Considering a BJs membership...

[ziggystardust]

Pros and Cons?
Anything that you like to buy there? get great deals on?

thanks!

 

[pryncess527]

I love BJs! I regularly buy: coca-Cola, paper towels, toilet paper, nesquick chocolate mix, raw sugar, cereal, cheese, nitrate free hot dogs & bacon, chicken tenderloins, fiber one bars, butter, eggs, Naked juice Green and Blue machine, ingredients to make our own trail mix, ice cream, chips, milk ... I love that they send me coupons and also accept regular coupons. I have the BJs credit card for 2% back in rewards which more than covers the membership fee (though honestly my savings on milk alone exceed $40 a year). Good gas prices too.

 

[MSSANDRA]

We have Sam's but its the same concept. We absolutely get way more than our money out of ours. There are certain things we only buy there: toilet tissues, certain cleaning supplies, trash bags, hair and body wash, tooth paste and OTC meds just to name a few. If I am close by anyway, I always run in for milk, eggs, juice and banana's and rarely leave without a ready to eat chicken. I like to buy my meat there and freeze into smaller packs. Certain snacks we always get there as well. Many things we have gotten better quality and cheaper than other places; beach chairs, wrapping paper, jackets, PJ's for kids....so many things. They also do huge mark-downs after holidays. I have enough Christmas paper to last YEARS and spent like 20.00 in January!

 

[Luvchefmic]

Pros: great meat & produce gas prices for the ones that have it most popular pet food items great savings right there I could shop only there and be very happy

Cons: Don't bring an impulse shopper spouse with you Things could get out of hand really quick

 

[TravelMommy]

membership, but this year my parents gave us a BJ's membership and I can not tell you how pleasantly surprised I was by all the organic items, very reasonable priced! From organic ketchup(fabulous deal!) to organic frozen broccoli (huge bag) and the applegate farms cold cuts and hot dogs, great milk prices! great deal on gas. I am a convert!!! I also like their assortment of gift cards and seasonal items! You might want to check it out first to see if it would work for you and what you would buy if it makes sense to buy a membership.

 

[dpswift]

We had a membership for many years and I overspent terribly. One day a worker came to to and told me how much I had spent over the year to try to get me to buy a membership with money back points. It had the opposite effect on me I realized I had to cut back. For the next several months I was careful and primarily bought meat there and soda if it was not on sale elsewhere.

At the end of last summer I let our membership expire and I honestly did not miss it. I did just rejoin at a discount. I plan on basically buying meat there.

 

[isaacsfam]

We love BJs. We buy meats, dairy, frozen items like chicken nuggets, cleaning products, pretty much everything. At Christmas I can sometimes get a good price on popular toys. I like BJs better than Sam's because BJs takes coupons and you can double up on them- use a BJs coupon and a manufacturer coupon on the same item. We have the rewards membership and it more than pays for itself.

 

[scard192]

No Costco or Sams near us so its the only option. Save a ton of money and my sister and I share a membership; we each pay 1/2 of the membership

We purchase the same items that other PPs have posted.

 

[MaleficentRN]

4% off gift cards.

 

[EMode]

I love BJ's for the K-cup prices Their deli is great, the meats and cheeses are very good and their prices are so much lower than my grocery store.
I love that you can combine manufacturer coupons with BJ's coupons too.
I just recently got a Sam's membership (great Zulily deal) and thought I wouldn't renew my BJ's at the end of this month but I found that I get better deals at BJ's for alot of what I but regularly.

 

[DisneyNutMary]

I love BJs, but take my opinion with a grain of salt- they write my paycheck
BJs has three things that the Costco around here does not.... A deli dept, fresh sliced cold cuts, an express checkout lane, and a self checkout lane. The waits in Vostco can exceed a half hour on line, and no additional registers are ever opened, when I used to go in for one or two quick items the wait would drive me away. At BJs I jump on the express lane and I am out quickly.

 

[Lita]

We have both a BJ's Membership and a Sam's membership. There are things that I can only get at one or the other. I love BJ's because I can double up on coupons. I can use both store and manufacturer coupons for the same items.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[MillauFr]

The waits in Costco can exceed a half hour on line, and no additional registers are ever opened

Not if you use the fastpass line.

I have never seen a 30 minute line at Costco. Sure its crowded but they always have most of the lines going when I go there on a Saturday. You are correct that they do no cater to people going in and getting one or two items.

 

[autumnblue]

My husband gets a discounted membership through work. We have become very conscious on how we shop at BJ's because we had a tendency to buy things we did not need. We generally now stick to Charmin(coupons), Bounty (coupons), perdue chicken, K-Cups, Cat Litter(coupons) and cheese sticks. Their deli is very reasonably priced so if you buy a lot of meats and cheeses you could save tons of money there. We also tend to go there to stock up on foods for parties and bbq's.

 

[scrapquitler]

I think I save the yearly cost just in the deli department. American Cheese (Land of Lakes) is $4.29 at BJs and $6.79/lb a at Stop &Shop. Rotisserie Chickens are $4.99 at BJs and $7.99 at Stoph & Shop. KCups are also less expensive at BJs than anywhere else I shop.

Other things I buy a lot of at BJs: butter, bacon, hot dogs, frozen individual chicken breasts, orange juice, organic greens, splenda packets, kitty litter, cat food.

 

[vikster1]

I have a BJ's and Costco card. I prefer BJ's for the deli. I get a Land o Lakes cheese for 3.59lb. All the meats are cheaper than Shoprite too. Gallon of skim was 3.01 the other day. The milk prices varies from week to week. I also get the roasted chickens for 4.99 which is also larger than Shoprite. They have coupon packs which have good coupons for shampoo/conditioner. We have also gotten eye glasses.Great deal for the kids. They even replace broken ones.

 

[cassandrap83]

We seem to buy all of our beverages at BJs: Juice boxes, jugs of water, & cases of water.

We recently discovered the pork carnitas from Aaron Sanchez. OMG!!! Only $9.99 for the pack and it is enough for dinner for 4 and lunch the next 2 days. My Puerto Rican boyfriend loves them, and he is very picky.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I was just at ours on Saturday and was told they are enforcing the policy that if your item weights less than 50lbs you have to life it up and put it on the conveyor belt for the cashier to scan. So that means heavy cases of water, 42 lbs containers of kitty litter all must be lifted from the flat bed or cart and placed on the belt. The cashier is no longer allowed to scan the heavy items you leave in your cart or flat bed.

The cashier said she had just gotten written up the day before for not obeying this rule. She said she hates the fact she has to make her customers lift those items because that means she too has to lift them from the belt and into a cart or flat bed.

 

[Perditamarie]

Another BJs lover here....I buy milk, water, bread, chips, rotisserie chicken, coffee, snacks, shampoo, razors, etc. and always find great in-house coupons. Just got a great deal on a 3 piece spinner luggage set. I use the cash back rewards to buy Disney gift cards!

 

[wallawallakids]

We have a Sam's card (used to have Costco, which I liked much more, but there is not one near us. ) We couldn't live without our club card.

Do you have a large family? For us, that is why we need it. Our preteens will eat an entire bag of grapes in one sitting. I need bulk. We don't have to worry about not finishing that huge container of cereal….we will.

I buy meat, eggs, milk, flour, sugar, cheese, yogurt, soap, TP, etc. I even get our kitty litter there. I do save more then in the grocery store. Esp on things like granola bars, or goldfish for the kids' school snacks. I used to coupon like crazy and try to get food that way, but it was very time consuming and I still only got one box of 6 granola bars at the "cheap" price (which my kids ate in a day). Just makes more sense for our family to go with the club.

If you have a party you can't beat the platters of food or the cakes that are already made up. Makes birthday's more affordable.

Also, you can occasionally get great deals on other things, like furniture. We bought our swing set at a club and have been VERY pleased with it. It was several hundred less then anywhere else we looked for the exact same name brand swing set. That alone paid our membership price.

Good luck, I think you will like BJs. We debated between Sam's and BJs when we moved here. We went to both before deciding and I kind of liked BJs more but it was just that much further from our home that I went with Sam's out of proximity.