Today is Blog Action Day. This relates to one of my little concerns - the environment.My radical idea for the day is to ask you to boycott Sam's Club and Costco. Reason? They promote you to spend more than you would otherwise. Do you really need two closets worth of toilet paper?
Sam's and Costco always ask you to buy way more than you would normally buy - and sometimes at more per unit cost than your normal supermarket!
One example of saving money is our "budget health food chain" - Sunflower Market. Their produce and meat prices are often way cheaper than Sam's and Costco.
I realize that for a large family like my friends the Wilsons, it makes total sense to shop at Sam's and Costco. But if you don't shop for a large family, consider the savings you'll make by having less of everything in your house.
And please don't take me as being critical of you if you're a Sam's/Costco devotee. I just like to give people a chance to consider something they may not have before.
By the way, this week I will be blogging less than usual. I'm in Dallas for some meetings with my work, and my internet access is limited. Also, my schedule is a little quirky.
2 comments:
Bravo on noticing that costco often doesnt have the best price, although they like to fool you with the massive quantity. they do however, place a price per quantity on each price placard (e.g. $0.0655/ounce).
Stockpiling for the sake of stockpiling is bad, but there are good things to get at costco:
Cheese - Costco has excellent global shoppers and this means you can get really great european cheese for much less than most local stores. e.g. $12 can get you nearly 2lbs of Spanish Manchego at costco or about 1/2lb at Kroger/King Sooper.
Alcohol - Giant bottles of gin! but the price is actually pretty good, considering that colorado doesn't have any giant liquor megamarts like Bevarages and More, which can lower the price by buying stock in bulk and pass those savings on. Unfortunately mom and pop liquor stores have to buy smaller and tend to mark up more. Costcto tends to be cheaper for the hard stuff, but expensive for wine.
tires - Costco frequently has discount rebates on sets of 4 tires which lowers prices even further. On top of that, they have free road hazard warranties which they'll honor at any costco. Run over a nail on your next road trip? Put on the spare and have your tire patched free of charge at the next Costco you drive by. Irreparable tires are replaced by new ones, you only have to pay the pro-rated cost.
nuts - Fancier nuts like pecans, pine nuts and macadamia are quite pricey in most grocery stores. Costco generally sells double the quantity for the same price... just be sure to use them because pecans, pine nuts and macadamia nuts are high in oil content and go rancid.
Hmmmm, I wonder if Sam's/Costco might actually be a positive on the environmental scale.
Unless you walk or bike to the grocery, taking fewer trips in which you buy a larger quantity of goods should result in a smaller carbon footprint, right?
And it might be possible that a closet sized package of toilet paper actually has a higher toilet paper to packaging ratio than the equivalent quantity of four-pack packages?
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