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Originally Posted by WindyCityzen
Yay! I’m not obsessed but like certain things and the choices it offers. Tires, optician, cheaper gas, and their in-house bakery are other features.
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These are useful things, sure. But how often do you need them, that you'd actually be saving money by paying for a year's membership?
I go through a set of tires once every 4-6 years. I get new tires at Town Fair Tires. They provide free flat service if you buy the tires there, and discounted prices on the tires.
My insurance covers most of my eyeglass prescription every year, I just have to pay the difference (since I wear progressives). The frames are free, once every other year. So it doesn't really matter where I get them from.
If Costco gas is even 5 cents cheaper than Wawa's, it'll still cost me around 30 cents more round trip just to get it at Costco. So my total savings will be maybe 40 cents total, and require almost an hour round trip for the privilege.
Bakery items are great, if I need a dozen bagels or more. For cakes and cookies, I make my own and definitely don't need a 10-pound bag of flour in my pantry, or 3 dozen eggs hogging up space in the fridge, etc. etc.
The only thing I really found use for in the big box stores have been breathe-right strips, oral B brush head replacements, and 40-pound jugs of kitty litter. I can get the breathe right and brush heads cheaper on Amazon and the kitty litter is available at around the same price at Walmart, near my house. So no need to pay a membership fee for that.
Toilet paper is DEFINITELY cheaper when you buy it on sale at non-membership big stores like Target and Walmart, and even at supermarkets. The same with bottled water.
So I just don't see the excitement about these stores, other than the general fun of going there. You don't need a membership card for that, you can just walk in and around the aisles, get your free samples (at BJ's, don't know if they do that in the other ones), and leave with your belly full at no cost to you at all.