I wonder how warehouse club membership stores fare in your country. Are the annual memberships worth it? In the past decade, some multinational businesses opened a few warehouse club stores in our country (Philippines). People flocked and bought products by the bulk only to realize that the discounts close to none and consumers were just forced to buy bulk items in favor of the business owners. Most of these businesses have closed down eventually. Do you have warehouse memberships? Are the discounts in your area really huge? If you are a single person is it still worth buying in bulk?
For me, no, they're not worth it at all. We've only went a handful of times in the past year that we've had a BJ's membership, so we're not even really covering the cost of what the membership was. Luckily that was free for us (it was a gift.) They also have a money-back guarantee which we'll more than likely as for since it doesn't seem worth it. For most people, if you spend some time couponing, you can probably save the money that way, than paying for a membership and trying to decide which price is better. The only thing I've found to be cheaper there is paper towels, toilet paper, and sometimes cleaning supplies.
Oh yes, we love Sam's wholesale. From bulk grocery store items to kitchen small appliances to electronic's, we have bought at Sam's. I'm not big on clothes from there, they don't seem true to size and seem a bit lacking on the original brand even tho it may be a pricier brand originally, such as name brand shirts shrinking. But we have bought underwear. I was considering buying a Dyson vacuum cleaner from there but went with QVC online for that eventually.
My sister (and brother-in-law with two daughters) is a member ofLog In, and I went with her & the girls to the Sam's Club yesterday. Not a member, I didn't buy anything myself (except for a slice of pizza from the Cafe); but that was enough to get a link to a survey, which made me wonder about the prospects ofLog In. My grandparents (on my mom's side) had 7 kids, so 'buying in bulk' was a practice/policy that they passed-down through at-least two generations. I'm not sure how 'big' the discounts are (although it's sometimes more-efficient in general ... packaging a bunch of the product with about-the-same amount of material that would otherwise package just one). Being single & living alone, it would only be 'worth it' if what you're buyingLog In and if you're buying enough of those things to warrant the trip. If you decide it's 'worth it,' there areLog In (Sam's Club & CostCo are /*dave*/'s examples, but maybe similar strategies work elsewhere). According toLog In, warehouse-clubbing gets you-good deals on burial-caskets, beer, designer-watches, televisions & tires and -bad deals on diamonds & appliances; and Kiplinger's also outlines the other factors you should take into consideration when deciding whether-or-not to join (besides theLog In).
