How Sam's Club Helps Me Think Green

I love Sam's Club. I love the wide aisles. I love the big boxes. Most of the time I even love the prices. But why does Sam's help me live my green life? Well other than having great deals on energy efficient light bulbs, let me tell you the pros and cons of life at Sam's Club, as I see it.

For starters, it has been many years since I had a Sam's Club right where I could just pop in instead of say the local grocery store. I have had to drive at least 70 miles to get to the store. OK now don't start saying, but you waste so much gas getting there! Well that is the beauty of it.

I know that I have at least an hour's drive to get there, so I don't go that often. I have a specific list when I go there. I plan other stores I want to visit while I am there. I even plan my route. Sam's of course is always the last stop, but I plan the fabric store, the bookstore, the home decorating store and of course the kitchen store. This makes me plan my stops and my time. I know where I am going and what I am going for. I am less likely to make unnecessary stops and purchase things that I really don't need. I go with a list and a plan, as all good green shoppers must.

Now when you get to Sam's or any similar store, don't be overwhelmed and think that everything is a deal. To be honest it isn't. There are many times when purchasing things at there I have found out later that I could of gotten things for much cheaper somewhere else. But they do offer a few things that the green shopper should consider.

Less packaging by buying in bulk. When you purchase a larger quantity of something, it saves on buying several smaller things and often doubling the packaging. My favorite example is chocolate syrup. We go through a lot of this. I often make my own, but when I purchase it, I do so at Sam's. I buy two large sizes together. They are at a good price. If I were to buy the same amount of chocolate syrup at the grocery store, I would have to purchase four smaller sizes. This means that I would have 4 containers to recycle, instead of just the two. Cereal, flour, sugar, spices and many more purchases fall under this same theory. Be careful though. Never purchase more than you and your family can use. If you end up just discarding your purchase, you really haven't saved any money or done the green thing at all.

None of those annoying plastic bags or even paper for that matter. I have to admit I am just not a fan of those plastic bags. They are a pain. My groceries never seem to stay in them long anyways. I never figure out why they put my milk in one. For starters, my gallon of milk comes with a handle for me to carry it. Second, that little plastic bag is not rated to carry the weight of a gallon jug of milk, juice or anything. At Sam's you take your items and away you go. If they have cardboard boxes that need to be recycled, you can grab some of those. Otherwise, it is up to you to get your groceries in your car and out of your car when you get home, without the help of those bags. I may have fewer bags to line my garbage cans, but I think that it is a step in the right direction.

These are just two examples of the reason's I enjoy Sam's club. This isn't mentioning why I like to buy my laundry detergent, light bulbs and many other purchases at Sam's. It may be a small thing when it comes to living green, but isn't it the small things that count? They all add up in the end.

We as a consumer society need to be more conscience when we shop. Thinking about trip planning, product packaging and how we carry things home is just a few things that help us reach our bigger goals. The small things do make a difference.