My Saturdays often start in the same riveting fashion: breakfast, a long dog walk and a requisite trip to an East Bay farmers market to feel like the native Californian I am. I come back with a few pears, a malasada and a 12-ounce coffee and wonder where my $20 went.
Then, it’s time for actual grocery shopping, which, in this age of ever-increasing prices, means hitting multiple stores for the best deals. At Safeway, I clip digital coupons for avocados. At Target, I grab my son’s Vitamin Water, which is about $3 less per case than it is at Safeway. Then, once a month, I make the inevitable trip to Costco for bulk-buying. I brave the congested parking lot and put my $65 annual membership to work on olive oil, canned tuna and more apples than we need. I even buy the infamous rotisserie chicken, despite how salty and slimy it is these days.
But when I recently ran across a deeply discounted membership for another big-box grocery store in the Bay Area – Sam’s Club, which has some of the same benefits, often for less and with fewer restrictions – I decided to cheat on my old Saturday faithful…