Are Warehouse Stores Good for Single People?
When BJ's offered me a $10 membership, I had to find out for myself
If you’ve been to the grocery store lately, you’ve likely had some sticker shock over the last few months, with your dollar buying less and less.
As a single person, I generally shop once a week, buying mostly basics — coffee, eggs, vegetables, almond milk, some protein (usually fish or chicken), a bottle of wine, and a little treat (currently I’m on a probiotic soda kick). No matter what I buy, my bill is usually about $120 a week.
According to a USDA chart published in USA Today, that’s beyond the high range of a single woman’s food budget, which should be between $56 and $94 per month.
When I received an offer from my bank to join BJ’s Membership Club for $10 for the year, I jumped on it. I had avoided membership clubs, mostly because I didn’t think I had use for giant pallets of toilet paper and cases of canned soups. But, intending to save a few coins, I decided to give it a try — especially since there was a location just two miles from my condo.
My first impression was just the massive amount of consumerism — this place had to be a few hundred thousand square feet of merchandise ranging from big screen TVs to towels to giant boxes of family-sized snacks and cookies.
My goal, however, was to find my regular shopping list at prices that were lower than my favorite store.
I was pleased to find the produce section was well stocked. All fruits and vegetables came pre-packed so you couldn’t just buy one red pepper, but the packages weren’t ridiculously large: the peppers came in bags of four, avocados came in bags of five, and bananas were sold in bunches of four. Other items I purchased included an eight-pack of baby cucumbers, a tub of arugula, a fresh herb mix, some grape tomatoes, and a carton of blueberries. All were double the size of the typical grocer at the same price as the smaller size.
Cheese and eggs were sold in sizes that were what I would call “family” size — manageable but not ridiculous. Almond milk, for instance, came in two-packs, eggs in two-dozen cartons, and shredded parmigiano in a large two-pound pack. All of these items would (and could) last for two weeks. Proteins were an extremely good bargain — a large package of organic chicken breast cost $4.99 a pound and sockeye salmon, fresh caught from Alaska was $12.99 a pound.
I also bought a four-pack of Amy’s lentil soup, an eight-pack of organic crushed tomatoes, a bag of organic dark chocolate bites, and a giant jar of crushed red pepper flakes — all of which I found among the multiple aisles of processed, sugar-and-sodium-laden foods that big box retailers seem to have the most of. Of course, I also threw in a giant package of paper towel that was bigger than a toddler and a gallon of dish soap.
When I totaled up the items at the self-check register, it also automatically scanned coupons and took $10 off my cart as a welcome bonus. In total, my food came out to $117.
Is a BJ’s membership worth it? A qualified yes.
I still had to go to the store to pick up items that the warehouse didn’t have (like my new probiotic soda obsession).
When I went home, I had to break down the chicken and salmon, pack the individual portions, and freeze them. And the 16-roll package of paper towels is just sitting in my living room because I can’t fit it in my closet. There’s also a bit of food fatigue in that for the past week I’ve been eating either salmon or chicken for dinner each night, and a salad for lunch.
But I also saved money and cut down my shopping to twice a month this way. The BJ’s app also tracks what you buy, so I could just repurchase everything, have the store pull it for me, and have it waiting for me to pick up. The app also tracks what I spend and how much I save — giving me another budgeting tool.
In all, I was pleasantly surprised at the selection of fresh produce available, and how a single person living in an apartment could shop there without having to stock up on vats of mayonnaise and jars of pickles the size of a tool shed. Yes, BJ’s was worth my time. Anything that can save me money is worth my time these days.