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chhotiiDoes a membership at Costco or some similar warehouse store makes sense?
It seems silly that week after week, I buy things like boxed mac & cheese, pasta, rice, canned soup, canned green beans, etc. For these relatively non-perishable things, I would think that it would make sense to buy some utterly humungous supply (6 to 12 months' worth) at once. That way, during my weekly grocery run, my load is lighter and more manageable; and when things get crazy and I don't shop, there's always meals from canned and boxed stuff to fall back on. (And, I actually do have room in the apartment to store such stuff. Cabinet space that is too high up for regular usage, but reachable for storage; the ends of a couple of deep closets.)
If I am going to do the occasional humungous non-perishables run... It seems like it would be worth it to drive to wherever has the best prices for large quantities of stuff.
This brings up the idea of warehouse stores. One cannot just show up at Costco and shop, though; the website specifically says that only members are allowed to buy things. (!) BJ's has a membership policy, too, I believe, although they send me the occasional free trial membership card. (Although I may not have one of those in my mailbox that hasn't expired, so that may be moot.)
So, why would it make sense for any kind of retail store to say to anyone "no you can't buy anything, you're not a member"? I'm sure they would like you to believe that the reason is that you're actually getting some of the stuff at below their cost, thus non-members would be freeloading. I can think of a couple of other reasons that would be less positive for the member, though:
1) If you've paid for the membership, you now feel that you HAVE to shop there enough to justify having paid. Thus people who have paid for the privilege to shop at a store will tend to shop at that store more, and buy more once they are there, than those who haven't (and thus more than is economically optimal for themselves).
2) If you've paid for the membership, you're less receptive to information that might indicate that Costco is not, in fact, a good deal. (People tend to shut out information that causes cognitive dissonance, and it causes a lot of cognitive dissonance to believe that you've been had.) Thus you'll shop there more and buy more because you really believe the prices are better due to this filtering.
So... it could be that going to Costco is insane. You pay $50, and then, sending good money to chase after bad, you pay to buy a bunch of stuff that you didn't really need or which goes bad because you over-bought. On the other hand could all these people who do join be wrong? Also, sometimes people find spectacular stuff at Costco, such as boxes of Tasty-Bite chickpea packets, which I've had trouble finding. (OTOH I should look in the Indian grocers for that.)
Has anyone actually done an analysis? Should I just go to Market Basket and fill the cart to capacity, or is it actually worthwhile to go to Costco for the mega-shopping trip?
It seems silly that week after week, I buy things like boxed mac & cheese, pasta, rice, canned soup, canned green beans, etc. For these relatively non-perishable things, I would think that it would make sense to buy some utterly humungous supply (6 to 12 months' worth) at once. That way, during my weekly grocery run, my load is lighter and more manageable; and when things get crazy and I don't shop, there's always meals from canned and boxed stuff to fall back on. (And, I actually do have room in the apartment to store such stuff. Cabinet space that is too high up for regular usage, but reachable for storage; the ends of a couple of deep closets.)
If I am going to do the occasional humungous non-perishables run... It seems like it would be worth it to drive to wherever has the best prices for large quantities of stuff.
This brings up the idea of warehouse stores. One cannot just show up at Costco and shop, though; the website specifically says that only members are allowed to buy things. (!) BJ's has a membership policy, too, I believe, although they send me the occasional free trial membership card. (Although I may not have one of those in my mailbox that hasn't expired, so that may be moot.)
So, why would it make sense for any kind of retail store to say to anyone "no you can't buy anything, you're not a member"? I'm sure they would like you to believe that the reason is that you're actually getting some of the stuff at below their cost, thus non-members would be freeloading. I can think of a couple of other reasons that would be less positive for the member, though:
1) If you've paid for the membership, you now feel that you HAVE to shop there enough to justify having paid. Thus people who have paid for the privilege to shop at a store will tend to shop at that store more, and buy more once they are there, than those who haven't (and thus more than is economically optimal for themselves).
2) If you've paid for the membership, you're less receptive to information that might indicate that Costco is not, in fact, a good deal. (People tend to shut out information that causes cognitive dissonance, and it causes a lot of cognitive dissonance to believe that you've been had.) Thus you'll shop there more and buy more because you really believe the prices are better due to this filtering.
So... it could be that going to Costco is insane. You pay $50, and then, sending good money to chase after bad, you pay to buy a bunch of stuff that you didn't really need or which goes bad because you over-bought. On the other hand could all these people who do join be wrong? Also, sometimes people find spectacular stuff at Costco, such as boxes of Tasty-Bite chickpea packets, which I've had trouble finding. (OTOH I should look in the Indian grocers for that.)
Has anyone actually done an analysis? Should I just go to Market Basket and fill the cart to capacity, or is it actually worthwhile to go to Costco for the mega-shopping trip?
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Date: 2013-07-31 01:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-31 02:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-31 03:22 am (UTC)This is because they were originally geared only to businesses. My mother was a pretty early member, because she ran her own stained glass business, and thus had a resale license. They offer a CostCo American Express card. I find that canned Cokes are cheapest at CostCo. And that's mostly the only thing I buy there. On the other hand, my CostCo runs take around 10 minutes, and everyone else's take hours.