Best Bargains for Personal Hygiene Items

A comprehensive look at the cost of purchasing average personal hygiene items at five different stores. The most cost-effective place to shop for these items is determined.

I'm crazy for finding the best deal as any of my friends and family will tell you. So when I'm doing the shopping for my family's personal hygiene items I wonder if I'm getting the best deal. I generally don't shop at the same store every time, it depends on what else I'm doing. If I have a lot of stuff to buy I usually make a specific trip to a big box store like Wal Mart because I think I'll be saving money. If I have a small amount of things to buy I pick them up when I do my regular grocery shopping. So this got me thinking, where is the cheapest place to buy these items? Am I actually saving money going to the big box store? Would I be better buying them at a more convenient store?

To answer this question I first looked online and wasn't satisfied. Many other blogs recommended shopping at the big box stores because you would definitely save money. However, no one actually used evidence to support their claims. As someone with an academic background, I can't believe something until it's been backed up with sound evidence. I decided that I needed to do my own study.

Method of Study

I chose five different stores to look at for this study: Wal Mart, Shoppers Drug Mart, Zehrs, Foodland, and No Frills. I felt these stores accurately reflected where most people shop for their personal hygiene items, at the big box store, drug store, or grocery store. These are also the stores that I frequent the most, so I was able to include research time into my regular shopping. 

The items I chose to look at were brand-name only because they were present at almost every store. Most of the stores I studied had their own store brand items, but these were not consistently sold at every store, so I omitted them from this study. I took a guess when choosing the brand, and tried to study several different brands of an item when possible. The categories of items I looked at are: facial tissue, toilet paper, diapers, hand soap, shampoo, pads, tampons, deodorant, and body soap. 

Here is the chart I compiled:

	STORE
ITEM	No Frills	Zehrs	Foodland	Wal Mart	Shoppers Drug Mart
Kleenex 6 pack	7.49	8.19	8.99	6.98	N/A
Kleenex 3 pack, 2 ply	5.99	7.29	N/A	6.27	9.99
Charmin Basic, 12 rolls, 1 ply	8.99	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Charmin Ultra Strong, 12 rolls, 2 ply	N/A	10.99	N/A	9.48	N/A
Cashmere double, 12 rolls, 2 ply	N/A	10.99	12.99	9.88	N/A
Cotonelle 12 double roll	5.77	10.99	N/A	9.88	10.49
Pampers Swaddlers 100 packs	29.99	29.97	N/A	24.96	N/A
Pampers Cruisers 2, 52 pack	N/A	N/A	20.99	N/A	34.99
Softsoap refill, 1.65L	6.47	3.78 (828 mL)	N/A	2.50 (828mL)	5.99 (828mL)
Softsoap refill, 320 mL	N/A	3.79 (500 mL)	3.99	1.00 (340mL)	N/A
Softsoap pomegranate (250mL)	3.17	3.79	N/A	2.50	4.99
Pantene Shampoo	4.96	5.49	5.79	4.96	7.99
Always Maxi, 24 pads, regular	3.88	4.19	N/A	7.57 (36 pack)	5.99
Tampax, regular, 20 pack	3.88	5.49	N/A	4.98 (18 pack)	5.99
Dove deodorant	3.79	4.29	4.49	3.48	4.99
Crest Complete	2.49	2.99	2.79	2.36	3.99
Dove Body Wash 354mL	4.77	5.49	N/A	3.47	7.49

*N/A indicates the item was either not available at the store I studied or I was unable to finish my study of the store, as was the case with Foodland.

Analysis

My hypothesis going into this study was that Wal Mart would be the cheapest place to purchase personal hygiene items, and Shoppers Drug Mart the most expensive. 

The results generally followed this trend, but there are several important things to note. 

Bulk Shopping

No Frills and Wal Mart had very comparable prices in most areas, however at Wal Mart you are able to purchase items in bulk packs not available at No Frills. I found that many times the particular item I chose was the smallest size available at Wal Mart, and to buy more it was fractionally more expensive. This means that if you're buying for a family or just like to shop in bulk, you would do well shopping at Wal Mart. However if you only buy regular sizes of things, you're no better off shopping at No Frills instead. 

Diapers

Wal Mart was hands down the cheapest place to buy diapers, a Pampers Swaddlers 100 pack cost $5 less at Wal Mart than any of the other stores studied. If I had a baby this would be very important because its something you buy lots of and $5 cheaper a pack is a lot.

Sales

While Shoppers Drug Mart and Zehrs were on the more expensive side of things, they also had the most sales at the time of study. I found that at these stores, almost every product was either on sale or a similar one was. The sale price was usually comparable to the prices at Wal Mart or No Frills. I want to point out that while Shoppers was expensive, if you were to stock up on items while they are on sale and do that shopping at a time when there is a promotion going on for bonus optimum points, you could end up way ahead. They often offer a sale where if you spend $50 you get 20x the optimum points. Optimum points are given on certain items in varying amounts, but assume that we buy 5 things costing $10 each, and each gives us 100 optimum points. At a 20x the points event, you would get 10 000 points. 8000 points is redeemable for $8, so you would essentially save an additional $8 after any other savings. Shoppers also offers 20% off for seniors on Thursdays, this was something none of the other stores studied offered.

Brand Name vs. Store Brand

As previously stated, I didn't include store brand items in this study because they weren't available consistently. In every case where store brands were available, they were cheaper than their name brand counter parts. So greater savings could be had if you buy the store brand at each of the stores studied.

Transportation Costs

Something else I considered when studying these stores, is the distance to travel to it. I used my place as the starting point and using gas buddy calculated the cost to travel round-trip to each of the stores closest to me. I drive a small compact car and live close to many stores. This will make my transportation costs minimal. If you drive an SUV and live in the country, you'll be paying more in transportation than I am. These costs are calculated using the current price of gas at $1.282/ litre.

Wal Mart- $0.92 (9 kilometers)

No Frills- $0.83 (7 kilometers)

Shoppers Drug Mart- $0.83 (7 kilometers)

Zehrs- $0.70 (6 kilometers)

I didn't include Foodland because there isn't one near me. The reason I chose this store was because I went to it a lot for work. It is also the only choice for many people in small towns, so I wanted to include it for variety sake.

I live close to all of these stores and the cost to get to any of them stays roughly the same. So it doesn't cost me that much more to go to Wal Mart than No Frills. However, if I only visit one then the gas costs go down because I am only making one trip. So if I buy all my personal hygiene items at the grocery store when I do my regular weekly shopping, and don't make a separate trip to Wal Mart or Shoppers Drug Mart, I would save $0.83-$0.92. 

Try this website out for yourself and figure out how much it costs you to travel to the stores you frequent. Knowing how much it costs you in gas, will make you keep your savings in check. If you're paying $1.50 in gas to go somewhere specific to save $1.00, it's not worth it. If it's part of your regular shopping that you do every week, that is a bit different.

Conclusion

Overall the cheapest place to buy personal hygiene items was either Wal Mart or No Frills. The most expensive were Foodland and Shoppers Drug Mart. Zehrs was in the mid-price range. There were many factors to consider aside from raw numbers as each store offered different perks for shopping there. Wal Mart offered bulk savings great for families. No Frills offered consistently low prices. Foodland doesn't offer much, other than being the only grocery store available in many areas. Zehrs offered savings. Shoppers Drug Mart offered savings and a competitive rewards program. Transportation costs were also looked at, but will vary for every person so I recommend making you own calculations. 

I think that in the future I'm going to buy my personal hygiene items when doing my regular grocery shopping. I don't shop for a big family and therefore don't need to buy a large amount of items. It just isn't worth it for me to drive out of way to buy toilet paper and kleenex. The savings aren't that substantial to shop at a big box store to justify the increased gas costs. 

Doing this study has been great, because I now know when I shop at the grocery store I am getting the best deal.