Wholesale Clubs are not my bag! (this post explains why)

I signed up for a BJ's Wholesale Club 60 day pass, and I have been to the store three times so far. The first trip was just to look around, and the last two to shop.

I initially went in to find a chair and a lamp for my wife, and I quickly found out that shopping at a wholesale club is a lot like shopping at Building 19. (a store that sells insurance recovered merchandise and has the motto GOOD STUFF CHEAP) The problem I have with both of those stores is that you just can't reply om any pasrticular thing being in stock. (except for perhaps food)

My wife and I went in to BJs on another occasion when we were looking for an electric blanket for my daughter. They had them, but only in King and Queen. (the selection was nil too)

Then, tonight I went in looking for a battery for my daughters 1998 Jeep Cherokee. There is not much special about that battery, except that BJ's simply didn't have anything like it in stock.

I skipped over to Walmart, and they had three batteries that for the Jeep and I had a choice.
(and the prices were better on batteries in general)

My point is simply that it seems that BJ's (and probably all the clubs) are not general merchandise shops....they carry a lot of very popular things, but they are lacking of many of the less mainstream items. (and sizes)

Besides, I am more of a bargain shopper. BJ's does not seem to have sales...and I thrive at searching out sales. I think lazy shoppers might benefit from "club" shopping.....but I find it even a bit boring.

Such is life......

Cheap Knock-off Music Player on EBay saves me Ca$h!

Up until about a week ago I was the happy owner of a Creative Zen MP3 player that I used to listen to music and Podcasts. (not in that order though!)

Well, last week it simply stopped working. I suppose I probably manhandled it at some point in the past, and it's disk probably just decided it was time to die.

So I decided two things.....these things were "throw-away" items....and I wasn't going to pay much for the next one! (and even then, I wasn't going to have a disk drive in it!)

So I stated looking on the net and found these cheap Chinese players on EBay, and I decided to take the chance. (since they were 4GB and could be big on for less than $65 including shipping)

I thought I would take the chance on it since a 4GB iPod is quite a bit more money, and I have no interest in getting a proprietary iPod device. (the 4GB nano costs $199, and I don't think it does video....and I think the 4GB Creative MicroPhoto, which does photos but not video, but still has a disk costs about $179 now)

So I bid and won, and I've only just begun playing with it, but it sure seems pretty cool....it looks like a USB disk, so you can load it with anything from music to spreadsheets if you need 4GB space to carry things.

Also, it is an MP4 player...which means it plays video as well as all kinds of audio formats! (video requires conversion which is NOT a fast process)

Ok...so the tools used to organize my music don't seem to come with the machine....but I can use cut and paste with the best of them, and for only $60...that I can do!

There are several of these units on EBay as I type this....check them out, they may be useful.

My first real purchase at a Warehouse "Club"

This isn't meant as an ad for BJs, but just a description of how this 47 year old did something absolutely new today.

Ok...so my "first" was not all that unusual....or outstanding, but I actually experienced something I had never done before, and I had to BLOG about it. (what was this exciting moment pray tell???)

My wife and I actually did some shopping at a warehouse club today....BJs to be exact.

I have never owned a membership, and never been with my mother who used to have one from time to time. I always had mental pictures of warehouse purchases as having to be tractor-trailer load sized. (large yes.....too large, not at BJs)

So we went in just to look around, and pick-up some bananas.....which we did, but while we were looking around we saw so many other cool and affordable things. First there was the large container of Olive Oil that I just have to have.....then the industrial sized box of Oregano. (I can't have enough of that for sure) Then there was a great deal on pistachios, which I had a craving for!

These items did have a great bit of savings on them....and I look forward to trying the place out again in the next 40 or so days.

In fact, holiday time is probably an opportune time to take advantage of some of the "try-us" shopping days that these clubs offer. BJs offers a 60 day free trial, and I believe Sams Club gives out "Try us FREE for a day" cards.

Shopping these clubs isn't for everybody, but there does look to be savings to be had if they carry what you want and you shop there regularly.

Staying Crowd Free on Black Friday

So today was Black Friday....a day that people ventured away from the Thanksgiving dinner table to become fanatic Christmas shoppers!

This is normally the way it is today, and when I drove my daughter to work at about 5:30am today, it looked as though it was going to happen yet again.

People were lined up at Best Buy, Target, Circuit City, Office Depot, Toys-R-Us, even Radio Shack......everywhere! The line were around the building in most cases.

I had decided that I would drive away from the crowds and check out the very same stores away from the malls. I figured that because I would be starting my shopping a little "late" I may not end up with the "treasures", but I would at least not have to fight the crowds. (and I figured tha either way I would come up empty handed.)

So I drove away from Nashua toward Londonderry where I first stopped at Radio Shack in Hudson. It was about 7:00am and the place was empty. I thought they had not yet opened, but they were open since 6:00am. I might have been the 3rd person in the store! Alas, all the early bird specials there were mine!

So after I got everything I wanted there I then went to Staples up the street in Londonderry. (NOTE: I'm not going to tell you what I bought at any point here because I do have gift receivers reading my BLOGS!) Much to my surprise, it was about 7:20pm and they had everything I wanted too. (except the laptop that was on sale)

I was actually too productive in my shopping.....I actually bought my wife too many gifts! (and I have still to buy one gift for one of my daughters)

I then went to Sears Essentiuals in Londonderry....picked up some Halloween Candy for $0.09 a bag and a couple of other small items....but I actually had no plans for that store, but I was making such good time that I needed to stop just to "slow down" a little.

I shot over to Bensons Hardware and then VIP Automotive and bought my wife a few more things, and then stopped for stamps at the Post Office. (I was so succesful in my shopping that I had a boat load of rebates to send in....and BTW, let me go on record saying that the Staples "Easy rebate" system is just fantastic!)

After noon I ended up circling back down to Nashua where the huge lines were at 6:00am...and I found very few people.....certainly not the huge crouds of 5:00am. What gives?

The stores were just a little messy, but not the normal "black friday"mess with items all over the floor. I saw stores with a large number of store employees sort of hanging around.

My daughter said that the store she worked at was busy at first, but the crowds lessened withing a few hours. Could this shopping day have been a dud?

I worry for the economy if it was because if retail goes the way of houses, we are in a bit of a bind.....too many things slumping at one time.

But then, according to this article, Black Friday isn't the huge shopping day that the news makes it out to me.....all hat, no cattle I guess.

But still....we will see if the rest of the country is acting like the Nashua, NH area....very conservative to buy this year!

Black Friday Ad Sites

Wow...talk about specialized web sites.....here are three sites I found that post Black Friday sale ads for both online and store day after Thanksgiving bargains.

As I understand it, the "Grand daddy of them all" is BFADS.NET. They break the savings up by storefront and then by product.

The next site is blackfridayads.com, and like the first store, they provide links right to the online site where you can add the item right to your shopping cart.


Then www.theblackfriday.com seems to focus on scanning the sales fliers of the stores they list. At least this is what I found with Staples.

Review: BJs vs Sams vs Costco

Bottom line question.....would shopping at any of these places save me money? Also, did I like one place over the other? I went out for a few hours seeking these answers today.

It all started when my wife gave me a coupon from BJ's that would give us me a 60 day membership there. (I say ME because while the paid membership gives you two cards, this 60 day free membership is locked to a single shopper....because they put your picture on the card) So while I knew I was going to take advantage of this trial BJs membership, I thought I would stop in at Sams Club as well as Costco which are all down the street from each other here in Nashua, NH. (Living in southern NH is great....we have more stores than we would normally have because the "sales tax-free" shopping of New Hampshire attracts so many people from Massachusetts)

I do have "some" experience with club shopping, though I myself have never belonged. It has probably been about 4 years since I stepped inside one of these places, but I must say that today they all look about the way I remember them. My wife had a card for her school when she worked at Presentation of Mary Academy, but she didn't shop there for home things...and that was also a few years ago too. (I believe my Mother in-law might have a BJ's membership...but I am not sure)

When I say they all looked as I expected, I don't mean to suggest that the three clubs each don't have their own personality....they certainly do. But they also seem to have a lot in common. I was actually surprised at now much food areas of each of these places sold. Between junk food, auto stuff and electronics.....there was little room for anything else. (they had "good" food too....and at what looked like good prices....but they serve a ton of snack food and pastry...I guess this is what people buy)

But in terms of access to the general range of things, I didn't find the store to be as interesting as a Walmart of Target. They all simply seemed to have tons of certain things, and then it seemed catch as catch can for the rest. (I guess I remember a lot of clothes too.)

In fact, I was actually looking for a lamp for our bedroom, and I was very disappointed to find that none of the three stores had ANYTHING interesting! (They had small desk lamps...maybe one or two at each place.....but only Sams had a single tall floor lamp)

I also went from store to store with a few "items" in mind as I was going to benchmark between the them. The items included the following:

• Block of Cheddar Cheese (2 pounds or more)
• HD TVs
• Laptop Computers

These items seemed to be popular things at all three stores, also being front and center in all three. I was going to try and benchmark them by price, but this turned out to be impossible since the brands and items varied from store to store. This means I would have been comparing apples and oranges. (BTW: All three DID in fact sell apples and oranges, I should have compared those! :-)

All I could notice is that on these sort of popular high volume items, all three stores carried say three price/feature bands of product.....like a $700, $1100, and $1500 laptops of several different screen sizes.

SO DID I LIKE ONE CLUB OVER ANY OTHERS:
So my comparison is not so much based on particular items as opposed to general impressions, and my general impression started off with thinking there was a lack of selection, even in the more popular items. Yes, the selection is perhaps as good as any department store besides Target and Walmart, but since I would be "tied" to the store because of my membership, I wasn't comfortable with that. (though I was shocked at how many different digital cameras that Costco had....it almost seemed that they had as many as Hunt Photo, and at very good prices.)

If I were to pick one out of the three, I would go with Costco. I liked the selection a bit more, and I actually "liked" the massive size of the items available. All three had bulk packages of things, but Costco seemed to take that to the extreme with many things. (how about a 50 pound bag of sugar or two gallons of Mayonase!)

The people at BJs seemed to be friendlier, and more willing to help....and while all three had that warehouse "feel", Sams Club seemed to be almost out of control in terms of being messy. (but then the Walmart next door is similar too)

But remember....my review above might only be valid in these particular stores...and even then, I might have hit a particularly good or bad work crew when I went. I like the idea that BJs has to give you the 60 day trial shopping with limitations. I think Sams also has some sort of "one day" memberships.....but Costco seemed almost militant about even letting me go in without a memberhip card. I needed to "register" and get a pass to even look! (I was stopped at the door on the way in.....don't they think people come in to compare?)

Representatives at BJs and Sams Clubs gave me the pitch, gave me a sizable packet on their membership benefits and answered all my questions when I asked.....Costco was a bit different. The guy there simply have me a very thin flier and told me to look online. (not a very appealing sales job...and I had read online about how Costco employees are more motivated and friendly...I didn't see that, but maybe it was just the particular crew I ran up against)

WOULD I SAVE MONEY WITH A MEMBERSHIP:
First of all, it seems to me that warehouse shopping just doesn't fit our needs. The cost of membership needs to be considered, and while there appears to be savings to be had, unless we either buy everything there or we have our eyes on some bigger ticket items we would probably lose out. (and even the big ticket item argument might be dampened because of the limited selection and the ability to perhaps buy those on "special" at a regular store.....like buying last years lawn mowers at the start of snow season)

In fact, this was something I wondered....do these clubs ever have "sales" to move old models? (That's where a lot of savings can be had, and this I just don't know)

I guess general prices are a bit cheaper than just buying "off the rack" at department stores....but perhaps NOT if you look around and shop a bit. For example, the Microsoft Zune player was $239 at Costco....and it was $249 at Target. (but Target was giving the buyer a $25 gift card for the purchase...so it was LESS)

As I said before, I actually like the idea of bulk shopping for many items, but not everything, and this would mean that our shopping effort would be going up rather than down....and this is worth something too. If you had a situation with a bigger family or perhaps a business where you had a pretty constant volume of purchases of particular items....it seems like a GREAT idea. (Another example, I have a couple of older printers, and they just didn't carry the toner I needed)

So I will probably use my BJ's membership as much as I can over the next 60 days, and unless a bolt of lightning comes down hitting me and somehow really enhancing my shopping experience...I will probably let my membership lapse.


BOTTOM LINE:
There certainly is decent savings to be had, but you have to "fit the mold" in order to realize it.

Check it out yourself....here is a coupon for a 1-day BJs membership. (hunt around, you might find coupons for the other places as well)

Check out other people's reviews too on BJs, Sams Club and Costco.

Wow, what a great FREE Cell Phone Driven service for buyers! (www.FRUCALL.com)

Wow, I came across this Yahoo Finance article on a Comparison Shopping service that can be accessed by calling on a cell phone.

I've tried it...and it works great! (and best of all, it is totally FREE!)

You go to the web page:
http://www.frucall.com/ (BTW: The FRU in the name stands for "Frugal")

You create an account with your name, email address and cell phone number and then when you call the phone number 1-888-DO-FRUCALL (1-888-363-7822) and key in the 10 or 12 digit bar-code...a computer generated voice attendent gives you comparative prices right then and there! (including shipping costs, and the place they are referencing which seems to be online stores)

It works incredibly well....try it yourself!