Are Price Clubs a Better Deal? – Supermarket Savvy
5 Comments | Written on May 7, 2012 at 9:00 am, by Rachel Achmad
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When I tell people that I write about savvy shopping, one of the most frequent replies is, “But isn’t it just cheaper to go to a price club?” My answer is not necessarily.
To help you make this comparison for yourself, the fabulous blogger over at QueenBee has put together a price list of Costco prices. In general, her findings confirm what I maintain: while price club prices are certainly better than paying full price, you can often do better by combining sales and coupons at your grocery store.
Price clubs are a great solution, however, when you’re in need of something and can’t wait for a stock-up sale price, or when you’re too busy to deal-hunt. I’ve been there. I worked full-time when my twin daughters were babies, and I certainly didn’t have time to spend couponing and deal-hunting. Then, a price club was my solution for the massive amounts of formula and diapers I needed. Being able to go get all my baby supplies at one stop was immeasurably cheaper … it saved my sanity, and I didn’t have therapy bills! Now, though, since I have more time to hunt for deals, I can usually find sales that are better than price club prices — especially because I don’t have to pay an annual membership fee.
You find the best deals for your family when you factor in not just price, but also time and convenience. Shop savvy, but always calculate in dollars and sense.
Shop smart and save! Check out more tips on couponing and savvy shopping!
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Save Money, Save Time | Tags: Beef, Casseroles, Chicken, Mexican Taco Dishes, Quick and Easy
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5 Responses to “Are Price Clubs a Better Deal? – Supermarket Savvy”
The biggest problem with Costco is their large quantities. It’s just myself and my wife now, and we can’t buy huge amounts of everything at one time and store it. We have a tiny house with little storage, but we own it outright.
I have let my Costco membership expire and I coupon shop now. It’s worked out well for us.
With Costco, you also have to take the membership fee into account. I went as a visitor last year and was definitely not impressed.
Here in Canada, we have The Real Canadian Wholesale Club, which is called “Cash and Carry” in some places. They do not charge a membership and they’re geared at small businesses that spend less than $1000 per order – not enough to justify delivery trucks. BUT they are open to the public! The regular prices are generally 10-50% less than the grocery store, and they have good sales.
After shopping there for the last year or so, I’d never even consider Costco.
To address a couple of the points Karen brings up:
1. Where I live, the grocery stores automatically double the value of all coupons up to 99 cents. You are absolutely right that this is NOT the case everywhere, and it is harder to get such good deals in those areas. I apologize, I should have mentioned that.
2. Re: pricey ink and paper to print coupons. First of all, I usually get my printer paper for free by, you guessed it!, couponing! Staples runs regular rebates and deals. I print everything in black and white, so I don’t use my pricey color ink. And more and more frequently now, I can use coupons on my smartphone, so very soon I suspect we won’t have to print coupons at all.
To Mia – thanks! I totally agree with all of your points.
To you both – thanks for reading and commenting!
Well, I’ve been shopping Costco since they began – when I had 4 kids and even now that we are retired. We shop there once a month and fill in what we can’t get at Costco at WalMart and it works fine for us.
A lot of you who are super coupon shoppers are getting double coupon offers. I don’t know where you are getting those – we never see those in Texas. And my problem is the cost of ink you use to print those coupons to say nothing of the paper!
I find that using coupons for name brands doesn’t save over Costco, nor does it save much over other brands that are just as good and less money. Many of the Costco (Kirkland Band items), are made by one of the name brand companies anyway so it’s cheaper and just as good.
Costco offers a coupon book every month. I stock up on their coupon items. I can’t imagine what I would spend at a big name grocery store if we weren’t using Costco. The trick to Costco, is taking a list and sticking to it. Don’t get roped in to all the other stuff they are promoting.
Thanks for this article. I also learned valuable coupon/shopping tips from my mother when I first started doing grocery shopping for her. She was a woman who knew how to get the most for her money & was doing the coupon clipping long before it became so popular.
One, just because you have a coupon or something’s on sale, doesn’t mean you should buy the product. Only clip coupons for products that you use, or products you want to try. Two, your time has value–don’t waste it by driving all around town to get something a few cents cheaper. This is especially true with the increasing cost of gas.
Third, and I think this is something that really gets overlooked, is that some stores that may have a reputation for being expensive, actually aren’t. In the overall scheme of things. Their prices are comparable, they may have/usually do have better customer service, and sometimes you just have to pay for that. It’s all a part of your time time has value.