And herein lies the genius of these bulk discount stores: people think they're being frugal just by walking in the door, even though there's an admission fee.

And herein lies the genius of these bulk discount stores: people think they're being frugal just by walking in the door, even though there's an admission fee. Yes, it's true that some things are substantially cheaper, but on many things the items are the same cost or more expensive than they'd be elsewhere. We've found that each item needs to be priced out specifically to find if it's actually cheaper at a wholesale club like Costco/Sam's (we've had memberships to both but only have Sam's now since Costco is much further away) or a big box retailer like Wal-Mart. The overall difference for general household goods is usually not very significant (YMMV depending on what you're buying). We maintain the membership(s) because we like to get some things in larger quantities and some goods for sale at Sam's/Costco are not available elsewhere. Costco also has ultra-good customer service and return policies.