Discount Warehouse Clubs
Concept: To attract more customers to their wholesale clubs, more are being built with gas stations being part of the wholesale club.
Will You Save Money?: Yes**
Comments: Due to their size, warehouse clubs can purchase gas on on par with other large gas retailers. Since the cost structure of the warehouse clubs is less than that of standard service stations, they can usually offer gas prices at a discount over standard gas stations, sometimes significantly less than other gas stations in the same area. Taking advantage of these lower prices can reduce your gas costs quite a bit.
**Warehouse clubs are not as prevalent as standard gas stations and are usually built on land that is slightly out of the way. if the warehouse is not on your regular route, even with a ten cents a gallon savings, it can easily all be eaten up getting to the warehouse. and end up costing you money.
**Due to the gas being less expensive than at other places in the area, the lines at these gas stations can be much longer than at a standard gas station. At busy times, you may have to wait as long as an hour to fill up your vehicle. It’s important to remember that you time is also worth money and spending all that time waiting to get the gas may not be worth the savings you derive from it.
One of the things that doesn’t work well, however, about gas stations affiliated with Costco or BJs is that local gas unions/whatever they are called can often force the warehouse stations to keep their prices above a certain point. This was an issue where I grew up in Maryland.
The prices were always just a tad cheaper at the Costco station, but apparently could have been even less expensive had local rules allowed it.