My wife caused a commotion at Sam's

[BTDretire]

 Most of the cashiers and service people at the local Sam's know my wife.
 I'm not sure that's good, maybe she's there a bit to much.
 She has been watching some Pons Summer Fresh Extra Virgin olive oil, it was $9.81 for 17 oz.
https://www.google.com/search?q=pons+summer+fresh+Extra+Virgin+Olive+oil&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
she saw it drop to $5.81, but that wasn't low enough. This morning it
was marked down to $1.81 for the 17 oz bottle. She bought 9 bottles.
Then there was Pantene Pro-V shampoo and conditioner, usually about $8.80
a for the 40oz pump bottle, she found it marked down to $1.38 for the conditioner,
bought 9 bottles and $2.38 for the shampoo, she bought 3 bottles.
https://www.amazon.com/Pantene-Pro-V-Moisture-Renewal-Conditioner/dp/B00DEBW3A2/ref=pd_lpo_194_tr_t_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=QT7M3WSG10H1XHX0CRTR
 She also bought a couple other items that were marked down.
 The commotion started when the sales people started checking her basket,
 they know she finds the deals, she had four Sam's workers looking through
her basket, one ask it there any of the olive oil left, "Nope I bought all there was."
Another ask about the conditioner, "yes, there's more back there" One even
started to walk away with a bottle of olive oil, "she said, hey you can't steal my olive oil!"
 Oh, sorry, didn't know I had it. :-/
 So my wife is all excited about her purchases, and not happy about the sales people
rummaging through her basket to see the deals.

* interesting to compare Amazon prices to Sam's regular prices.
Amazon, not always so low.
 

[Melf]

I didn't realize Sams Club marked down or put stuff on sale like that.  I haven't been in a Sam's in years since we use Costco.

[lukebuz]

Are you sure it's Sam's Club?  I've NEVER seen a markdown there.  Especially not 90%.

[Metric Mouse]

Those are some good buys!

[BTDretire]

Are you sure it's Sam's Club?  I've NEVER seen a markdown there.  Especially not 90%.

 As my wife is telling me "don't give away my secrets".  You never see a "markdowned from $X to $Y".
The price is just lowered with no reference to the previous price. There is also at least one
secret in the price, that let's here know that an item will be lowered soon, if they don't all sell by a certain date.
  She's also bought me slip on shoes at ridiculously low prices, after watching them for weeks.
 She watched the Olive oil from before Thanksgiving.
 

[Shor]

Are you sure it's Sam's Club?  I've NEVER seen a markdown there.  Especially not 90%.

 As my wife is telling me "don't give away my secrets".  You never see a "markdowned from $X to $Y".
The price is just lowered with no reference to the previous price. There is also at least one
secret in the price, that let's here know that an item will be lowered soon, if they don't all sell by a certain date.
  She's also bought me slip on shoes at ridiculously low prices, after watching them for weeks.
 She watched the Olive oil from before Thanksgiving.

Get her super drunk on olive oil one night and extract the secret for us. It's okay, you can trust us.. *slips you a cube of butter*

[DLJ154]

Sam's markdowns are rare but definitely the best you can find.  I once bought four cases of Yuengling Summer Wheat beer.  Never heard of Yuengling Summer Wheat?  Me neither.  But it was $14 per case and is at least slightly better than your average domestic macro brew, so I count this one as a win.

[Dicey]

A little google-fu will reveal Costco's markdown system. Rarely takes that much of a markdown to clear their stuff out though.

Here's one selected at random: http://lifehacker.com/save-even-more-money-at-costco-by-knowing-their-secret-800666594

My brother works at Costco and occasionally scores some great deal because he's there all.the.time. Having worked retail, I totally understand the employee's response. (Except the one who tried to nab a bottle of OO; that sounds shady and kind of far-fetched, but I wasn't there.) Don't forget, the folks at Sam's are part of the evil WM pay structure. They aren't exactly making bank. I'd be inclined to cut them some slack and take it as a compliment. No doubt your wife was thrilled to be getting these deals since she'd been eyeing them for so long. Perhaps they were just feeding off her energy.

If I were in your wife's shoes, I might work a little harder to be friendly with the staff. There might be more deal info forthcoming that way. If she's nice to them, for example, someone might remember there's still another pallet of X up in the steel, for example. Or know what day the Y is going to get marked down. Happens. Pays to be nice.

[BTDretire]

A little google-fu will reveal Costco's markdown system. Rarely takes that much of a markdown to clear their stuff out though.

Here's one selected at random: http://lifehacker.com/save-even-more-money-at-costco-by-knowing-their-secret-800666594

My brother works at Costco and occasionally scores some great deal because he's there all.the.time. Having worked retail, I totally understand the employee's response. (Except the one who tried to nab a bottle of OO; that sounds shady and kind of far-fetched, but I wasn't there.) Don't forget, the folks at Sam's are part of the evil WM pay structure. They aren't exactly making bank. I'd be inclined to cut them some slack and take it as a compliment. No doubt your wife was thrilled to be getting these deals since she'd been eyeing them for so long. Perhaps they were just feeding off her energy.

If I were in your wife's shoes, I might work a little harder to be friendly with the staff. There might be more deal info forthcoming that way. If she's nice to them, for example, someone might remember there's still another pallet of X up in the steel, for example. Or know what day the Y is going to get marked down. Happens. Pays to be nice.

 I'm not worried about the staff liking my wife, she's one of those people that others just take a liking to.
She makes aquaintance with the local homeless and any suit or business owner she sees.
  She's nice, but you don't want to do here wrong, she has long memory. :-)

 I just did a search for Sam's insider pricing tips, and found the secret my wife didn't want me to divulge.
Not that I think it matters, she doesn't like to give away recipes either, just some quirks. :-)
  One of Sam's pricing secrets.
"Make sure you know the insider tips such as buying seasonal items and looking for the price codes. Prices ending in a “1” generally mean it has been discounted and seasonal items are often at great discounts."

[jjandjab]

The shampoo I get - although hopefully it smells nice!

Unless you use a ton of olive oil, it does go bad and can get rancid. If was marked down it might be near the expiration as well. 9 bottles is a lot.

[Dicey]

If I were in your wife's shoes, I might work a little harder to be friendly with the staff. There might be more deal info forthcoming that way. If she's nice to them, for example, someone might remember there's still another pallet of X up in the steel, for example. Or know what day the Y is going to get marked down. Happens. Pays to be nice.

I'm not worried about the staff liking my wife, she's one of those people that others just take a liking to. She makes aquaintance with the local homeless and any suit or business owner she sees. She's nice, but you don't want to do here wrong, she has long memory. :-)

Good to know more. I'm kinda that way myself. I know at least twenty of the staff at my local Costco by name (It's a top ten warehouse, so huge staff, lots of silver badges). I guess I misread your original post...Nope, just read it again. Maybe the disdain for the staff was yours in telling the story, not hers as she experienced it.

[Josiecat]

Why do you need that much olive oil?  It goes bad.

[MrsPete]

Similar story: 

My daughter bought about 18 boxes of cereal at CVS, and between coupons and sales, her total price was something like twenty-four cents.  The elderly man who rang her up was so impressed that he insisted upon pulling out the twenty-four cents from his own pocket. 

That cereal lasted her most of her senior year in college. 

[MrsPete]

Why do you need that much olive oil?  It goes bad.

We use quite a lot of olive oil at our house.  For example, recently we made roasted red peppers and stored them in oil.  They were SO GOOD.  We now greatly prefer BLP sandwiches instead of BLTs. 

On a related topic, they're labor intensive.  I genuinely understand the high price of store-bought roasted red peppers.

[soccerluvof4]

When I shopped Sams before doing everything pretty much now at Aldi's I found mark downs all the time. Having said that I think your DW is a smart shopper and if Sams sees a problem in it then they need to change the way they do things. That though is no excuse for the rude sales people. No reason for that. Kudo's for your DW

[Ben Hogan]

Some of that tactic might work, but are you taking in to consideration items like Olive oil has a limited shelf life? I prefer my food ingredients to be fresh and healthy, and I rotate throguh several types of oil, there is no way I can go through olive oil that quick. Especially since olive oil does not have high boiling point, making it less used for alot of grill and pan fried work.

[With This Herring]

Especially since olive oil does not have high boiling smoke point, making it less used for alot of grill and pan fried work.

Fixed this just to clarify for new cooks.  I'm sure this was just a slip on your part and you already knew this.   :)

[Kiwi Fuzz]

To people saying oil goes bad - you can freeze it. Put some fresh herbs or garlic/chili/whatever into ice cube trays and cover with oil. Voila! Flavored olive oil.

Also, your wife sounds awesome, OP. Don't worry - I won't steal her secrets since I don't shop at Sam's Club.

[Tiger Stache]

So does she go every day, or have some other way to get notified of the deals? Her secret, what is she worried about? There are thousands of stores.

[GU]

Most of the cashiers and service people at the local Sam's know my wife.
 I'm not sure that's good, maybe she's there a bit to much.
 She has been watching some Pons Summer Fresh Extra Virgin olive oil, it was $9.81 for 17 oz.
https://www.google.com/search?q=pons+summer+fresh+Extra+Virgin+Olive+oil&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
she saw it drop to $5.81, but that wasn't low enough. This morning it
was marked down to $1.81 for the 17 oz bottle. She bought 9 bottles.
Then there was Pantene Pro-V shampoo and conditioner, usually about $8.80
a for the 40oz pump bottle, she found it marked down to $1.38 for the conditioner,
bought 9 bottles and $2.38 for the shampoo, she bought 3 bottles.
https://www.amazon.com/Pantene-Pro-V-Moisture-Renewal-Conditioner/dp/B00DEBW3A2/ref=pd_lpo_194_tr_t_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=QT7M3WSG10H1XHX0CRTR
 She also bought a couple other items that were marked down.
 The commotion started when the sales people started checking her basket,
 they know she finds the deals, she had four Sam's workers looking through
her basket, one ask it there any of the olive oil left, "Nope I bought all there was."
Another ask about the conditioner, "yes, there's more back there" One even
started to walk away with a bottle of olive oil, "she said, hey you can't steal my olive oil!"
 Oh, sorry, didn't know I had it. :-/
 So my wife is all excited about her purchases, and not happy about the sales people
rummaging through her basket to see the deals.

* interesting to compare Amazon prices to Sam's regular prices.
Amazon, not always so low.
 

Reminds me of Target, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, etc. employees hoarding the recently (re-)released NES classic.  If you live in a big city or surrounding suburbs, it's virtually impossible to purchase the NES classic at the store, because the staff won't even put them on the shelves. There are many believable reports of the employees buying up all the stock as it comes in and selling them for 2x - 4x the sticker price online. 

[Chris22]

To people saying oil goes bad - you can freeze it.

Yeah but...freeze 8-9 bottles of it?  I guess I could, but..

[Kiwi Fuzz]

To people saying oil goes bad - you can freeze it.

Yeah but...freeze 8-9 bottles of it?  I guess I could, but..

I, personally, don't have the freezer space. But, then again, I don't have the shelf space for 9 bottles of oil so I wouldn't be buying them in the first place. I'm assuming that someone who buys in bulk probably has a chest freezer or some extra space. :)

[AccidentialMustache]

In our younger days, DW and I bought approx 1/4 to 1/2 ton of drain cleaner (Cane Sugar Soda) from Sam's Club when they put it on clearance/sale for $1 per six pack. The minivan was very sluggish on the drive home. We made a Ziggurat pyramid of it in our garage and brought it to parties, had it available at weekly rockband sessions, etc. Lasted us for a few years -- no regrets! Still laugh about the Ziggurat in the garage to this day with friends.

[paddedhat]

Sam's markdowns are rare but definitely the best you can find.  I once bought four cases of Yuengling Summer Wheat beer.  Never heard of Yuengling Summer Wheat?  Me neither.  But it was $14 per case and is at least slightly better than your average domestic macro brew, so I count this one as a win.

It's an amazing company. One side of my family worked the coal mines in Northeastern PA, from the late 1800s until the mines were shut down. There is a famous industrial photograph of my great uncle Paul sitting in the wash shack (locker room) at a mine, next to a wooden case of Yuengling. Even as late as 20 years back, you could walk into a local beer store and find that Yuengling lager was the cheapest stuff in the building. Now it's trendy from the keys to Boston. We snowbird to Florida in the winter, and it's readily available from their Tampa brewery. That said, it just doesn't taste as good to me.

[GrumpyPenguin]

A little google-fu will reveal Costco's markdown system. Rarely takes that much of a markdown to clear their stuff out though.

Here's one selected at random: http://lifehacker.com/save-even-more-money-at-costco-by-knowing-their-secret-800666594

Yes!  I shop at Costco weekly since I live close to one and like to do smaller shopping trips, and I regularly use use these pricing codes to quickly identify potentially stellar deals. 

[partgypsy]

Especially since olive oil does not have high boiling smoke point, making it less used for alot of grill and pan fried work.

Fixed this just to clarify for new cooks.  I'm sure this was just a slip on your part and you already knew this.   :)

Depends on what kind of olive oil you use. A few years ago was at Epcot and the chef there was doing vegetable tempura frying with olive oil. It was delicious. I use olive oil for almost all my cooking so I do go through it, would imagine a bottle (kept out of light and heat) last around 1-2 years. But yeah I wouldn't buy 9 bottles at a time.

[Slee_stack]

Clearance deals definitely occur at Sam's club.

The latest I've picked up were 16oz bags of 'Lara Bites' for $0.91 and some fancy garlic pickle two packs for the same price.

I tend to buy what I honestly think we'll use and enjoy.

I do have a pet peeve against those who clear out stock on a deal 'just because' and/or try to resell stuff.  I get that one CAN do that, but just think people SHOULDN'T.  Don't be overly greedy and leave some deals for others.