Their house brand. I go to Sam's and buy Bountys. Costco is too far from home. My sister brought me a couple Costco double rolls. Not bad. And my neighbor gave me a roll of Sam's regular. They are about $17 for a case of 30. Both the Sam's and the Costco's are pleated. And they have the same pattern. Can I take this mean that they are made by the same paper mill and are basically the same towel??
No. Costco's house brand of paper towel is hands-down better than Sam's. In my opinion they aren't even close to being equal.
I just talked to my neighbor and he told me the roll he gave me WASN'T Sam's house brand. They come 30 rolls in a cardboard box and are labeled as commercial paper towels for restaurants, food stores, etc. The brand is POM. So perhaps my question should be rephrased. Is the Costco and the POM the same towel.
snipped-for-privacy@aol.comic (TOM KAN PA) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m07.aol.com:
Dunno. I've never had Sam's or POM paper towels, but the ones from Costco are superior to any brands carried in the stupidmarkets.
Sometimes I make a trip there just for the paper towels and their dishwasher detergent.
I thought you lived near the Robinson Town Center.
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No, Allison Park
When Sams first opened they carried (in our area) Fort Howard brand paper products. Both the Paper Towels and TP were GREAT and much cheaper than our local supplier.
Then they switched to Marathon Brand which was totally unsuitable. Marathon Paper Towels scratched almost everything we used them on, and the TP, besides being rough, caused more waste line clogs than you can shake a stick at.
Before going to POM Brand, they went through another Fort Something brand that was only slightly better than Marathon. Although we buy POM TP, we now only buy the double scored Bounty, tearable in 1/2 sheets. It's a little higher, but they go a long ways further in usage and absorbency.
I don't know if Pace Stores were national or not, but when they opened in St. Louis, their higher quality and lower prices almost ran Sam's out of town. Sam's did the only thing they could and bought them all out and turned them into Sam's stores. We had a Costco open quite a ways from us, I visited it twice and was not impressed at all with their merchandise. Their prices were lower, but not enough to make up for the exhorbitant sales taxes where they opened. So the bottom line was, they were higher priced.
What irks me the most about Sam's is that their sister store WalMart carries many of the same things, and often for a lower price too, on the things we buy most often. And you don't have to pay a membership fee to shop at WalMart. WalMart don't know the meaning of ALWAYS that they plaster on everything. One day it's one price, the next it's a whole dollar higher and stays that way for a month. Then it drops again for a day or two then jumps back up again. They need to take that ALWAYS sign off the product on the days it's lower in price, because it is NOT ALWAYS that price.
TTUL Gary
Pace was a division of K-Mart
I agree abt Costcos paper towels
My only complaint abt them is they are too big sometimes. Occasionally I just want a small paper towel to wipe up a spill... and it seems wasteful to use the Costco towels for that.
What you think?
snipped-for-privacy@privacy.net wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
Yes, I agree, they are large. Most of the time they're a good size for me. I must be messier. :-) I see your point, though.
"Vox Humana" verbositized:
That's Right! I forgot.
I wish they would have kept them open though and not cow toed to Sam's offers and accepted them.
Although the Pace store was much further away than Sam's from where I lived, they carried most of my favorite brands of the things I used most often, and ALWAYS much less than at Sam's. They also had numerous things neither Sam's or WalMart has never offered for sale.
I bought two mini-fridges (dorm fridges), one from Pace, one from Sam's, when my kids went off to college. The one from Sam's had a cooling grate on the back, hinges that stuck out and a handle on the surface. The one from Pace was a solid metal back, no protrusions anywhere, the handle was indented in the door Metal not plastic and the hinges are flush with door. Sam's Price $119.95, Pace Price $99.95 (20 bucks cheaper) The Sam's fridge lasted only 2 years, the door handle didn't make it 6 months. It was some unknown name like Crown or something like that. The Pace fridge I'm still using by my desk in the office for soda, it's at least 7 years old now if not older. It's an Emerson! They were both the same size inside!
As an aside, while speaking of refrigerators, I purchased a side by side, with ice maker and ice crusher, water and ice from the door, etc. made by Westinghouse with the name Roper on the front. I purchased mine from The Home Depot. My wifes sister liked it so well she got what she thought was an identical refrigerator from Sam's for around 8 bucks cheaper. On the outside they look identical, both made by Westinghouse, same type handles, same faceplates by the ice/water dispensers, same water filter and filter cover. Inside they look the same on non-removable parts, such as temperature controls and housings, covers, inside materials and shapes, etc.
But there is a big difference in the removable parts, namely the shelving and door shelves. In mine the fridge shelves are tempered glass with a plastic frame and two sets of drawers at the bottom. Hers, the shelves are plastic coated wire with only one drawer at the bottom. On the door, our bins are identical in size and shape, but I have 1 extra of the medium sized bin. I have 1 large at the bottom, 3 medium up the middle, 1 small at the top, with glass over the two top built in bins. She has 1 large at the bottom, only 2 medium up the middle,
1 small at the top, with smoked plastic over the two top built in bins.We checked on the price of a new medium sized bin. It was $36.00! We checked the price of replacement glass and coated wire shelves. $89.00 for wire, $129.00 each for the tempered glass. Replacement glass doors for the top bins were 28 bucks each, plastic
21 bucks each.After comparing our two fridges, and the difference between the prices of the replacement parts, she figures Sam's took her for well over 200 bucks.
All of the rest of the two fridges was identical, right down to the compressor and rollers under the bottom. In other words, the only things different were the removable components inside.
TTUL Gary
I thought Whirlpool made the Roper brand.
Found out from an "honest" Sears salesman that many modles of one item will be almost the same except the last letter or two of a modle number. That is so the stores will not have to "price match" anothe stores item. That could also be the differance in prices.
Hi Ralph
Your are Correct! It is Whirlpool NOT Westinghouse.
As far as model numbers, I think you will find that all major chain stores have different model numbers on the same items, just for the very reason you indicated. Sometimes something is visibly different, sometimes not.
Many long years ago, in 1968-70 when JC Penneys was carrying major appliances, I had an uncle who had worked for GE most of his life. I told him I would like to buy a washer and dryer but wanted a good pair that won't break my budget. He did some checking and got back to me in a few days. He told me to go to JC Penneys and buy a particular Penncrest model series matching washer and dryer. Said it was the GE such and such model but with special improvements done just for JC Penneys, meaning it was better quality than their own branded like model. The GE model had a standard clutch, the Penncrest model had a special heavy duty three stage clutch mechanism. When one stage finally wore out, all that one needed to do was move the brake up to the next stage and they had a new clutch. That was only one of the 4 or 5 improvements found on the Penncrest that was not found on GE's own machines. The washer lasted about 18 years, the dryer almost 30 years, with minimal repairs. The last 15 years or so, it was used as a backup dryer. So I almost always had one washer and two dryers while the kids were growing up.
I'm not sure, but I think there are only like 3 companies left that actually make refrigerators, regardless of who's name is on them. I don't doubt that that applies to several other major appliances also.
TTUL Gary
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