Shopping With the Grumpy Bulldog

Being poor I can't really afford to go shopping at high-end stores.  So I have to do a lot of bargain hunting at stores.  Here's just a rough guide to Grumpy Bulldog bargain hunting.

The local Walmart has a clearance aisle over by the home improvement stuff that can sometimes have treasures.  Most of what I've gotten out of there are toys like Transformers, Marvel or DC action figures, or Barbie dolls for the nieces.  But there's plenty of other stuff too.  I got a microwave from there that was 1200w for only about $100.  It had a little dent on the side but otherwise it was in perfect shape and works just fine.  It's a step up from the old 700w I had anyway.  One time I got Walmart brand Atkins-type shakes that were good.  I was bummed that I only got one four-pack because they were a good deal.  Of course the next time I was there they were all gone.  I also got this weird thing to make bacon in the microwave for only $5.  It does work but I don't make bacon a whole lot.

Meijer and Target often have stuff on clearance but it's not usually concentrated in one aisle.  You usually have to check the back end caps for toys, electronics, or household goods and they might have some stuff.  I've gotten a few toys from Meijer that way, including a Black Panther figure on clearance weeks before the movie even came out!  I've also got other stuff like sheets too.  In the Electronics section at Target I got a few of those Funko Pop things that were only like $2-$3 like two from Ash vs Evil Dead and a yellow Power Ranger and an Iron Man one from Civil War.

What you have to be careful of is sometimes they'll put something on "clearance" and it's not really marked down much.  The KMart in Waterford does this a lot where they'll put stuff on "clearance" and really only mark it down 50 cents or a dollar.  They're hoping that if they put a bright yellow tag on it and call it clearance people will buy it without realizing they're only getting 1% off.  Just another reason KMart is almost gone.  So it helps if you have some Price is Right skills to know how much stuff originally cost and how good of a deal you're getting then.

Sometimes if something isn't a good deal at the moment you can play the waiting game.  For instance Walmart put "Marvel's The Sentry" (not just The Sentry but MARVEL'S The Sentry, la dee dah) figure on clearance for $15, original price $19.99.  Meh.  A couple of months later it was marked down again to $9.99.  That's OK but it's not a character I care about, so the hell with it.  Finally it was marked down to $5.  At that point I'm like, OK, what the hell.  I did the same thing at Meijer with a figure of some chick from that Solo movie.  The original price was like $8.99 for a tiny 3-inch figure.  It had been in the clearance for a while but finally last month it was down to $2 and I'm like, OK, what the hell.  But that doesn't really work at Target because they generally don't keep stuff around long and I don't go to KMart enough to know how long they keep stuff.

Speaking of KMart, I never really understand people who buy stuff from a Going Out of Business sale for 10-20%.  At places like KMart or Sears at that price it's probably just as cheap to buy it from Walmart.  And you'd be able to return it if there's a problem.  I don't really do much shopping at those sales until it's 30-40% off.  I love going when it's down to 70-80% off just to see what's left, like the Media Play in Clinton Township that had this huge stack of Scott Stapp solo albums still left for like 80% off; they pretty much couldn't give them away.  But the point is you have to actually know when you're getting a good deal and not lose your head just because something is on sale or "clearance."

The discount store chains can be good for certain things.  For a while I've liked one specific brand of bottled water from Big Lots.  It's kind of irrational but I like the Crystal Geyser 24-packs because the labels are really easy to peel off.  Then I feel comfortable taking the bottles around wherever like Starbucks or Biggby and no one can think I'm shoplifting or anything, right?  And they're pretty much the same price as store brands so it's not like I'm laying out a bunch of extra money.  You can get six-packs of Crystal Geyser from Dollar Tree but if you do the math you'd realize it's four cents more per unit that way, though I might buy one if I don't feel like going to Big Lots since the nearest stores now are in Howell, Waterford, or Westland since they closed the one in Novi.

Besides that I buy generic Zantac 150 from Big Lots.  It's maybe not as cheap as Walmart but if I don't feel like going to Walmart then it's good just as a fill-in.  (I recently had to stop doing that because they recalled all the Zantac for containing a trace amount of a potentially cancer-causing chemical.)  They used to have cherry sugar free cough drops that I'd buy but now they only have honey lemon ones I don't like as much.

Mostly I buy DVDs and Blu Rays there.  Their movies are usually $3-$5 but sometimes they'll reduce them even more to as low as 75 cents.  So a movie like The Gunman or The International that I wouldn't buy even for $3 I might buy for 75 cents just to have something to watch on a slow day.  Or like when I go on vacation and I can't use my Roku, the TV in the motel is crap, and I forgot to bring any DVDs from home I can get something to watch and not have to worry about taking it back later like a Redbox.  The most I've spent on a movie there is I bought a used copy of Doctor Strange for $10 because I didn't feel like paying $20-$25 for that when it came out.  The fun thing is with Movies Anywhere you can also get the Digital Copy on a lot of the Blu-Rays, which makes it an even better deal.

Ollie's is another bargain outlet I sometimes shop at.  Last year they had a lot of toys from the closure of Toys R Us including Transformers like Trypticon, who retailed for $100 but was marked down to only $50!  That was probably as cheap as the original was back in 1986.

Far more terrifying than a giant T-Rex:  a giant Bulldog T-Rex!

They crowed about having new arrivals of toys every week but really once they sold out of the Toys R Us stuff their selection pretty well dried up.  Occasionally they have something like I got a Lando Black Series figure a couple of months ago but mostly it's just crap.  Still, it's a better selection than Big Lots and the prices are better too.

The other thing I've bought quite a few of from there are comic books.  I got a few random volumes of Deadpool, Justice Society of America, and Batman.  The problem though is like the toys after you've looked through there a few times there's really not much new being added.  And while you'd think a store like Ollie's would be a free-for-all like a flea market there's pretty much the same shit at every store whether I go to Farmington, Waterford, Westland, Utica, Roseville, or even Saginaw.  Big Lots is pretty much the same too, which is disappointing.

Besides toys and comics I've bought a lot of K-cup pods and paper coffee cups from Ollie's.  I got a copper French fry cooker thing too that's pretty good.  And one time I got a package of "irregular" socks for $2.  They're longer than normal tube socks but 6 pairs for $2 is still a good deal.  One time I found an old sharpshooting video game on clearance for 50 cents that provided a few hours of entertainment.  So there is some random stuff you can find, sometimes.  Like a few weeks ago among the board games I found a case of old Star Trek Customizable Card Game cards.  Those have been out of print probably more than 20 years so I have no idea how they ended up at Ollie's.  Someone probably found them in the back of a warehouse somewhere.  A whole box of 36 booster packs was $6, which was a steal considering they were $3-$4 a pack in the 90s.  And it was funny that the price tag said, "Their price $19.95."  Who's they?  No one except eBay and card shops have sold these for decades!

But for whatever reason Ollie's has a really shitty selection of movies.  They do have a lot of books if you're into paper books besides graphic novels.  I have a Kindle so I'm not really much into that.  By contrast Big Lots doesn't usually have much for books, so as far as media it's Ollie's for books, Big Lots for movies/TV.

Five Below is a smaller, more upscale chain that can have some interesting stuff.  I got a few Wonder Woman and Suicide Squad DC Multiverse figures from there and the one in Westland had some GOTG 2 figures one day; I wouldn't pay $20 for a tiny Rocket Raccoon figure but $5 is in my wheelhouse.  Recently I got three of the Shazam movie ones from there.  Besides action figures I like to buy the 10-foot USB cords they sell there.  They don't always last long but the range is really nice.  I've gotten some Sudoku books for my mom and a couple of Keto cookbooks for myself too.  If you want writing prompts or a journal you can find that stuff there for cheap too.

And then of course you have dollar stores.  A few years ago there were a few different chains but it seems now to mostly be Dollar Tree everywhere.  I used to have fun at XMas time buying people stupid little things from dollar stores like caffeine pills, a "spy radio," and some other random crap.  Mostly I buy the Ziploc-type bags from there because they're only $1 and even if you don't necessarily get tons I don't usually use a lot of them.  Other times I'll buy something like Werther's sugar free candies or sugar free cough drops (like Big Lots they used to have other flavors but now only have honey lemon) or pork rinds.

Though I also like looking at the books.  It's fun to see what ends up in the ultimate clearance bin.  There's some schadenfraude when I see a biography of Roger Ailes or Sarah Palin in there.  Or that book The Animators that I absolutely hated.  Other times I've actually bought something to read for real like a Timothy Zahn book and the sixth Hitchhiker's Guide book, the one that wasn't written by Douglas Adams.  Occasionally they have some movies like Cedar Rapids and the first five episodes of Transformers Prime, but not usually.  And if I need something like batteries or a big plastic spoon or whatever then I just go there.

But most food I'd just as soon go to Walmart as Dollar Tree, Ollie's, or Big Lots.  It's usually about the same price, if not cheaper and it's probably more reliable from an actual grocery store.  Mostly I just buy food from those places when I only need one or two things and I'm already there, so why bother going to Walmart or Meijer and waiting in line?

So if you want to save some money on shit, there you go.  If you wear somewhat normal sizes of clothes and don't care if they're used then go to a thrift store.  And you can look around those places for weird shit like old computer programs or 8-tracks and cassettes.  Just saying.