More is Better?

Everyone loves sales. I remember going to the grocery store once and seeing a bright, fluorescent yellow sign that enticed shoppers to buy 10 packages of Pringles for 10 dollars. Buying a single package would cost you $1.50 (or somewhere in that ballpark) but! Buying ten packages meant you only had to pay a dollar for each package. True, each package costs only a dollar but are you really saving much by spending 9 more dollars for a package of Pringles that would cost you less if bought individually? 10 packages of Pringles, that's...a lot of Pringles. I guess the real question is, is buying in bulk cheaper? Better?

According to a CNN article, many consumers are turning to big warehouses like Sam's Club and Costco to buy items in bulk and save bucks. From http://www.soundmindinvesting.com/ a majority of the items bought at Sam's or Costco were indeed cheaper. A box of cereal that costs 20 cents less at Sam's than at a grocery store may not seem like much. But that 20 cents can save you $208 dollars a year, $208 that can be used to pay bills or a number of other things. But with shopping in bulk comes a price. There's not a lot of variety of items at warehouses, the quality may be dampened somewhat, and it could potentially be bad business for all of the local grocery stores. And what about the items that aren't unperishable? Then there's also the problem of storage. However, buying in bulk in general means saving gas (you don't have to make as many frequent trips) and you can save time for other more valuable activities such as spending time with family.

In either case, buying in bulk has both its ups and downs but it's an option to consider.