I Hunted Down The Cheapest Warehouse Store For You

Posted by Steve Rhode
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Recently I wrote an article titled Sam’s Club, CVS, Walmart, Lowes Food & Food Lion – Who Has The Best Prices?

The winner of that survey was the warehouse store, Sam’s Club and that got me wondering how Sam’s Club prices compared to other warehouse stores. So I got back in the car and went shopping and Costco and BJ’s Wholesale Club.

In case you are not familiar with a warehouse store it is a store where people have to usually pay a membership fee to gain entrance (unless you just ask for a one day pass – shhh). These stores look like giant warehouses with rows and rows of tall steel shelves that are loaded with good on pallets by forklift. Usually on the floor level or first shelf are items consumers can place into their shopping cart. Merchandise usually includes everything you would find at a typical grocery store or mega store like Walmart, Super Target or, you know.

I realize that I’m publishing this article five days after the first one but I did gather these prices the very next day. I just needed a break from writing about bread again.

Costco

Bread
No Wonder bread
Gallon of Milk
Whole – $3.29
Skim – $2.79
Large Eggs
18 Count – $4.39 for 36. Only sells in two 18 packs wrapped together. ($2.20)
Paper Towels
Bounty Select-a-Size 12 rolls, 880 square feet $18.39 ($1.53 per roll) ($0.020/sq ft)
Toilet Paper
Charmin Ultra Soft 937.5 square feet 30 rolls $20.59 ($0.67 per roll) ($0.022/sq ft)

BJ’s

Bread
No Wonder bread
Gallon of Milk
Whole – $3.39
Skim – $2.98
Large Eggs
18 Count – $2.49
Paper Towels
Bounty Select-a-Size 12 rolls, 704 square feet $18.99 ($1.59 per roll) ($0.027/sq ft)
Toilet Paper
Charmin Ultra Soft 889.5 square feet 30 rolls $18.99 ($0.66 per roll) ($0.021/sq ft)

Sam’s Club

Bread
Wonder Bread 2 pack of 24oz loaves – $3.32
Gallon of Milk
Whole $3.29
Skim $2.79
Large Eggs
18 Count – $2.15
Paper Towels
Bounty Select-a-Size 12 pack, 880 square feet – $17.58 ($1.45 per roll) ($0.019/sq ft)
Toilet Paper
Charmin Ultra Soft 36 rolls 854 square feet – $18.32 ($0.51 per roll)($0.021/sq ft)

Results

The results got a bit complicated since two of the warehouse stores did not sell Wonder sandwich bread so in this survey I’ll have to declare Sam’s the winner. I’m going to include Costco and even though they only sell double packs of 18 count eggs, I’ll divide the 36 count price.

I agree that this is a comparison of a select brand of goods. I chose these items for two reasons, they are things we have to use in our everyday lives and I picked widely known name brands that would be available, hopefully everywhere.

The square feet per pack is also an important factor to consider when shopping. If you looked only at the number of rolls in a pack of paper towels rather than the overall square feet in a similar count of rolls, you really can’t make a good comparison. Just look at the price difference per square feet of paper towels between BJ’s and Sam’s, that is a significant difference. In fact, BJ’s was the second most expensive store for paper towels when you add in all the stores I shopped at in this article and the first article.

The Least Expensive Place:
Bread – Sam’s Club
Milk – Sam’s Club – Costco
Eggs – Sam’s Club
Paper Towels – Sam’s Club
Toilet Paper – Sam’s Club – BJ’s

The Most Expensive Place:
Milk – BJ’s
Eggs – BJ’s
Paper Towels – BJ’s
Toilet Paper – Costco

So based on the results of this survey and my comparison of grocery stores, I’m shopping at Sam’s Club to save the most amount of money.

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