doing away with the big chain stores...

[EggsForIHOP]

I will actually spend a little more at smaller stores. What ALWAYS happened to me at Walmart was I would go in for a $4 item and leave with $50 worth. If I go where there is less choice and more expensive items, it is a lot easier to rein in my lack of self control. So for that same $4 item I might spend $5-$6, but I still save $45!!!

EXACTLY!!!! For a while I had the no cart/$20 rule and that worked. If I was just going for one or two things I wouldn't grab a cart, or I would take just enough cash only to get what I needed...then I got into management and quit waiting tables and never had cash on hand...and my arms got stronger! So I was still leaving like $80 over what I had planned to spend!

Then there is the bonus that recently I have found many comparable things at the same cost if not cheaper - and the other bonus that I am supporting locally. Yes, I still think i will need to run to Sams Club or Home Depot at times. But like yesterday...I just needed PVC cement, yeah, it's $1.50 more at the hardware store BUT...I parked right up front and was in and out in3 minutes and the drive is a little shorter...so I think that was a win win situation. If I had gone to Wally World or Lowes I woulda gone in for glue and come out with sheets or a new bath tub or something else I didn't need - I'm just a nut case like that I guess!

Some of my staff heard me discussing this with my sister on the phone last night and let me know that am I a crazy hippie - I thought it was sweet of them. I like being a crazy hippie. It gives me things to do all day when I am home! It is good to see that others have taken the same route - changing how you live when no one you around is - well - it's hard to do without a little support ya know?

Like I said, I have found similar dog food (not exact, but close enough) cheaper at TSC, found a GREAT feed store that I am happy with that has everything but dog food and pine shavings cheaper than TSC, but is on the way home from there, so that's like 2 trips in one, and that's just the start! Now if I could only talk these chickens into laying me a few eggs...

 

[SKR8PN]

I can honestly say that I have never spent a dime in a Dollar Store. I cruised thru the very first one that opened up here about 10 or so years ago. I was not impressed so I just never went back.
Now, there seems to be one on every corner.

 

[Mackay]

I can honestly say that I have never spent a dime in a Dollar Store. I cruised thru the very first one that opened up here about 10 or so years ago. I was not impressed so I just never went back.
Now, there seems to be one on every corner.

I tried out a dollar store a couple of times and found that their merchandise was really trash. Food was bad, things broke or didnt work so that was it for me.

I live 110 miles from the big chain stores and with building a house I would say that for the most part it pays to take the trip for building supplies at Homedepot or Lowes compared to the local lumbar yard. We bought some blue board (hard board) insulation for the basement and it was $8 more a sheet our local town so at 20 sheets it more than paid for the trip! This seems to happen pretty often.

We have a grocery store around here called Winco that the locals told me is the best place for bargans. Sometimes I do shop walmart for groceries but this week in Winco they had signs up on many items telling me exactly what the leading competitors charged for the same thing on lots of items I buy. I swear, they beat walmart on about 6 items I was thinking of going to walmart for... never went. At Winco, Tillamook Cheese 2 pound brick labled as Bandon is $4.50.. if that aint a deal I don't know what is.

I get my coffee, Eight O'Clock brand at Smiths, (Kroger) as I still can get a pound of beans for $5, and often less with sales. I will go there just for coffee and whatever they might have on sale about once every 4 months.

 

[hennypenny9]

The Walmart where I used to live was not cheap. I think it was because it is so close to the US/Canada boarder. They were still cheaper than up in Canada.

I only know of one smaller grocery store where I live now. It's nice, and you can get decent meat there, but oh boy you will pay for it. Fred Meyer is where I go. I know they are massive, but they have decent benefits. I knew someone who went to work there at 15-20 hours a week just for the medical insurance. We have gone to the same locally owned feed store forever. They are cheap, nice, and will order anything you want.

We try to patronize locally owned companies for everything other than groceries. Meaning plumbing, car repair, office supplies, etc. Since we have our own businesses, we understand that sometimes it's a bit more expensive, but in the long run it pays off. We research the companies first, though. You can get burned pretty badly if you don't.

 

[Niele da Kine]

I do not pay retail if I can help it, but if I must, then I try to at least know the person I'm buying it from. That pretty much lets out Wallyworld! I sit in the car and read a book if my DH wants to shop in there, I don't go inside. Too much plastic.

We have this great little third generation hardware store in the nearest small town to us. I always want to buy some little hardware item just for an excuse to go into the store. The grocery store across from it was a third generation owned store until about a month ago when they sold out to a local chain because their kids didn't wanna run the store anymore. Sigh! At the moment, all the old stock is being sold off cheap, but I'm suspecting after the old stock is out of the warehouse the prices will go up. The new owners don't seem to be buying as much produce from the local farmers, either. However, there is a new farmer's market in town as well as a new Filipino store, so we buy most of our produce there now.

Most of the rest of the stuff we buy comes from yard sales, thrift shops or from Craig's List. Second hand stuff is usually better since only the quality stuff survives in good enough shape to be resold, IMHO.

 

[Denim Deb]

For me, if I don't shop in Wally World, Target, TSC, etc I basically have no place left to shop. There are very few stores of other types around here-except feed stores. This area has gotten so grown up it's horrible. What used to be orchards and farm land is now developments. Recently a whole small town was basically destroyed so they could widen a road. Land is expensive around here, taxes are high, and insurance is high. I would love to move out of the area, but for now, I can't.

 

[ChickenToes]

A few years ago I rarely set foot in a Wal Mart, but when food prices first started rising I had to start shopping there. The local grocery store (still 30 minutes away) raised their prices to a ridiculous level, and they never went back down. It costs about $30 more to shop there than at Wal Mart, and that's just too much difference for me.

But I try to compensate in other ways. I sew a lot of my own clothes, shop at Goodwill for the stuff I can't sew, and there's a small hardware store less than 10 minutes away that we'll go to if we need something small.

 

[i_am2bz]

For me, if I don't shop in Wally World, Target, TSC, etc I basically have no place left to shop. There are very few stores of other types around here-except feed stores.

That's my problem, too. The little town near me had a Winn-Dixie & a Food Lion; then WD went out of business, & the FL had no competition, there was no reason to keep prices low because the next grocery store was another 20 miles away. Everything else was a convenience store, & obvously I would only shop there in an extreme emergency. So we were THRILLED when a Walmart was opened just 10 minutes from our house! If nothing else, it has forced Food Lion to be more competitive & people have more of a choice.

 

[MsPony]

I thank the heavens that I was spoiled enough to grow up in a town with HEAVY priority on local. When I was 8 Wal Mart tried to come in, my town fought it and won. I didn't understand then, but I do now and THANK GOD!! We have your usual OSH, Home Depot, Albertsons/VONS/Ralphs, Whole Foods, Lassens, etc. But that's as big as it gets. I work at a locally owned pet store (they *only* one in Goleta, CA) and people are surprised that were cheaper then Petco or even Lemos. Duh!! They know they can charge you because you think they're cheaper!!

Always, always ask a local store if they can order you something!! Just because we don't carry it doesn't mean we can't get it!!

 

[Niele da Kine]

Yup, small stores generally can order in special things and they are usually real nice about it, at least in my area. The local - well, I can't really call it a feed store since they only sell alfalfa hay and cubes, and now they also sell propane and they also repair saddles, but whoever they are, they special order high protein rabbit feed for me. They are always interested in how the rabbits are doing when I go pick up the feed and it generally takes about fifteen minutes of talking story every time I go in there. Maybe next time I'll take one of the rabbits in to visit, they'd probably get a kick out of that. It's a fun place and their prices are better than driving into town.