or
Costco?” I usually answer “not any more so then any place else”. I have
checked prices several different times and factoring everything in, I
have found no exceptional savings.
Here are some tips to help you decide if a warehouse store is for you:
1. Do your homework and compare prices. Buying in bulk is not always
cheaper. You really save by checking and comparing prices. I was at
Costco one day where there was a display of two Clorox one gallon
bottles for $1.98 AFTER rebate. I stood there amazed as people grabbed
up this “great deal.” I knew I could get that same Clorox for $.98 a
gallon at my regular discount store and I didn’t have to mess with a
rebate, pay postage or lug 2 gallons of Clorox shrink wrapped together
to my car.
2. Don’t buy impulsively just because it sounds like a good deal. Say
you can get 12 bottles of sunscreen for a great price. Think it through
before you buy. If your family only uses one bottle sunscreen a year,
that means you will be storing sunscreen for 12 years, not to mention
that most of the sunscreen will expire long before then.
3. In most homes one quarter of food people buy gets thrown out. Even
though my story was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, there is a certain amount
of truth to it. If your family of four eats pancakes once a week, that
gallon of syrup is going to last you a VERY long time. You might also
consider that unless dry goods and freezer items are very carefully
stored, they will go bad or get bugs in them. Remember to buy the size
appropriate for your family.
4. You need to be very well organized to buy in bulk. All the shows and
magazine articles about organizing suggest that most of us are
organizationally challenged. Finding places to store everything and then
carefully keeping track of what you have is critical if you want to use
it all before it spoils.
5. Most people usually spend more then they originally planned on things
they don’t need. This never saves money. We taste samples and so often
end up buying. If this is you be careful. Maybe sampling is a bad idea
(unless you’re making lunch of it)!
If you have ten kids, run a day care or are buying for an organization
then you almost have to buy in bulk. If you have a small or average
sized family, you will probably save as much shopping for sales at your
regular grocery store or discount store. The key is to do the math and
evaluate your practical needs. You have to decide for yourself if buying
at warehouse stores actually saves you money or just creates more work.
About the author
Jill Cooper raised two teenagers alone on $500 a month income after
becoming disabled with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. She is the inspiration
behind her daughter Tawra's frugal cookbook
Not Just Beans: 50 Years of Frugal Family Favorites. To read more of
Jill's articles and for free tips and recipes visit
www.LivingOnADime.com/.
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