How I Saved Money By Shopping In Bulk

Last weekend I went household shopping at the local wholesale shop. I have always known it is a lot cheaper to buy things in bulk, but the love for convenience, general laziness and disorganization kept me going back to the supermarket every month to shop for my house. Till last Saturday that is.

My experience is summarized below:

Pros of wholesale shopping

• It is a whole lot cheaper, even when you buy the minimum amounts. The shop I went to allows you to buy everything in 3s and that is what I did, with the exception of wheat flour which I bought half a bale because my home loves chapati . My saving if I had bought one unit of each was about 400 bob, but total I saved 1,500 on shopping worth 9,000. Pretty neat. At the end of this post I share my short shopping list.
• No impulse buying. Because there are no aisles to wander around aimlessly, you buy exactly what you need. Again, this saves you money. You tend to impulse buy at the supermarket because they are designed to encourage you to spend more.
• Buying from a wholesale shop means I support a small business, instead of a corporation (often a corrupt one) as is the case with the supermarket.
• They pack stuff for you in cartons and recycled polythene instead of paper bags, so you do your bit for the environment.
• You are able to monitor usage at home, because you buy everything all at once, instead of in bits every weekend. .

Cons

• It is not as convenient as the supermarket of course. It takes a bit of time to get service. Though we were few customers, the entire shopping excursion took about an hour, while at the supermarket it would have taken me 30 minutes max.  I recommend to do this when you have some free time.
• The variety is limited especially for beauty items and snacks. However if your home is the typical Kenyan home, they stock most of the stuff you use around the house. They do not have perishables like milk and green groceries.
• You cannot shop on a whim, because wholesale shops aren’t at every corner like supermarkets.
• Storage space could be an issue if  you buy too many items.

All in all, I’ll keep doing my household shopping at the wholesale shop, and buying my perishables at the market/mama mboga/ estate kiosk, because of late I’ve been feeling particularly resentful over institutions and corporations.

What about you?