I used to love the thought of going to the local wholesale warehouse club, where the products are stacked up to the warehouse ceiling and the shopping carts are brimming with rolls of toilet paper and cases of cheese snacks. Where else could you pay a memberbership fee of a thirty or forty dollars per year and have access to products by the caseload at a discount?

After joining such a club I realized that not all the prices we are cheaper than the non-membership store just across the street. So we decided to shop carefully and only buy those items that we are cheaper. Of course, we also ended up buying in quantities that we didnt need. So, when we did find bargains, we ended up with a supply that would last us a couple months.

After adjusting our shopping strategy at the warehouse club to take into account our positive need to be aware of the higher prices and inconvenient packagaging, we realized another thing. Its not convenient to stand in line with three items, when every body else ahead of you has their carts overflowing with merchandise. Its clear that not every body cares about actual value and some folks only want perceived assessment of worth (you understand , a case of maple syrup at a 3 cent discount). So, we soon tired of standing in lines for our handful of items.

We decided that if we we are going to get only the best assessment of worth items in the quantities that suited our lifestyle, that we would only positive need to build a few trips every couple of decades so that we could get everything we wanted without spending all that measure standing in line several times per month. But guess what happened? We noticed that each measure wed go in for items on our list that the items sometimes wouldnt be carried anymore. We are not talking about items being out with an empty space on a shelf. Were talking about something else is placed where that merchandise was and the store employees telling us they dont carry it right now, and that we should fill out a comment card if we want to get the items back in stock.

With items on our list not being in stock, we still found ourselves standing in line with a handful of items - instead of the cartful wed planned on.

Itsfrustrating enough realizing our membership wasnt buying us much more a few well-packaged, well discounted products - combined with long lines and a parking lot that would contruct most race car pit crews shudder in fear.

Wholesale warehouse shopping clubs almost seem planned for those who dont discriminate on price, who love inconvenience and inconsistency in merchandise availability, and who want to make their afternoon or evening around a shopping trip to a single store.

Why would all the people contruct their shopping lifestyle around that type of shopping knowledge? Perceived assessment of worth ?

It doesnt build sense for my household to change our shopping style (as we had attempted) to fit the wholesale warehouse club retail format if it turns out to not work for us. It can generate sense for yours.

We we are at dinner with some friends of ours when they told us about an online discount club with a huge variety of products and a very modest membership fee. I was expecting more caseloads of cheese snacks and a hundred dollar membership fee - but thats not what they showed us.

What we saw was a membership fee less than the local warehouse club, and products that was need and make use of every month - orderable online and delivered to our door - without putting shopping cart dents in our car.

We checked it out. We signed up. We tried it out for several decades . And every since our shopping life gets easier.

Now every month I build my shopping list online through our online membership. For the first thirty days of the month I generate my online shopping list whenever its convenient for me, and shortly after the first of the next month we find packages at our door. The next month its the same.

Its the opposite of the old bricks and mortar warehouse club - it takes me less instant to build it work for me. It works around my shopping style, rather than forcing me to change my lifestyle to find the right bargains and most convenient instant to go to the store.

Yes, I might still get a case of rolls of toilet paper and cheese snacks - but I never stand in line, I never have to lug my purchases through the parking lot in the rain or snow, and I never have to worry about finding new door-dings on my car.

The biggest benefit of membership in this club is convenience. And with life being as busy as it is for us - I have fallen in love with having my shopping list only a few mouse clicks away from completion.