MORE FOR YOUR
Money
Big Deal
Shop Smart
Warehouse shopping clubs
can deliver big bargains.
Or drain your wallet.
Here’s how to come out
ahead if you join the club
PHOTOGRAPH BY DARREN BRAUN
BY CAROLINE MAYER
How much does Mary Ellen Ham love warehouse clubs? Let her
list the many ways.
There are the bulk items—the toilet paper, tissues, and paper towels
she habitually stocks up on. The milk and half-and-half, “so much
cheaper than at the grocery store,” she says. Ditto her prescriptions.
And rotisserie chickens. And gas. “It can be 5 to 10 cents a gallon
cheaper than at nearby service stations.”
Ham is such an avid warehouse-club shopper that at one time, she
sheepishly admits, she belonged to all three major warehouse chains:
BJ’s Wholesale Club, Costco, and Sam’s Club. Now she’s down to “just
two” (Sam’s and Costco, because they are closest). She shops in at least
