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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, Interesting) by Rich26189 on Tuesday September 26 2017, @07:43PM
As usual, I read TFS, then the comments and lastly TFA. Mr. Alter, is wrong in many ways and cites examples of his own or his family’s experience that are some what questionable.
We shop at Costco and buy things in bulk such as paper products, as my wife says paper products don’t go bad. We also buy bath soap, laundry detergent, dishwashing detergent and some food in bulk. We use a few shelves in the basement for storage, the total floor space is hardly more than a small closet. How hard is it to store 6 cans of tuna fish?
This guy is whiner. Says that 25 years years ago his dad bought 50 bars of soap then, when his mother passes away recently, there were still some bars remaining. Let see, they went 25 years using less than 50 bars of soap.
Daughter bought dishwashing detergent that smelled ‘toxic’ so it wasn’t used. If it was thought to be bad it should have been taken back to Costco for a refund. Costco is usually good at that at least I’ve never had a problem with them the very few times we’ve had to return something. He also says a lot of it [ products Costco carries] is second rate. I think Consumer Reports did a report on Kirkland products and found most of them to be good products worth the money. Costco buys in such large quantities that is can demand a high quality products from its suppliers.
He says these sores are biased towards certain people and against other people. Wrong, the founders of Costco and other big box store saw a need and found a way to fill/meet that need. There no explicit bias for or against anyone, at least no more than life is biased against those of few means.
At our local Costco some of the customers are actually themselves small business owners, usually small convenience stores or Asian style restaurants (yes, I’m making an assumption) These customers are pushing their purchases out of Costco not using one of the oversized shopping carts usually seen at a regular super market but on one or more pallet carts, those low carts, no sides, 3 feet by 4 feet with a handle at one end and also commonly seen around Home Depot. These people are not gearing up for a weekend BBQ but buying supplies for convenience stores and small restaurants, you know, where the poor people shop, those who live in small dwelling and can’t afford to buy directly from Costco.