I have to agree that people should check the prices against other stores. Not everything at a warehouse club is cheaper and it is foolish to tie up money buying in bulk if it doesn’t save money.
I have never, never, never found a single store that has the lowest prices on everything. This is why, if you’re going to save money at places like this, you have to know what’s a bargain.
For instance: we prefer the Del Monte sliced peaches in a jar to the ones in a can (they’re much better, and the jar is re-closeable; such a deal!) They are significantly cheaper at Costco than at the supermarket. Canned soft drinks, OTOH, not so much. Costco is pretty much the same, price-wise, as whatever sale my local Kroger is running, plus Costco’s selection sucks.
Before I started getting pretty much all my meats from Angel Food, I bought a lot of meat at Costco.
The nice thing about buying Coke at Costco is that its always the same price - I do better if I buy it at the grocery store when its on sale, but when it isn’t on sale at the grocery store, Costco is cheaper.
We’re not particularly brand-loyal in this house; Kroger always has either Coke or Pepsi products on sale, and I’ll buy whichever it is. Problem is, the hubby likes the Diet Vanilla (Coke or Pepsi; he doesn’t much care), and you never find that at Costco!
If both Coke and Pepsi are too pricey at Kroger in a particular week, I’m not above buying the generic, but just never generic diet cola, which is nasty. Generic diet root beer or generic diet cream soda is fine, though.
True, but our Safeway now sometimes has awesome prices on Coke if you buy 5 12 packs, so we stock up. The trick with Costco is also knowing the sales cycle and price at the grocery store, and buying stuff which is cheaper at Costco. Paper towels, tissues and napkins are good for us, as are the above mentioned pot pies, which are about a third the prices of the ones in Safeway even when on sale.
However Costco has some stuff that is just plain good on its own. Their crusty bread is great. They have this frozen salmon which is both convenient, cheap, and tasty. They’ve got pretty good pastrami in big tubs. It takes me two weeks to go through it, but it is still better than anything in the grocery. I’ve got a lifetime supply of electric toothbrush heads for a very good price.
Alas, the only Starbucks beans they have are French Roast, which we don’t like.
It is so awesome that it manages to be both of three things. Now that’s somethin’ you don’t see everyday! 
Yeah, I won’t stock that much pop in my house - eleven year old boy in the house who would live of Coke and Chips if he could. So its one case at a time - or at Costco a flat of it. So I don’t choose to be at the mercy of the grocery store sales cycle.
We will hit Costco every 6 weeks or so- with a list in hand, just as if we were hitting the grocery store. It is the best solution for almost anything that is going to have a decent shelf life or is going to be consumed reasonably quick- and you would be amazed at the shelf life of some things. When we first joined there we made a list of the common products we would buy, and compare them to what we would spend at Target or Kroger. Most stuff was a significant savings- especially health and beauty aid stuff like razor blades, toothpaste, etc… The meat prices and milk prices are not great there compared to specials we can get on meat at Kroger, and we don’t generally go through produce as fast as it would take to make it worthwhile there, but on stuff for the kids’ lunches, it is great.
We go to Sam’s club every 6 weeks, give or take.
We don’t usually buy meat & produce there, unless it’s for something specific, like a party, since we don’t go through it fast enough & don’t have enough freezer space to keep much extra. Plus, we have a butcher who’s prices are almost as cheap for better meat. If we’re having a party, we’ll buy alcohol there, but we don’t go out of our way to go there to just get a bottle or two of wine.
Mostly we buy: toilet paper & paper towels, toothpaste, body wash - stuff that we use often that won’t go bad. It’s nice not having to worry about buying that stuff every couple of weeks. Also, I love their rotisserie chickens, which are about $2 cheaper than the ones at the grocery store, and better.
The best single bargain was probably on a Cuisinart coffee pot, I got for about $40, which retails for about $100 normally. It wasn’t an impulse buy, just good luck, since I needed a new coffee pot and it was the one I wanted anyway.
The single best buy I’m still kicking myself about passing up: the entire series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD, for about $50. IIRC, they also had the entire Angel series.
ETA: Also, if we’re going to buy a game console or accessories, we usually check Sam’s first, it’s usually at least a few bucks cheaper than other places, though not always.
OTC meds, Muscle Milk Light individual serving size boxes, bagels, lettuce, toothbrush heads, makeup remover face wipes, a giant box of lactose free pills, shampoo and conditioner, contact solution, etc…
My boyfriend’s mom is the member, and he has his own card, and we go perhaps once a month. The best buys for us are the face wipes, contact solution, and Muscle Milk light - which doesn’t come in individual boxes outside of Costco.
I can see how it’s easy for people to get carried away at a place like that, but we also don’t go during the mad cow rush weekend time, so that probably helps.
Do you happen to live near Meijer’s? I caught a sale on generic Zyrtec at 300 for $32 - so much cheaper than everywhere else I wondered if it fell off a truck.
We have a Sam’s Club membership (free because we are on the in-laws business account), but Fusion razor blades are about 40% cheaper than anywhere else. Oral-B toohbrush heads are about the same. Vitamin supplements (at least fish oil, niacin, ginkgo biloba) are all about 25% cheaper than elsewhere.
I don’t find their DVDs to be great deals - places like Target will usually be much cheaper during the first week of release. After that they (Sam’s) are marginally cheaper, but not great. There will sometimes be good package deals like the Buffy/Angel one mentioned before, but finding those is utterly random.
Except now Costco is feuding with Coke and is not selling Coke products.
We go to Sam’s Club about once or twice a month. Most of the time, we save money that way, but we only buy certain things in bulk. Specifically, we buy things we can freeze (mostly meat and frozen foods) - but we have a huge deep freeze so it is not a big issue to store meat for a while before we use it. We also get cleaning stuff there and sometimes laundry supplies. In addition to that stuff, we buy dry goods (noodles, rice) and paper plates/trash bags, but we have the space to store them. Also, diapers and pull ups are usually cheaper. Sometimes we buy stuff just because it is a deal, but only if we will use it. I got a nice backpack for $6 and use it for work on a regular basis. We’ve also bought clothes for our son because they were decently priced, and specifically kids coats are usually a bit cheaper there, and there is sometimes more selection. I don’t recall ever buying anything big there myself, but my parents always shopped there once a month so I will ask them tomorrow.
Also, every time we go there, we also stop at the regular grocery store for the things we need that are not in bulk. From my house, it is 35 miles to Sam’s Club, and 32 to the first real grocery store (Krogers) so if we go that far, we may as well shop a little for the cheapest…
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