Anyone else developed a warehouse store mentality?
 

I think it was around 1990 BC (Before Costco)... I'd go to the grocery store and buy a 4 pack of Charmin and a roll of Bounty - if they were on the list.

A few days ago I found myself in the garage getting panicky because there were only 7 rolls of toilet paper and three rolls of paper towels left.

There must be billions of dollars worth of inventory hanging out in the garages, basements, and pantries of America.

AFAIK, good Mormons are always supposed to have a year's worth of food & supplies. A recent Mormon-raised ex- GF tried to get me hooked on Costco, but I'm not the type who sleeps better at night knowing I have 24 rolls of TP in the house.

I think you're right, that there is a 'warehouse mentality' and it's driving suburbanites to buy 3-ton SUVs to shuttle their mass quantities home from the store.

Curious about the psychology here. How many of the current parenatal generation have had parent that were frugal or more resposible consumers. Seems to me this "generation" is going against what their parents practiced.

Stuff mart.

Obviously the whole idea behind the warehouse stores is frugality. But what's funny is that I bring home 12 rolls of Bounty without really knowing for sure that I've saved money over buying a single roll at the grocery store.

I buy my toilet paper by the 36-roll pack and paper towels by the 12-roll pack. For me, it's not about saving money, but about always making sure I have toilet paper and paper towels. If I don't have to buy it every week, it's one less thing to forget.

Toilet paper is like beer.

You'll use it eventually.

I AM THE GREAT CORNHOLIO!!!! do you have TP? TP for my ... Uh Beaviiisss, don't make me smack you!

We're born, raised, educated and conditioned to be "consumers"...Oh. God! They can do what ever they want with us!
(Belch water and moon floss being perfect examples)

Think of all the time and gas money you save...
...going to Costco only once every 10 yrs. to buy that 5 gal. bucket of capers.
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One of my ex-g/fs went to Spenders Anonymous (she was always in debt).
They told her, "NO, NO, NO...stay out of Costco!"
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I think it's a great place to shop.
8 yrs. ago I bought a Honda 3500 watt generator for $1,000, they had 3 left.
Manager said they "HAD" to get rid of them ASAP...Honda dealer network was pitching a fit.
'Should have taken all 3.

I think it is great to go to Sam's only twice a year. We stock up on paper goods. My wife does the weekly shopping at local stores (Sams is cross town) and generally buys, for instance, a case each of things like tomatoes, chicken broth, etc. But, she cooks everything from scratch and doesn't like to run out in the middle of a recipe.

Nonono....
"Shop Smart. Shop S-Mart"

My wife and I shop and Sams and Costco. Mostly because when she cooks, she doesn't know when to stop. Maybe that's why I've put on 75 pound since I've known her.

Screw that!...Sam's and Costco are the devil!...:mad:

But for less than $2 for a gallon of milk at Sam's when Safeway is $4, I'm going to Sam's.
Five pound block of Tillamook cheese for $12 vs. $20 at some other stores...I'm going to Sam's.

Good price on the Till. cheese. :eek:
Ever try their white cheddar in that black wrapper? Yum.
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I'll look for a Sam's club around here.
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I shop at Safeway when they have their 2 for 1 dealios.
I buy Langer's 1/2 gal. grape juice on 2 for 1.
'Bought 12 jugs last time.
It keeps.

If the retailer can convince you to buy one big package each month instead of a smaller package each week, he has saved on his labor rate and you're not taking up space in his store just buying a few items. The labor savings continue at the front end, where a single check-out person can whip $200 worth of stuff into a few bags (or just apply stickers) so fast it hardly seems like you're spending money.
I really don't like getting my exercise by pushing a huge cart more than a quarter mile around a warehouse store. I like shopping each week at my local store, where the owner and his staff know me by name and remember what I was looking for last week. I guess it's a small-town kind of thing.
Les

And as far as the bulk thing goes, I once opened the fridge and found a 1.5 Gal jug of hot dog relish. How long would it take for a family of 4 to consume that?:confused:

Along similar lines, who has more than 1 refridgerator? I'm not talking about a second one just for beer/soda, I mean an actual 2nd fridge for food/milk/whatever. We have 2 and the both stay mostly full.

There is a Costco just opened 2 miles down the road I travel every day (when home) so its not out of the way. No need to "stock up" as its nearby.

Their fuel is the cheapest in the area, usually by .10c a gallon and thats hard to beat.

What I've found is that I buy the 12 pack box of Oreo cookie tubes at Costco and they are gone 10 days later. I gained 20 lbs 1 month.

I'll go with someone who has a membership if I need something I can't get someplace else (like that heavy duty shelving) but I refuse to pay a $50 (?) fine/membership fee just to give them my business.
-Chirs

Does it? I can say with a degree of certainty that:

- Prices are not always cheaper at warehouse stores

- One may intend to buy one or two items but will typically walk out with many more. (Loss leaders pull you righjt into that electronics isle...."Hmmm, the price on that LCD monitor has to be better here...gotta get it now before it's gone") Notice they intentionally don't have an Express chek-out lane.

- Purchase items in great excess never to be used (Relish example above)

The warehouse retail model is the perfect fix for the overconsumer/impulse purchaser.

A certain amount of self-restraint is necessary. But for paper goods, coffee, peanut butter and other staples, you can usually save a couple of bucks. You can also get pretty good meat cheaper. It's vacuum-bagged from the packer and requires a bit of trim work, but I've had pretty good luck. Baby back ribs for $2.59 as opposed to $4.59 at the supermarket.

5 Gallon bucket of capers...Mmmmmm......

I'm with you, Les.
That's why I do not like the Wal-Mart "shopping experience", all that Wal-Mart stands for, and that it raises hell/destroys the small-town shops and atmosphere.
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Costco gas:
Same here, Joe.
Local Costco gas center has 20 or so pumps...the lowest gas prices by far.
Especially good when my employees and I fuel-up 3 dual tank trucks.
For some reason, Costco doesn't negatively hit me like Wal-Mart.

I agree with the Wal-Mart thing...Always impresses me as a lowest common denominator sort of thing that sooner or later will wind up like a wolf in a trap gnawing its own paw off...

I shop the supermarkets as opposed to the "Big Box" stores. I used to do Costco, but after too many times grocery shopping and coming home with a saltwater rod/reel combo that was "too good a deal to pass up" I figured I really wasn't saving anything.

Naahhh, only after you reach your credit limit.

Agreed. (love the steaks there)

FWIW, my blanket statement doesn't cover every shopper. But it does speak to the "Warehouse store mentality" that is obvious.

They are masters of conditioning.

One beautiful tactic is to instill the thought that an item will likely not be here the next time you visit (and many times it's not). You'd better grab it before someone else does!.....wether or not it's been available for quite some time you never know when it'll disappear, never to be seen again.

My 98YO grand mother in-law stock piles tea bags. She lived in the UK through 2 world wars and probably still thinks when the Germans get here there will be none left.

My mother on the other hand grew up in post war Germany. SHe stockpiles spuds, TP, leftovers - NOTHING gets thrown away in her house. You orta see her fridge.

LOL...
My mother is German.
Fridge is so loaded you need a map to wade through.
Every square inch of her kitchen walls are loaded with stuff.
And she saves everything - buttons, small pieces of fabric, etc.
A German thing, I guess...or maybe due to living through the Depression.

Man, my wife and I are cheeseaholics. In our fridge right now is...
5 pounds Tillamook,
5 pounds Mozzarella
1/2 pound Chipotle Cheddar
1/4 Benning Goat Cheese from Holland
1/2 Gorgonzola
2 1/2lbs Black Diamond Extra Old Canadian cheddar
1/4 McCadan Horseradish cheddar
1/4 Meyenberg Goat Cheddar
1/4 White Stilton Blueberry Elnish somethingorother.

and miscellaneous cream cheeses and other crap I probably can't find.

My favourite of all the Cheddars is probably the Dubliner Irish cheddar. Try it. It's good..sharp..has a nice bite...

OMG that's a lot of cheese!

I do the Costco thing and it rocks for certain stuff but typically I only go once every month or two when I know I need something specific (batteries or a mega-box of Cheerios for example) and in those cases I wander the aisles looking for other deals opportunistically. Sometimes yard tools, sometimes pool toys, clothes, books, whatever...

Call me paranoid, but personally I kinda have a habit of keeping large amounts of food, provisions and ammo in the homestead these days. Some of it is packed for travel. Between earthquakes, terrorists and race-riots I think any SoCal resident is in denial if they do not think this way to some degree, and the warehouse stores are good for 'stocking up'.

Balls, man...got enough cheeses there? :)
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Dubliner Irish Cheese
A welcome addition to any cheese plate, this Dubliner cheese goes perfectly with a crusty loaf of bread and a hearty stout. It has a consistency similar to a Cheddar, but is a sweeter cheese, and a nutty aftertaste similar to a Swiss.

Sounds good to me. I'll look for it.
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I like the soft stinky cheeses, too. Also, a good Jarlsberg.
I buy huge slabs of Romano at Costco...break off a hunk 'n nibble while watching TV.
Also, shred Romano on pasta with just butter 'n garlic, salt/pepper.
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ps Isn't Tillamook right up there near you? I hear they make great ice cream.

I found it - at Costco last week...a 2 lb. block didn't last long. $4.99/lb.
Wrapper says "Kerrygold" on it. Mabye the farm?
Dubliner, with a natural hint of sweetness.
Thanks for the tip - most excellent...I'll go back for more.

:)

Perhaps those of you who think four peole is a large family, have never met 6's, 8's - even 17. With how much we had growing up - going every day for small things at small prices we'd of not made it. We brought weat by the TON, and made our own bread from it just to give an example. It lasted a long time - and it wasn't a "warehouse" mentality - it was survival. We couldn't afford much, and had to find somehing realy low cost. The barrels loaded with wheat sacks worked.

Mother still has has a 6 month supply of tea and TP in the basement. I thought this funny until I was about 16 and realised she lived through WWII in London. One other kid in the neighborhood had a basement like mine, his mom from Berlin!

Costco rocks.