The popularity of warehouse stores has risen greatly over the last several years. Since it is possible to join many warehouse stores for a nominal fee, for people who shop at warehouses regularly, the cost of the membership can more than pay for itself. There are a host of things to look at when trying to consider whether shopping at a warehouse store is a real money saving practice or not.
There are, however, important things to consider before deciding to purchase a warehouse store membership. Here is a look at some of the things to consider.
*Where the warehouse store is and how far you have to go to get there –
If you can drive a short distance to a warehouse store, and it isn’t any more inconvenient or time consuming to drive there than it is to drive to another store, then that may be something that makes it more worthwhile to shop at the warehouse store. If you have to drive a long distance, unless you are buying a lot, or buying quantities you can’t get elsewhere (and those quantities will save you money – even when you include the cost of gas,) then you may be no better off for shopping at a warehouse.
*How much you have to spend in gas to make your purchases and whether the amount you spend on gas will cancel out the savings –
If you are going to have to drive 25 or 50 miles each way to shop at a warehouse store, consider how much you are spending on the gas to drive both ways. If you are going to have to fill your gas tank every time you go to a warehouse store, and the store is significantly far away, then you really need to consider what it is you are getting, and how much you would pay for the same or comparable products if you were to purchase them locally. If you can shop at a warehouse store with a friend or family member who will share in the cost of the driving and gas, then maybe you will be purchasing enough and saving enough on those purchases to make the membership worth your while.
*How often you are going to the warehouse store and how much the membership is and whether the cost of the membership will yield significant savings –
If you use the warehouse store as a way to buy certain things in bulk that you can’t purchase elsewhere, and you don’t go there that often, or purchase that much when you do go, are you really saving that much money when you consider what you have to pay for your membership? These are things you need to ask yourself and think about carefully. There is no point in making frequent or infrequent trips to a warehouse store to make purchases when the amount of money you have to pay for that membership is going to cancel those purchases out – unless of course, there are other things you can get at the warehouse store that you can save a lot of money on. Some warehouse stores have great prices on things like eye glasses, electronics, clothing, high quality household stuff and other things that will more than compensate for the cost of your membership.
*What you are buying and are you buying things that you can’t get elsewhere?
Think about the things you buy at the warehouse store. Are you purchasing things that you can’t get elsewhere, or that you can’t get for the price that you are paying for them at the warehouse store? Don’t forget that you also have to pay a membership fee and this should be factored into the cost of your purchases when you are calculating your savings.
For large families, or for people who need to buy certain things in quantity, or who use the shopping trip to a warehouse store to buy other things, then maybe there are benefits to shopping at a warehouse. If you are able to shop at a warehouse store and are able to shop for things that you’d have to shop for elsewhere, then perhaps the distance you’d drive would actually be worth your while. If you can drive a distance and shop for everything in one store, then that trip may save you both money and time. The more you can get done in a single trip, the more time you’ll have to do other things.