Joining the warehouse shopping phenomenon

My wife and I finally decided to join the warehouse shopping phenomenon.  We've started this blog to outline our experiences as new members; neither of us has belonged to a warehouse store before (although I have been a guest shopper at both Costco and Sam's Club).

It seems that everyone we know belongs to either Costco or Sam's club; most seem to belong to Costco and I have visited Costco more often than Sam's Club.  Everyone we know raves about the savings and the quality of the grocery items at Costco.  We've eaten the steaks and rack of lamb from Costco and agree about the quality, although the savings were something we had to accept on faith at the time as we had no data to compare.

We've both been skeptical about the savings at Costco, my wife more than I.  Partly because the volume & quantities associated with Costco make the savings somewhat less than transparent.  Instead of buying a traditional sized portion -- pound of ground beef, bottle of lotion, 12 pack of soda -- you're offered 5 pounds of ground beef, a 3 pack of lotion, a 32 can flat case of soda -- at increased prices over what you'd normally pay.  And even if the per-unit prices are better, the quantities involved often represent a storage or spoilage issue.  Even when the pricing is very good, the quantities may just encourage over consumption.

So why did we join?  I encouraged us to join Costco for a few reasons.  I was already pretty familiar with the store by "guest shopping" either with a friend or with a friend's card and the locations are reasonably convenient.  Two, I'm not a fan of Wal Mart and Sam's Club, owned by Wal Mart, has the feel of Wal Mart to me and I know a couple of people who switched to Costco from Wal Mart.

The biggest reason, though, was that when "guest" shopping you can't really get a feel for what it's like to be able to shop there regularly and use your credit card instead of paying in cash.  Since a one year membership is only $50, this gives us a year to pay closer attention to the prices for things we buy, whether the quantities involved offset the volumes often required and whether the somewhat further location is convenient enough to make the savings worth the effort.

More later on the signup experience and our first trip as members.