Anyone belong to these store "clubs"? We're trying to decide whether or not to join one...the annual fee is only like $30, but I know you've gotta be aware as to what the REAL good deals are...not everything is a bargain...

Just wondering if anyone's had any experiences, good or bad....

We used to belong to Sam's Club and you could get some really great deals there. What made us stop using it though was that the nearest one to us was 50 miles in either direction and not in towns where we went to regularly enough so the cost in fuel wasn't worth the savings for us. But if there's one local to you then I think they're definitely worth looking into.

Hubby and I are with Costco. I have a membership card I never use. Renewal fee is around $50 here. Haven't been to a Sam's Club yet.

I've had both......they are ok if you like a 10 gallon jug of mayo or catsup. :)

We are actually members of both Sam's Club and BJ's Wholesale Club. We get free membership at Sam's through my husband's brother, but we use BJ's more because it's closer to us. I actually like BJ's meat selection much better than Sam's or a regular grocery store - and no, you don't have to buy meat in bulk!

I LOVE the clubs. Even if you don't buy the big quantities of things, you can't beat their prices on books, electronics, movies, games - pharmacy! Oh and gas - we get our gas at one of the clubs. It's usually several cents cheaper there. We actually bought some of our furniture at BJ's. Hubby has also bought me some jewelry from there that is excellent quality and is gorgeous.

It depends on what you are shopping for I guess. I wouldn't trade our membership for anything personally, but we use it all the time.

Every now and then, the wholesale clubs offer a 30 day pass - you could always try something like that and see how you like it before you pay for a membership. We definitely make up for the $30 membership fee each year.

Hmmm, never bought jewellery at Costco yet....

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We shop there quite frequently....

Dog food, hamburger, lettuce, soup, pizza, clothes, DVD's, diapers, Buttwipe, Papertowels, etc.

I hate paying that annual fee, but think it probably washes out with the bulk savings.

If we had a bigger house (a place to put all the super size stuff) and it was closer, we'd join Sam's Club. We mostly only bought Starbucks, frozen shrimp (which we get at the butcher now), and diapers. We just don't have the room to store large quantities of stuff.

That was the other problem we had. We couldn't stock up too much because we had no where to store stuff at our house.

That's kinda what got me thinking about it....now that we're in a bigger house, I've got some room...I'm thinking like laundry detergent, toilet paper, paper towels, and stuff like goldfish & pretzels for Andie...snack stuff.

You can browse in there before buying a membership .... do you know anyone who has one? They can give you a guest pass and you can get in and even buy stuff on it. My in laws used to belong to Sam's Club and my parents too. I think its really of better use with a bigger family though because everything is sooooooo huge!! We used to buy my husband razor blades there because you can get 20 in a package and normally you can only buy them 5 at a time. If you have room to store things it might be useful to you though..... I would do the math first though :bike:

My SIL and also Ty's parents are members of Costco, so we could go & check it out one day....I need to write down the cost/unit of stuff next time I'm at the grocery store so I can compare....