Why am I suggesting this?
Because there's a point in your life when you find a place that has great prices and you start shopping there. Over time you will get comfortable and stop price comparisons. And I swear, that's what they're waiting for so you can start paying higher prices for some things than you could elsewhere.
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Costco for me was my first surprise in the pricing game.
I always "knew" they had good prices, but one day I was buying a dietary supplement and just happened to check out the price of the identical product at Costco and another store, and the other store had much better prices! I started looking at more prices and found that Costco was not always the best price, by quite a bit at times.
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Walgreen's
I always thought Walgreen's had my back. But then one day while I was in need of some light bulbs, I had the opportunity to do some comparison shopping between Walgreen's and Ace Hardware, whom, I always thought, was never the less expensive alternative.
Turned out the hardware store across the street had the exact same product for 30% less! And I never even considered Ace Hardware to be a price contender!
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Target Stores
It would seem that it's more the location than the store brand as I discovered that Target was about location, location, location.
My wife had the opportunity to buy or price a number of products at two different Target stores. The one in Redwood City, (next to Atherton, a very expensive neighborhood) and in downtown San Jose. Turned out that the Redwood City location's prices were, at times, nearly double on some lower priced cosmetics than that of the San Jose store. Watch your locations!
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Sometimes Location is the Curse
Speaking of location, I had a highly recommended mechanic from Menlo Park (next to Atherton) on El Camino Real, offer to fix an issue in my truck's engine for a few thousand dollars. He had me sold on what the issue was and he seemed pretty sharp.
Turned out that I found a mechanic over in Sunnyvale that took care of my issue with a $50 fix.
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Save some dollars on Rental Cars
Location even impacts rental car rates. For some locations, it can be the difference of $5-10 a day, for other locations, up to $40 a day! {http://www.consumer-bits.com/2017/12/where-you-rent-your-car-can-save-you.html]
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BURGER KING in Los Banos... Pinching Pennies!
I just spotted a great post from a fellow Facebooker who said they were at Burger King and the napkin dispenser was out, so they went to the desk and asked for some.
The person then counted how many people were at their table and handed out just enough napkins to equal one per person.
Whaaa?
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Gas Stations Upping Prices
Up until 2018, the Shell station in Gilroy at the GarlicFarmLLC used to be a great price in town. It was well worth going out of your way to get gas from them, even if the service was iffy at best. ( I honestly think I just had crappy timing the last few times I was there.)
But now they're looking to turn up the profit and they're one of the more expensive gas stations in the region. They went from $2.90/gallon to $3.30 a gallon!
Whooop!
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But I digress...
The bottom line of this article is to make you aware that you should always verify that you are actually getting those better prices you think you're getting because when you're not looking, and you get too comfortable, you may end up getting stuck by your favored vendor/grocer!
Stay sharp my friends!
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