The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: Cwadda on March 15, 2014, 10:22:12 AM
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Does anyone have any experience shopping there? I just got a 60 day free membership promotion. I guess it's supposed to be similar to Costco. Anything noteworthy?
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Deceptive title totally tricked me.
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Hahaha. You can edit it if you want.
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They're the closest to us, and I have a membership. Their gas prices are often quite good, and I there are a few items I routinely get when I'm in the area. As long as there's no up charge during your 60 day trial, I see no downside to trying it out.
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I had a free 30 day membership to BJ's and then went for the full year membership. When i got my free trial, they tried to get me to purchase a membership right then at a discount. I didn't but wish I had! I didn't know how much I would like it.
The great thing about a BJ's membership is that you can split it with ANYONE. Meaning, I have a BJ's card, and I was able to give a membership card to someone who does live with me. Costco gives you a second membership card, but it has to be to someone in your household. So, essentially you can cut the BJ's membership in half ($50 to $25) if you find someone to split it with. I also eat mostly organic foods and I have been really pleased with what they have to offer. Gas prices are good too.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any specific questions!
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I'm a firm supporter of BJs. You could say I'm a huge fan.
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Thanks for the responses. What items in specific do you routinely get?
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- Organic Quinoa (3.50 a pound, other places are around 5-6)
- Organic apples (~1.90 a pound)
- Organic herbs (varying prices, but cheaper than you would pay for standard herbs in the store
- Organic lettuce (5 for a pound of spring mix)
- Almonds (I think they're around 4.00 a pound)
- Organic frozen pizza (3 for 11 bucks.. I don't get them often, but if I want pizza, this is really cheap!)
My advice, the first time you go in, budget about 2 hours and just walk up and down each aisle to get a better sense of what they have.
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For those without a membership or even a trial, BJs doesn't require you to show a membership card to enter. You can do all your preplanning with no commitment whatsoever. Granted, I toured Costco with a friend before taking the plunge, but BJs makes it easier.
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Hmmm... Big bags of chocolate chips (can't remember price, but much better than grocery store small bag price), butter (4 lbs at $2.20/lb), almonds ($3.50/lb), walnuts ($7/lb), frozen strawberries ($10/4lbs), Smuckers natural PB ($8.30/2 26oz jars), toothpaste, soap, shampoo (check for coupons near the door), and a couple types of frozen chicken I like that aren't available in regular grocery stores. Milk is $1/gallon less than grocery stores, which sometimes works out.
Prices, of course, vary.
In the middle, they have a lot of seasonal junk and clothes, which may or may not be good deals, but I don't tend to look at that stuff.
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I love BJs, it is like being in the military, the closer you get to discharge, the better you feel.
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We shop there regularly because it's closer to us than Costco. We buy bread, cereal, coffee, eggs, milk, orange juice, walnuts, pistachios and other things for less than we can get elsewhere. I noticed milk is inching up in price, to close to what I can get it at one nearby store. My suggestion is to try it and see how prices compare to things on your regular list. The annual fee is 50 bucks, so you'll want to make sure you're savings offset that. Good luck.
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I had a 30 day trial and most of the items weren't any cheaper than what I would buy elsewhere with a few exceptions. Not enough to pay the annual fee.
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Deceptive title totally tricked me.
Me too! I would think it is very anti-mustachian if those are an expense.
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Deceptive title totally tricked me.
*Blushing* lol... me too ha ha ha... Course ... we don't have a store called BJ's in Canada ...
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I'm a firm supporter of BJs. You could say I'm a huge fan.
(Emphasis added.)
I see what you did there.
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I'm a firm supporter of BJs. You could say I'm a huge fan.
I love BJs, it is like being in the military, the closer you get to discharge, the better you feel.
I use to shop at the one on 69th Street, but then I got married and we dont go to that part of town to often any more...
Good luck... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Ha! All perfect, nice work.
My question is how can I get one of these 30 day trials? That sounds AMAZING, and also quite expensive.
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We buy hamburger, chicken, flour, sugar, oil, milk , eggs and butter plus the occasional treat and cookout paper supplies. All BJS are different. We have 3 different ones within 12 miles so I shop at different ones during the year. Split your membership with a friend if you can. They don't care.
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All BJS are different.
Truth.
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And all men are 12.
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I love BJs, it is like being in the military, the closer you get to discharge, the better you feel.
bj's and discharge shouldn't be used in the same sentence unless you are in a doctor's office.
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And all men are 12.
LOL Not far from the truth...I would love to read the pearls of wisdom the Dalai Lama or Jesus would write in response to the OP....
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And all men are 12.
And some women .... Like me!
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And all men are 12.
Comment not sexist if against dudes?
:P
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Yeah, when I moved to New England and saw the sign for this store for the first time, I was surprised there was enough adult things to have a warehouse store...
that said, I have a membership which is discounted through my work. The store near me is good enough for me to continue my membership but its not as good as Costco where my parents live across the country. The nice thing about BJs is they send out a coupon book every month and have additional coupons in the store when you get there. With the coupons items are definitely a deal, some are still a deal without them but you definitely have to compare.
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BJs also takes manufacturers coupons. I like it better than Costco (now that my teenagers have gone away to college) because I can buy a lot of things that aren't mega sized. Their prices on dairy especially milk can't be beat. No nasty comments, please. It's just too obvious.
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that said, I have a membership which is discounted through my work.
Work subsidized BJs...this member is jealous.
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I don't see why a thread like this is so hard to stay on topic, I expect most people here would be able to handle themselves better.
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BJ's is in my town, and I've long wondered the same. We had an engagement BBQ with a hundred people, and after price shopping, BJ's came up a winner. After price shopping what we eat at home, the regular grocery store did.
Will enjoy following this post on both fronts!
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I expect most people here would be able to handle themselves better.
handling yourself is a poor substitute IMO
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(snicker)
As a foreigner, I have no idea what sort of store BJ's is.
(as an aside, if you ever come to Australia, DO NOT say that you are 'rooting for' such and such a team, as the term has quite a different use)
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(snicker)
As a foreigner, I have no idea what sort of store BJ's is.
(as an aside, if you ever come to Australia, DO NOT say that you are 'rooting for' such and such a team, as the term has quite a different use)
It's similar to Costco. Giant warehouse type store. As an Australian you will be amused to learn we have a candy store called Fanny Farmer. Thanks for the heads up on rooting for. I sometimes play international tournament softball with Aussies.
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I expect most people here would be able to handle themselves better.
handling yourself is a poor substitute IMO
you my friend are a genius! cheers :)
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I expect most people here would be able to handle themselves better.
handling yourself is a poor substitute IMO
One of the rare moments when I miss having a social media-esque upvote system on this forum.
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We live in a town with a BJ's and we have a membership. I usually go weekly but I find myself still getting some core items at Aldi (cheaper). If you have an Aldi I highly recommend price checking between the two. I find milk, eggs, cheese, OJ, frozen raspberries, frozen wild flounder and produce to be much cheaper at Aldi. I tend to hit a "regular" grocery store here and there to get meats when on sale and I stock up.
From BJ's I get:
gas
bagels
almonds
coffee
1 lb boxes of salad/greens
kale
peanut butter
kalamata olives
roasted red peppers
Greek yogurt
frozen wild salmon
frozen wild blueberries
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I expect most people here would be able to handle themselves better.
handling yourself is a poor substitute IMO
I can't tell if people missed mine, or you just upstaged it. Well done sir.
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BJ's are awesome... The store is pretty great too, we got out membership online for half price.
Much better than Costco in the baby department and they carry Perdue chicken and Talenti gelato.
They except coupons, in fact at the self checkout you can use double coupons for the same item, so their already discounted prices become even more competive. If you don't already have a 2% cash back card (we do) they offer a Visa with 2% their and 1% elsewhere. An executive membership that gives you an additional 2% back st BJ's (not worth it to us since we got the cheap membership online).
We have both BJ's and Costco memberships, they are both local and offer complimentary deals and both pay for themselves.
-Mister FancyPants