Anyone ever join one of those wholesale clubs?

[Trey]

There's this company, they do no advertising. The way they get you to know what they are and what they do is on word of mouth, and they send you a key in the mail, and if it fits the car, then its yours. If the key don't fit, then you are guaranteed two of six listed prizes. You usually get one of those vacation packages that you never use and a cheap necklace or bracelet. But before you get to try your key, you have to attend a tour/seminar of thiers, which lasts about 45minutes to an hour. Basically, in this time, they tell you about if you join their club, you will save a lot of money by purchasing things at wholesale price through them. They have everything you can think of... furniture, stereos, washers & dryers, cookware, cars & trucks, computers, anything that you can think of that you can buy in a store or on any market, they can get it, at a much cheaper price. If you see something in a retail store that you like, you just get the serial number off of it, and they will get it. Now, you knew this was coming, to get in their club, you have to pay a fee.

A couple of years ago, I went to one of these with my wife (then girlfriend), and didn't get in the club because I didn't have the money at the time, and I was about to go into the military. I can't remember exactly, but I beleive the annual fee was about $1200. That sounds like a lot, but you can supposedly save much more than that within a year, if you only buy an average amount of products. They say that if you buy a new automobile from them, you will save multiple times that much just on that one purchase.

Last month, I got one of these keys in the mail along with the invitation to the seminar. I am really thinking of joining this time. Me and my wife have plans of buying major stuff this year. A new living room suite, bedroom suite, a new washer & dryer, and other things (if I'm lucky, I'll get a hi-def TV).

I'm just curious if anyone else is in one of these, or ever been in one? If so, how was it for you?


[This message has been edited by Trey (edited 02-03-2001).]

[brandon184]

Yup. My parents are both members, and they go there frequently. But I don't think they paid anything close to $1200.00 for their memberships.

- Brandon

[Trey]

Do they really save a lot of money?

[BDAWBTP]

We have two major ones in my area. The reg. fee is around $40 / year.
They don't give you keys to try or to bribe you into joining with prizes.
They do have some good deals on most items, but can sometimes be found cheaper somewhere else.

[Richard_Cranium72]

I've been a member of SAM'S club since they came into existence, @ $35.00 a year.

I also belonged to PACE warehouse, this is where I went to the school of hard knocks.

I bought a 27" TV/Monitor for like $475.00, a real steal at the time(uhh, 1986?)

I rolled it to the parking lot on one of those steel wheeled buggies.
Being in a hurry, I rolled the cart rather quickly, it banged a couple of times rather hard.

Got it home and the Phosphorus screen coating was partially shaken off http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif

Returned it as defective, which it was.

Was more careful with the next one http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

The SAM's club has pewter parts real cheap at times, I recall several members quoting good prices on this and that.. check um out..

DrVette

[Trey]

Richard, I think we're talking about 2 different types of clubs. I've been to Sam's before. But these that I am talking about make zero profit off of anything you buy. They only make money from your fee.

[Trey]

Well, me and my wife went to check this place out tonight. We joined. The membership fee is $1599 for the first 18 months. After that, its $75 a year for the rest of your life and never goes up.

Basically, whatever you want, you get directly from the manufacturer. They have a room full of hundreds of catalogs that retail stores get from manufacturers, the ones that you never see. Anyway, the $1599 sounds like a lot, but with the amount of stuff I am getting ready to buy, I probably save about 5-10 times that much over the next 2 years alone. I can get a leather jacket with silk lining for only 22 bucks. I actually laughed when I saw some of the prices at this place. They were so **** low. I am fixing to buy a sectional sleeper sofa. I'll probably save about $800-$1000 just on that. I'll probably buy a new washer & dryer this week. That'll be about $300 brand new, for a good brand & model.

[wyvrn]

Sounds interesting, but sounds like I would have to buy a bunch of stuff to make up for it. I am trying to stop buying bunches of stuff http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[Richard_Cranium72]

Trey, keep us up to date on the brands and quality that you get.

I bought a Matag Performa Serius 3.3 cu ft Washing machine for $360.00, this is a modern version that's super quiet.

Check the price, I think it retailed at 500 or so..

Got a HP 215 PhotoSmart digiatl camera with a 4 meg cf disc and a free 16 meg cf disc by Sandisk For $168.50

[RalphArch]

Its probably a moderate ripoff - If its anything like my vacation club (One time payment for an annual vacation at any one of 60 vacation resorts around the world). So for a mere 11K plus annual dues of $400 I have a locked in vacation.

Yes - I can pay more than $140 a night for a week to book the rooms that I now get with my club. But its a false savings because I would never get a vacation that way. I would but it in a package with airfare - so the whole deal is moderately more expensive than going on your own with the best deals you can find.(Not to mention the loss of choice and conveinience)

I bet you will find the same thing once you price compare. Find something expensive you want and look at the total cost you could purchase at discount retail and compare that with the price they will provide. Then add something on for your lost opportunity cost of the $1600 - say thats worth $160 plus $75 and divide by your expected annual purchases - if thats $6000 and this is a $1000 item your added cost is $235/6= maybe $40.

So if you can truely save more than $40 off extremely discounted merchandise you can find in sales and your purchasing situation is equal or more favorable than above you are probably making out. More likely you won't spend the time or effort to search for good deals anymore because of the hassle of searching for best deal and finding/bringing in serial number; accept what's available; and end up paying a moderate premium for essentially a buying service.

I also would be interested in your actual experience with this club.

[Trey]

I posted this a few months back, and almost forgot about it. I just happened to be searching through my old posts today and came across this. Anyway, I figure I'd give an update on what's happened since then for those who asked...

The first thing we bought was a Whirlpool washer/dryer set. I don't remember the exact prices on this, but I beleive we paid about $500-600 for the set. I looked around on the internet to find the cheapest price on the same model we wanted. Compared to the lowest price we found, we saved about $150.

Next we bought new living room furniture. It was an Ashley set, sofa/queen sleeper, love seat, chair, & ottoman, pictured here (http://www.furnitureforsale.com/bubaloosand.html) . We love this furniture so far. After all costs (s/h, etc.), we paid just under $1150. I couldn't find anything on the net that came even close to this price. The lowest I found was at a local Ashley furniture outlet store. He said he could get it for us for $1800 w/free delivery to our house. I feel we made out great on this deal, saving over $650.

I've also bought a lawn mower, although, honestly, I didn't really save hardly much at all on that. And I plan to buy a new amp & speakers for my car in the very near future. Their prices on what I was looking to buy was suprisingly much cheaper than I thought it would be. I beleive for a 200watt amp, and the 4 speakers I want to finish my system was about $250. Everywhere else I looked, it was at least $400, and this was with buying all of it from diff places.

So honestly, I think we may have done ok joining this club. Only problem is they are only located in the southeastern part of the country. Also, the salesman that got us to join, was a real arsehole. He was obviously working off of commission, because he was really nice... no wait, he was too **** nice, I mean wouldn't leave us alone when we went to the place. In the contract you sign while signing up for this place, they give you 3 days to change your mind if you decide you don't want to stay in the club and get a full refund. Anyway, right after this 3 day period was up, the guy wouldn't even say anything to us. He walked right by us several times and wouldn't even bother to look at us. What a punk. That is my only bad experience with this so far.

[samwichse]

Sam's Club kicks major atts. First of all, the great name, and second, I got a 64mb mp3 player there for 99$ well over a year ago. Plus, it's only like 35$ a year anyway.

[Warthog]

Glad you've had good luck so far, Trey. Just remember, take the money you saved and subtract it from the $1600. The number you have left is the amount you have to save before you break even http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

My family also belongs to Sam's Club and have for pretty much my whole life. I've gotten really good basic home audio equipment there for cheap. My Pioneer reciever was $170 with a $20 rebate. A pair of 15" Pioneer speakers were $100 each. Those speakers did me VERY for about 9 months until I sold them for $100 both, probably could've gotten what I paid for them but I didn't care, just wanted to get rid of 'em.

The reciever has been one of the best deals. I also got a 10 pack of D-cell batteries for my 4 D-cell Maglite flashlight, for pretty cheap. Batteries in quantity at Sams are always good deals. Once in a while they have a rebate flier with all these rebates in them for merchandise in the store. I think there's a website for this place too.... www.samsclub.com (http://www.samsclub.com) I guess.

Warthog