10 Worst Items to Buy at Warehouse Clubs

Name-Brand Cereal

Warehouse clubs stock name-brand cereals, but budget-conscious shoppers know they can grab the breakfast staple for less elsewhere. Kellogg, General Mills and other cereal manufacturers regularly offer discounts and coupons that can be used at your local grocery store or big-box retailer – but not at Costco or Sam’s Club – says Cindy Livesey, founder of LivingRichWithCoupons.com.

Look for these coupons in your Sunday newspaper or on the manufacturer’s website or Facebook page. Also, you can stack these coupons with any sale your local retailer is promoting. “This allows you to get a better deal at the grocery store than what you’d find at a warehouse club,” she adds.

For example, a recent weekly sale promotion at Target featured a “two for $7” deal on select cereal brands including a 24-ounce box of Kellogg’s Rice Krispies. On Kellogg’s website, you can print out a coupon for $1 off on two boxes of Rice Krispies.

So, you could buy two boxes at the big-box retailer (48 ounces total), plus get a dollar offer with the coupon, which drops the sale price to $6. That amounts to about 12 cents per ounce — two cents cheaper per ounce than what we saw at a warehouse club.