My blog contains a large number of posts. A few are included in various other publications, or as attached stories and chronicles in my emails; many more are found on loose leaves, while some are written carelessly in margins and blank spaces of my notebooks. Of the last sort most are nonsense, now often unintelligible even when legible, or half-remembered fragments. Enjoy responsibly.

Monday, May 29, 2006

Entry for May 29, 2006

I haven’t been to one of those warehouse clubs in awhile and I was amazed to see everything that had changed since my last visit. Where there was a once good deal in almost everything is now either cheaper, lower quality versions of good quality merchandise sold elsewhere or stuff sold in such bulk that you fail to realize that it’s the same price as other stores who don’t require such large purchases. The only truly good bargains were milk, gas, and tires. Everything else broke down to the same cost per ounce, serving and article as the same things in smaller packages or quantities at other stores that don’t require a membership and a human-drawn oxcart to buy a box of cereal.

So the question I posed to myself when I was leaving empty handed was, “Did something change or was I just caught up in the ‘it’s bigger therefore it’s better’ hype?”. And of that, I do not know. It is my hope that over the last couple of years the market has adjusted a bit and the prices are now fairly identical across the board. But in all reality, I probably just never did the math. Either way, I will not be returning to any membership based club unless my yearly intake of milk, gas, and tires increases to a level high enough so offset the savings with the $35 yearly membership fee.

No comments: