| ▲ | hamdingers a day ago | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Candy bars and soda sure whatever. Look at essentials. The dollar store near me charges $1.99 for 8oz of Tide, the Albertsons a single block further charges $9.99 for 84oz, the dollar store is over double the cost. It's the same story with soap, cleaning products, etc. A tiny container for cheap feels like a deal if you can't do the math, but it's not. Feel free to "test it yourself." I'm lucky in that I have a real grocery store nearby to compare to. If you live in a food desert where these big chains have driven out all competition you wouldn't have a choice. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | tyre a day ago | parent | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
It's not only the math but access to cash. Families living paycheck-to-paycheck struggle to make long-term investments. Paying 5x for larger quantities may pay off in the long-term, but if you're struggling to make ends meet and stretch dollars today, it might be overwhelming. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | terminalshort a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
And what's the problem with that? You get a discount for buying larger amounts of basically everything. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | ssl-3 a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
There's variations in dollar stores, and in packaging, and deals, and everything else. Let's play with Tide, and with Kroger and Dollar General just because those are the two retailers that are near to me. We'll do biggest and smallest, and start with the smallest. --- The smallest bottle of original Tide that the Dollar General near me has is 34 ounces for $6.00: $0.1765 per ounce. The Kroger near me has a similar, but lesser, bottle as their smallest offering: 32 ounce bottles for $5.99: $0.1872 per ounce. Dollar General wins on smallest. --- The biggest bottle of Tide at Dollar General is 115 ounces; regularly, $16.95 ($0.147 per ounce). On sale for $15.95 ($0.139 per ounce). With a $4-off digital coupon, $11.95 ($0.104 per ounce). At Kroger: 132 ounces for $19.99 ($0.151 per ounce). (With a $5-off-of-$25 digital coupon if I feel like giving Proctor & Gamble even more of my money in one transaction.) Dollar General also wins at biggest. They win at regular price, and today they also win at sale price. shrug --- Convenience also has a cost. For instance: I ran out of cat food on Christmas Day. Everything nearby was closed except for a Circle K, so I walked over there to see what they had. And they had cat food (of course they did). I bought the smallest container of Purina dry cat food I've ever seen for ~$9. That was a lot of money for such a small amount of cat food, but I was happy to pay it. They had the right product in the right place at the right time. (And most importantly, the cat was happy.) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | yunohn a day ago | parent | prev [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can save even more buying B2B/wholesale? Sometimes it is more about the upfront cost and/or resulting storage space needed, than pure price efficiency. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||