costco, sams club, amazon? others?

[mistymoney]

Wanted to ask about your comparison shopping to get the best deal/best impact for you purchases. I try to avoid amazon for multiple reasons, but it keeps coming up as a convenient source.

If you only use online - would costco or sams club nenbership be a good addition to search for stuff? I likely wouldn't go to a physical location as they are not conveniently located, costco I might go sometimes if I had other errands a bit nearer to them. They aren't too far - but like a 30 minute drive. If I go to within 10 minutes doing other things, I might stop by.

Anything else I should put on my radar?

[Dicey]

We're diehard Costco fans. There are a few things we like at Sam's and it's a less-hectic shopping experience. When we see a sale on a Sam's membership, we'll buy it in one of our names, then we let it expire. Next deal, we buy it in the other's name. We don't like Sam's enough to own a continuous membership. Ours doesn't have a gas station, and they've stopped selling propane tanks/refills, which used to be a great buy.

Funny, I just ordered some socks on Amazon this morning, because I wanted to buy exactly what I wanted and not have to go out and shop for them, plus their price was excellent.

To your list, I would add Grocery Outlet, especially on Senior Day. I also check out the Costco Returns store occasionally, but only if I'm in the area.

I will miss the 99 Cents Only Stores to my dying day. This is primarily because I used to be a vendor and earned a lot of money selling to them, but I also loved being their customer.

[rosarugosa]

I am another big fan of Costco.
During some recent home projects, I found that a lot of the smaller items I needed were available from Target online at competitive prices to Amazon, and with free shipping over $35. 

[solon]

I am another big fan of Costco.
During some recent home projects, I found that a lot of the smaller items I needed were available from Target online at competitive prices to Amazon, and with free shipping over $35.

You're a fan of Costco, so you shop at Target because it's just like Amazon?

[jrhampt]

I am a massive fan of Costco but I don't find their website to be the easiest to use.  I will very occasionally use the website to shop for things like large appliances, though, and they are usually lower priced than other places.

[Dee_the_third]

I know it’s annoying but you have to compare for the things you buy.

I’ve found that (surprisingly) on a per unit basis a lot of things are cheaper at Trader Joe’s for me.

Oats, some chicken cuts, dried fruit, and eggs are substantially cheaper at Costco for me- but that’s little help if you’re vegan, for example. Dairy is only marginally cheaper and in some cases actually more expensive than TJs.

If you’re on the fence, there’s a promotion ending 8/4 for Costco right now for a gift card with your membership: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/costco-membership-deals-get-40-giftcard-more/amp/

Edit to add: this is also highly regional, in Illinois I did all my shopping at Meijer and Aldi but those aren’t options in California.

[roomtempmayo]

Costco's website works for things you want to buy and then pick up in-store (laptop and tires for me so far this past year), but it doesn't provide any stock information for specific stores.  So it really doesn't allow you to comparison shop for everyday stuff like groceries.

Target has live inventory and pricing, as do all of the big supermarket chains now.

I think it depends a lot on what sort of purchases you're making.

[rosarugosa]

I am another big fan of Costco.
During some recent home projects, I found that a lot of the smaller items I needed were available from Target online at competitive prices to Amazon, and with free shipping over $35.

You're a fan of Costco, so you shop at Target because it's just like Amazon?

Hmm, not exactly.  I was trying to make two separate points there and maybe I did not articulate them very well.
I certainly shop at more than one place, and Costco is an important one.  However, they do not have everything I want or need.

Like many folks, I'm not necessarily enthusiastic about Amazon, but I still use them a lot because they're so easy (admittedly lazy on my part).  But I recently found that Target online offered some comparable products at comparable prices, so that was an alternative to shopping at Amazon.  I also often check eBay since many small vendors sell various new items through eBay; it's not all auctions of vintage items.

[J.P. MoreGains]

I've always liked Walmart... unfortunately they are getting rid of the Capital One Walmart card which offered 5% on all purchases through the app - so pick up groceries or whatever from the store would be 5% off if you ordered it on the app. Plus I have the walmart+ membership which is like prime for deliveries although that 5% is where I really found the value.

The other thing not to overlook for certian things is Dollar Tree. I don't get much there but there can be a big impact in savings for example:
- mouthwash $1.25
- sunscreen $1.25
- medicines like tylenol, cremes, etc. at $1.25 plus small quantities so I don't waste it - I have so much expired medicines because the quantities are way larger than I need
- soy milk $1.25

So on a few key items there can be really big savings. I mean even at Walmart mouthwash and sunscreen are dollars more expensive than that price. So i just strategically shop there for certain things.

[crocheted_stache]

Costco here, largely because the nearest one is very close to home. I don't know offhand where the nearest Sam's Club is, but I'm sure it's not that close. We shop almost exclusively in person. Their online ordering is working after a slow and lackluster start, but we only use it for occasional special order items. Because we concentrate our grocery spend at Costco, it makes sense to have the Costco Citi card. We buy relatively little of the non-grocery stuff Costco sells (tents, tables, televisions).

We just ordered a modest selection of stuff from Amazon. It's all stuff we don't expect to find locally. This time, the order included a less common size of bicycle tire. We just let the non-urgent stuff accumulate on the list until there's something we want more immediately, usually getting over the shipping limit in the process. Then we remove anything we don't still want and order the rest as a batch, taking care not to sign up for anything extra. (They're really making it so you have to try to not get the free trial of Prime.) Such orders might happen twice a year for us, depending.