Kevin McCormally: I am Kevin McCormally of Kiplinger's and I am here with Jane Clark, an Associate Editor of Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine to talk about shopping at the Big Box stores. Jane, it seems they have become more and more popular with Sam's club and the Coscos. Have the people really saved money by shopping at these stores?
Jane Clark: Actually they do, you might not get the absolute lowest price in town on any given day. But generally these stores offer 10-15% markup which is pretty good compared with specialty discount stores which are about 30% and department stores which are your 50% markup.
Kevin McCormally: Okay so even if the price is great, it is the chaos at those stores; they are huge, how do you buy something in these stores? How do you get a good deal for what you really want?
Jane Clark: You really need to do your research ahead of time, you go online and research prices and features to see what you really want in the product and then when you get to the store, you will already have an idea, you do not have to sort through in all of these products in the midst of all the chaos.
Kevin McCormally: Jane but the problem that I have had is I can go online, I can figure out exactly what I want; these stores do not advertise, you do not really know what they have on any day. If I go and I do not find the right model, what do I do?
Jane Clark: You really have to focus on the features, not the model number; you are not likely to find the exact model or brand that you have looked at ahead of time. But what you want to do is think about what you want in the features and grab it when you can.
Kevin McCormally: Okay, so I know at a specialty store, I can count free delivery; I can count on setup of some really wild technological thing I bought. What do you get at the Box stores when it comes to things like that?
Jane Clark: You have to take that thing home yourself and put it together. So you have to be aware of that before you decide to buy the hot tub, you have to figure out how you are going to get it home and what are you going to do with it, once you get there. And that is how you save money, by the way. That is why Big Box stores deliver on the prices because they do not deliver to your house.
Kevin McCormally: Okay, thank you very much Jane.
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