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The entire big box economy is a big honking subsidy to people with cars living in the suburbs by the poor, the singles, the seniors, the urban, the cyclists.
It only works because of the highways and the parking lots and the infrastructure paid for by everyone (road taxes do not cover the cost of the roads) and enjoyed by the drivers. The companies charge twice as much for small packages as big ones because they can; the purchasers without cars and access to the big boxes, the ability to drive between the Walmart and the Costco and the Price Club, don't have a choice.
Read on for Treehugger's reasons. Is bulk buying bad after all?
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Does Buying in Bulk Save Money, or is it a False Economy?
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(Score: 3, Informative) by goodie on Tuesday September 26 2017, @01:43AM (1 child)
Alright, I did not RTFA and I don't care to after looking at the comments so this comment probably digresses off topic. To me, arguments about toilet paper etc. make no sense because those products have virtually no expiry dates. If you have the space and the will, do whatever the hell you want (ok I do chuckle when I see people come in with 4 carts that they fill with the same item :D). You can argue that you save on transportation costs, packaging etc. so you could probably argue that it's good for the planet (tm)!
Bulk purchasing is more delicate when you deal with perishable foods (cue the muffin trays at Costco!). For example, I buy only a few items at Costco: organic olive oil (2 liter bottles, because I use quite a bit for cooking), toilet paper, paper towels, as well as a few other items (e.g., organic flour which they finally have in large bags at my location). I don't buy my meat there unless I have say a barbecue over the weekend and I know that I will go through it all. At some point, I did buy perishable items and would make portions, bag and freeze. Did I save money? Hard to say to be honest, between the freezer bags, labor etc. It's like everything else you buy: sometimes you'll get a good deal, sometimes you won't. You just have to know and over time, you know how much something will be worth in 2/3 places and can decide on the spot. Fruit I can definitely say I wasted money. We like to eat a diversity of fruit so buying a 5 kg bag of oranges is a waste of money for us, especially since the items are in a closed package and you can't really pick. I like to hand pick my fruit and veggies, call me weird.
Now, a new practice that "fancy" grocery stores around my house have been using for a year or so is the infamous "$2.99 for one; $2.50 each if you buy 3 or more". Often, I go to these stores when I am in need of something and I need it soon. In those instance, I know I will get ripped off so I do ask myself whether buying 3 items would make sense to bring the price closer to what I'd pay in another store. BUT, the caveat is that in the other store, I would have just bought 1 item, not 3... So now I would have to figure out where to store the stuff, make sure we eat it before it goes bad etc. So I just tell myself fuck it, I can afford the extra $0.50. It's a waste of money but I've had shelves full of stuff that I never ate in the paste so now I consider that it's not money saved, it's waste avoided more than anything.
It also happens that sometimes the bulk item is more expensive per lb/qt or whatever then individual units that are on sale on a given day. Some places give you a price per unit on the label (in very small letters). Check those out if you haven't, it gives a completely different picture of the pricing structure or multiple items, it's quite interesting actually.
And remember: just because they stick a fat label on the display, it does not mean that it's cheaper. Stores love those fake sales. They discount 1 item of which they have low stock and keep others at the same price (after inflating the price so that it now looks cheaper). If you do the groceries every week, you become immunized to these scummy tactics. When my wife comes with me to the store, she thinks stuff is on the sale when it's actually more expensive than it usually is. Marketing's a bitch!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday September 26 2017, @11:51AM
That's our experience also. We switched the family to a ketogenic diet a year ago because I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes. My dad died from a diabetic coma so it gave us the push we needed to switch to a healthier way of eating. So, basically, you can eat meat and veg. No carbohydrates or sugars at all, no artificial sweeteners beyond Stevia or anything that will monkey with your blood sugar.
So when we go into Costco now, we buy as you do, the olive oil, the TP, paper towels, the coconut oil. Everything else seems like "poison," "poison with nuts," "glazed poison," "crunchy poison," "poison with poison sauce," "dried poison," etc. There's very little that's healthy there. And you look at the customers in the aisles, who are struggling with their weight, and the connection seems obvious: The bulk stores are selling obesity.
Washington DC delenda est.