Grocery Store Memberships

Before we joined for any grocery store or supermarket and/or warehouse club memberships, i was definitely wondering if it is necessary or if is it worth it. Why do we need to register or sign up to shop in a store anyway? I thought, there was no point really to sign up for such membership because I do like the freedom of being able to shop wherever I want, at any store, no strings attached! Who knows these stores are just gonna fill my mail box with junks loaded with store advertisings and promos i dont really need.

But i realized that there are huge advantages for signing up for the free memberships in stores like Safeway. Safeway members, for instance, get three (3) cent off per gallon of gas that they fuel their car, and a lot of times, they also provide further gas discounts if your grocery shopping total reached a certain amount that qualifies for additional gas discounts. I also noticed that when you walk-in to store like Safeway, they usually have two (2) different pricings for most of their products, one for store members, and the other price for non-members or without membership cards. Sometimes, promo like buy-one-take-one for members only, can really benefit the members in a big way because if you are a non-member, you have to pay a lot more for the same exact item and you only get one item! So I think signing up for store memberships like Safeway is definitely worth it, you can definitely get huge savings. Besides, it is free membership sign-up, so what can you loose? In some occassions, you can get as much as 35 to 50 percent savings compare to when you are not a member, that is a lot of money savings, that you can use to buy something else!

As far as being a member of either Sams Club and/or Costco Warehouse Clubs, where it is a paid membership, you might wonder if paying for such membership fee is really worth it? For most cases, yes, specially if you shop there several times a year, for even the most common items that you always buy and need everyday. Both Costco and/or Sams Club offers huge discounts for buying by bulk. Although, in most cases, you cannot buy items individually, they are usually package and sold by the packs and/or package, but this is were most of the huge savings and discounts are. For instance, you buy an item in a regular store for $10.00 for one piece, but when same item you can buy for $15.00 for three (3) pieces, that is an instant saving of $15, in calculation $10 x 3 = $30, and then $30 - $15 = $15 savings! So if you normally buy items by the bulk, then it is definitely worth it to pay for membership. By the time you add all the savings you make everytime you shop there, the membership cost is only a small portion compare to the total savings that you make. But if you only buy one item at a time, and only when you need it, then warehouse clubs might not work best for you this way. So the benefits of being a member, will largely depends on the total volume of shopping you normally do daily, weekly, monthly.