One day a week we do ALL of our “non-emergency” shopping in 1-2 trips to and from home. Hit the Wal*Mart, Kmart, Target, Home Depot, farmer’s market, the mall, yard sales, grocery stores, as needed. Depending on the sales, we may shop at anywhere from two up to four local grocery stores, plus the farmer’s market, and the odd food item from Target.
Planning out each operation (the “traveling salesman problem” constrained by food spoilage and defrosting considerations) the night before is kinda fun, plus it forces us to put everything on a list, which cuts down on impulse purchases. We have been compiling our purchases on a spreadsheet (in cross-tabbed categories) and can look over weeks, months, and years of data.
Never saw any benefit to going to Sam’s Club, Costco, BJs, or any similar place - the prices are NOT that great, even assuming we used the entire unit purchased (even with 3 kids, this is unlikely for most things). Around Christmas I usually sign up for one of those free 30-90 day trials to poach the loss leaders and similar draws, but avoid the places otherwise and cannot understand why their parking lots attest to such a level of crowding.
Because the majority of people can’t do math in their heads and refuse to even try.
These are the suckers that go to sams club.
Oh, there’s also the unlucky people that live in a neighborhood that lacks a decent grocery store. All they got is a fancy big name store with really outrageous prices.
Sams club beats those stores.