A ShopRite steal
It’s that time of year again, when the subway becomes a moving, underground Petri dish and every headache is just a warm-up for the Flu. If you’re uninsured, you’re probably resigned to the age-old combo of Emergen-C and chicken soup. And you lucky few, the insured, you probably think you’re sitting pretty. (A co-pay’s a co-pay, right?) Well… here’s the dirty little secret of the prescription-filling world: Drugs can cost less without insurance. You could be paying that rock-steady $25 co-pay all for a scrip that’s $4-a-month without your fancy PPO. We were recently hit with this startling fact and wondered just how much pill prices can vary without the insurance card. Read the rest of this entry »
Falling prices landing soon?
Like professional soccer, Budweiser American Ale and turning off your car alarm, megaultrahyper retailer Walmart has never really caught on in New York City. But don’t think they’re sitting there in Arkansas saying to themselves: “Forget it, Jake. It’s Target Town.” News came out this week that Walmart is planning yet another New York City invasion, and this time they could land on the shores of Jamaica Bay at the new Gateway II shopping center, reports Crain’s New York.
Walmart (whose total square footage of its stores is larger than Manhattan, btw) has attempted a few other incursions into the city before. But every time they try to crack the city, community and labor groups rise up in protest and block the way. Community leaders in Jamaica Bay are already vowing a fight too, but maybe they should save their energy. Because even if Walmart does come to Brooklyn, that doesn’t mean Brooklyn will come to Walmart. Read the rest of this entry »
Costco photo by Gene Jackson.
Is it possible to go to Costco without wondering: Is this really worth it? The crowds, the Zipcar to Third Avenue and 38th Street, the existential despair of seeing your future in jumbo-sized cereal boxes, the inevitable 12-pound bag of frozen salmon filets you’ll never get through, the paradox of spending more to make sure you get your $50 membership’s worth.
That annual fee, of course, is the biggest question of all. Brooklyn College finance professor Charles Stone estimates that Costco prices have traditionally been roughly 10 percent less than average retail, which means you’d have to spend at least $500 a year to make your $50 back. For some people, that’s not hard to do, what with all the crap they wind up buying while they’re there.
But it just so happens that Target has rolled out a new line of “value basics” called Up & Up, which seems like a direct strike against Costco’s store brand, Kirkland. How do the two compare? Read the rest of this entry »
We'll be brief: buying a 9-pack saves you dough. Photos by Aulistar Mark.
Underwear. All men have been forced to throw a pair in the trash due to the waistband wearing out, holes becoming too big for comfort, or the skid marks too deep for even Oxiclean to get white again. For men with a particularly active crotch lifestyle, you can’t be bothered to go shopping every time a pair goes kaput. The answer: economies of scale! I traveled around Brooklyn on a quest to find a discount underwear goldmine. Read the rest of this entry »
A ShopRite steal
It’s that time of year again, when the subway becomes a moving, underground Petri dish and every headache is just a warm-up for the Flu. If you’re uninsured, you’re probably resigned to the age-old combo of Emergen-C and chicken soup. And you lucky few, the insured, you probably think you’re sitting pretty. (A co-pay’s a co-pay, right?) Well… here’s the dirty little secret of the prescription-filling world: Drugs can cost less without insurance. You could be paying that rock-steady $25 co-pay all for a scrip that’s $4-a-month without your fancy PPO. We were recently hit with this startling fact and wondered just how much pill prices can vary without the insurance card. Read the rest of this entry »
Falling prices landing soon?
Like professional soccer, Budweiser American Ale and turning off your car alarm, megaultrahyper retailer Walmart has never really caught on in New York City. But don’t think they’re sitting there in Arkansas saying to themselves: “Forget it, Jake. It’s Target Town.” News came out this week that Walmart is planning yet another New York City invasion, and this time they could land on the shores of Jamaica Bay at the new Gateway II shopping center, reports Crain’s New York.
Walmart (whose total square footage of its stores is larger than Manhattan, btw) has attempted a few other incursions into the city before. But every time they try to crack the city, community and labor groups rise up in protest and block the way. Community leaders in Jamaica Bay are already vowing a fight too, but maybe they should save their energy. Because even if Walmart does come to Brooklyn, that doesn’t mean Brooklyn will come to Walmart. Read the rest of this entry »
Costco photo by Gene Jackson.
Is it possible to go to Costco without wondering: Is this really worth it? The crowds, the Zipcar to Third Avenue and 38th Street, the existential despair of seeing your future in jumbo-sized cereal boxes, the inevitable 12-pound bag of frozen salmon filets you’ll never get through, the paradox of spending more to make sure you get your $50 membership’s worth.
That annual fee, of course, is the biggest question of all. Brooklyn College finance professor Charles Stone estimates that Costco prices have traditionally been roughly 10 percent less than average retail, which means you’d have to spend at least $500 a year to make your $50 back. For some people, that’s not hard to do, what with all the crap they wind up buying while they’re there.
But it just so happens that Target has rolled out a new line of “value basics” called Up & Up, which seems like a direct strike against Costco’s store brand, Kirkland. How do the two compare? Read the rest of this entry »
