Posts tagged Walmart

was cleaning out some old files and found a spreadsheet from this time last year. On said spreadsheet I had recorded the prices of some random purchases at Walmart (what, you don’t do that?). Rather than dragging the file over into the ol’ recycle bin, I decided to use my numbers to take a quick look at my personal level of inflation for the past year. Off to Walmart I went. Here’s a look at my costs from 12 months ago vs. my cost today for various goods. Yikes. Apparently there was some sort of peanut crisis that I was unaware of. Bad news, fellow PB & honey sandwich lovers, apparently the man is not a fan of the PB &H…or generic crackers.  Read more... (130 words, 1 image, estimated 31 secs reading time)

Yep, inflation is here. How do I know? Like any good wannabe economist, I’ve created my own inflation barometer. I call it “price increases of random stuff that Josh buys at Walmart.” I also have my own barometer that measures whether or not we’re in a recession. I call it “At 8am, are there an absurd number of cars in a drive-thru waiting for $4 coffee?” FYI…according to my barometer, we’re not currently in a recession.  Read more... (382 words, 1 image, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

With all the talk in the news about food prices going up, I decided to run my own little inflation test. If you follow my blog, you’ve probably guessed where this is going: a spreadsheet’s a’comin. Back in June of 2010 I compared the prices of various items at different stores. You can find those comparisons here: Walmart vs. United Supermarkets Walmart vs. Sams Walmart vs. Target vs. United Supermarkets  Read more... (410 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

I decided that I was not content to merely compare food prices at various stores (as seen here). What kind of nerd would I be, after all, if my spreadsheets didn’t include toiletries? So, off to Walmart, Target, and United I went to satisfy my obsessive compulsion. Here is my random list of items selected for comparison:  Read more... (459 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

I have always been curious as to how good of a “deal” Sam’s Club is. I remember from my marketing classes that Sam’s was a master of making one think that he or she is getting a deal by buying straight from the warehouse. Did you know Sam’s Club stores, when they first opened, hired guys to drive forklifts around the store? These guys didn’t actually do any work; they just drove around the store to give the customer the feeling of bargain shopping in a warehouse. True story. To compare Sam’s and Walmart, I broke down everything into cost per unit or per ounce. I also threw in generic brands out of curiosity. My ridiculously nerdy spreadsheet containing all of the data can be found here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6959229/samsvswalmart.pdf) The comparison:  Read more... (686 words, estimated 2:45 mins reading time)

I, like most of you, sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and ponder the Walmart dilemma. If I factor in my time, is it actually cheaper to shop there? So, I decided to conduct my own little experiment. I bought the same items at each store and timed my trips. I started the timer when I entered each parking lot and stopped it as I exited each parking lot. If you think this is nerdy you should see my spreadsheets comparing the finances of various republican parties (here you go: http://www.tommechler.com/media/party-finances-2007-2009-b.pdf). Anyhoo, here are the results:  Read more... (403 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

So, we ventured into a sad new world yesterday. June 9, 2010 will go down in the history books as the day when “remember that time when we only needed one shopping cart?” entered our vocabulary. As it turns out, kids eat a lot of food…A LOT OF FOOD. Even worse, I fear that our oldest is on the brink of a discovering that we aren’t required to buy Great Value brand everything.  Read more... (251 words, 2 images, estimated 1:00 mins reading time)