It's the retail super-sizing phenomenon, yes it is!  Been around for over 2 decades and keeps 'em coming back for more, more and double or triple down for storing away every imaginable electronic gismo, gadget, pantry goods, essentials and non-essentials for a rainy day. 

Wholesale Club parking lot complete with electric car charging station.

 'Ginormous' club packs originally designed for mid-size business models, commercial vs. private consumer use, has become the norm for the every day homeowner or volume discount shopper.  Buy more now.  It may not be there next week.  Other than club staples, there is a revolving selection of new "must have" products every week.  Flat screen TV's dominate the front end of the store, impossible to avoid as you enter this oversized retail space, chock full of products for every taste, desire and wallet size.

From extra large two packs of popular brands of bread to car and truck sales as competitive as any car lot barker and the best, fastest, new tire business, done in an hour on a Saturday morning.  All brands of tires for nearly every make and model of car or truck and you are back in business and ready to spend your hour inside, shopping for every necessity and non-necessity imaginable.

We have all been there, be it Costco, BJ's or Sam's Club. We are all members at some level; business or personal, regular or executive membership, as easy as pie.  We are in the "Club!"  We are exclusive members of an elite shopping mecca, given the buying power of a large consumer business with bonus packs, higher counts, volume purchases that are guaranteed to save us money in the long run.  Beware the short run and the budget busting shopping experience that is more than likely to break the bank, lead us into overspending, while feeding us in the food aisles, tempting us to buy several month's worth of pesto sauce, frozen bagels, gallons of spinach dip and crates of fruits and veggies.

The numerous tables of seasonal clothing for all ages in nationally recognized brands of varying quality, mostly pretty decent.  I now wear clothes from the clubs.  Why not?

We find ourselves inside the guts of these mega-size retail spaces, dizzy with merchandise to wade through in our blind effort to find the best buys that will be gone in a week, a day, or a minute!  Gotta buy it now or forever hold your peace.  Don't let a bargain slip through your sweaty little hands, even if you don't need it and only think you do...until you get home and realize you went so far over budget that your gas and electric may be turned off!

What is it that so seduces us into over buying, believing we really need the 'humongus' packs of cereal, batteries, bulk nuts, vitamins and super size shampoos for life?  Is it the allure of the club mentality?  Are we mystified by the ability to buy bigger, better, cheaper, all the while buying more than we need?  Does this exclusive membership trick us into believing that we are empowered with an ability over others and that we will have more, more and enviably, the most?  Or are we in the grip of wasteful habits and retail addiction that feeds us through a belief system that needs, wants and desires to be surrounded with excess?  Plenty of rainy day stash and bulk packs of TP, tissue, soda, 'gargantuin' sized bottles of gin, vodka, beer, food storage container sets of 50?!  What do we need with all those sizes?  You guessed it!  To store all the bigger volume sized food products we are buying that will more than likely go bad before we can possibly eat it all.  And now, you will also need a second refrigerator to accomodate all the perishable purchases!

The club food concession stand where the club size meals are a real steal, whether you are hungry or not!

But, hey!  While you're there, if you haven't had enough of all the free food samplings along your retail journey down the many food isles, there's always the food concession stand before you exit the warehouse.  Meals and deals that cannot be beat!  Club size brauts or dogs, chips and a large soda for a buck fifty?!  Are you out of your mind?  Gotta eat that!  Line 'em up for that price!

Now if you are a prudent buyer, entering at your own financial risk, bringing a "list" and only plan to purchase what is on that "list," then you are a better man or woman than I am.  Hubster and I go with the intent of buying only what we need for the month and mainly in non-perishable products, consisting of all the necessary paper products, diapers and wipes for the grand kiddies, some nice wine for gramma and boppa, those incredible facial wipes that were recently discovered, avoiding the bakery section in the back of the club where they also lure you with the rotisserie chicken!  The hook!  There it is!  Now you are in the meat section!  You have never seen meat this big, this red and juicy and now you are planning a neighborhood BBQ that had never entered your mind before.  Who can we invite so we can buy this club pack of T-bones, the 24" pie, the 50 pack of dinner rolls and the commercial restaurant size box of artichokes and corn on the cob!  Gotta have that!  So maybe no barbeque for the hood; we can simply eat all this over the next week or two, if the food doesn't rot first?  Sure, we can do that!  It's a volume buy, for Pete's sake!  Mouths are watering and there's an elder woman wearing a nice little hat and apron handing out bite sizes pieces of fresh cheese cake.  Gotta have that!  So what if it's the size of a spinning wheel!  We can freeze half!

 I don't know about you, but I can't seem to get out of a warehouse club for under $250 - $300, no matter how I plan to limit spending, tighten the belt (I usually don't wear one) or mentally limit my list of necessitites to a mere $100 bucks!  That just never happens!  I become a retail slut in about 5 minutes!  See those great pillows?  Ah, look at the toddler jammies and oh, hun, we need a new patio umbrella.  And the handsome sales rep from the local winery has an end cap of superb wine that will run out in about an hour.  Gotta have some of that before the lot is gone! It was the best year for Petite Sirah, ya know.   And poor hubby slinks off down the electronics isle bringing back a bulk pack of blue tooth head sets and batteries...it's a law now...gotta have that!  Don't even think about looking at the jewelry and the diamonds!  Not going to happen.  And never, ever go down the bulk candy isle!  Books and CD's, ok.

And so it goes...See how it adds up?!

Caveat emptor!!!