There are many great bargains to be found at your local warehouse club. You can almost always save money on gasoline, medications, tires, alcohol and gift cards while shopping at your neighborhood BJ’s, Costco or Sam’s Club. In fact, if you’re going out to eat at a chain restaurant or considering making a purchase from the iTunes Store or the Google Play store, you should buy a discounted gift card from your warehouse club and use it for immediate savings.
However, not everything at these stores is a guaranteed bargain. Here are five items that you should avoid purchasing at a warehouse club:
— Brand-name items
— Fresh fruits and vegetables
— Spices
— Media such as books and Blu-rays discs
— Printer paper
Read on for additional information about getting the best deal on each of these products.
[See: 10 Expenses Destroying Your Budget.]
Brand-Name Items
The store-brand items at warehouse clubs — Member’s Mark at Sam’s Club and Kirkland Signature at Costco — tend to be high-quality products for the price, often exceeding name-brand quality. For example, in a side-by-side laundry detergent comparison, Consumer Reports found that the quality of Member’s Mark Ultimate Clean and Kirkland Signature UltraClean laundry detergents were in the top tier of laundry detergents along with Persil Ultra Clean, Tide Ultra and Tide with Bleach Alternative, but cost only a fraction of the price.
When buying name-brand items at warehouse clubs, the prices are often on par with what you would find at a discount grocery store. The store brands, however, tend to be good bargains, providing good quality for the price.
[See: 50 Ways to Improve Your Finances in 2019.]
Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
Warehouse clubs offer good prices on many things, but you’re often required to buy food items in bulk. If you’re buying fresh fruits and vegetables in bulk, there’s a good chance that some of those fruits and vegetables spoil before you ever get a chance to use them.
Unless you’re planning on preserving some of what you buy by freezing, canning or drying it, or you’re following a diet that involves a lot of fresh foods, fresh fruits and vegetables aren’t a great bargain at warehouse clubs because they may go to waste.
Spices
Spices suffer from the same issue fresh fruits and vegetables do. While you can get a good price on an enormous container of a particular spice, seasonings degrade over time, which means that if you buy a jumbo container of oregano, you won’t be able to use it before it expires. Later on, that old tin of dried oregano will be seriously lacking in flavor.
Unless you’re cooking up a large batch of dishes using a particular spice, avoid the jumbo purchases of those spices at the warehouse club and buy them in smaller containers at your regular discount grocer.
Media such as Books and Blu-ray Discs
While you can get a solid price on media at warehouse clubs, prices on most media items are still higher than what you can easily find at most online retailers. You should check for prices online before buying media at your local warehouse club.
One great strategy is to download the Amazon app onto your smartphone. When you’re in the warehouse club, use the app to scan the book’s barcode and see if the item is significantly less expensive online.
[See: 10 Foolproof Ways to Reach Your Money Goals.]
Printer Paper
While it can be tempting to buy a large quantity of printer paper at a warehouse club at what can seem like a good price, you can usually stock up for much less by signing up for the email list at your local office supply store.
A few times a year, office supply stores will send out a rebate on printer paper, which drives the price of a bulk purchase far below what you’d pay at the warehouse club, and that’s the best time to stock up.
A bit of smart shopping at your local warehouse club can save you a lot of money, but knowing when to shop around can save you even more.
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5 Items to Avoid Buying at Warehouse Clubs originally appeared on usnews.com
