The old saying goes, time is money. So just how much do we spend in order to save a little time? Almost everyday we pay someone to do something we could probably do ourselves. All this month Fact Finders are taking a look at the cost of convenience. In this report, we took a look at the classic convenience store.  Are you spending more money so you don't have to spend more time?  

     As it turns out, when we pull into to gas stations to fill our tanks, we often empty our wallets on things other than gas.  Convenience stores know what we went to buy right now and stock their shelves with it. Pop, chips, and gum are some of the biggest sellers, but if you look hard and long enough you can find a real assortment of products. Everything from aspirin to spark plugs lines the shelves.

     A recent trip into a store to grab a pop made me wonder, am I paying more for the convenience of a convenience store? I assumed yes, but I wondered just how much. Now to be clear and fair, this is by no means a scientific study, but it may provide some basic examples.  I picked three items that I have bought at a convenience store, and then shopped for each at a gas station convenience store, a local grocery store, and a big box warehouse store. 

     Let's start with one of the biggest sellers at gas stations that ice cold pop! Most of the shoppers I spoke with admitted that the prices are probably a little higher but they are totally willing to pay for it because of the convenience. As it turns out, the liquid refreshment isn't really breaking the bank.  Buying that 20 oz Diet Coke bottle at a convenience store costs about a $1.25, versus the same chilled single bottle of pop at the grocery store checkout which rang up at $1.69. So you actually pay 35% less at the convenience store than at the grocery store for a single serving pop. The big-box warehouse store is the best deal at 88 cents per bottle, but you have to buy 12 of them, and they are not cold. So if you plan ahead, stock your own fridge, and remember to bring one with you, you can save money, but that’s not really very convenient. Bottom line, since I am probably not going to be disciplined enough to go the big box route, I shouldn't feel too bad about paying my pop at the gas station. 

     Moving on to item number 2. It's happened before, I am headed home from work and then it hits me that I am almost out of milk.  As it turns out, that jug of milk will cost me more at a convenience store. I priced out a gallon of skim milk at $3.69 there versus the grocery store price of $2.99, (that's 20 percent less). The best bargain out there is the warehouse club, the least convenient but the least expensive at $2.86. You pay more for milk at the convenience store, but that probably doesn't come as a shock. It's not a big sales item, especially in the gallon jugs. Convenience store pricing that I saw was more competitive in smaller quantities. I guess the take home lesson if you really want to save money is buy enough at the gas station to get you through until you can make it to a store that sells a lot more milk cheaper. 

     And the final item was one that I really expected to pay through the roof for at a convenience store. (And one that I have bought recently there), toothpaste. I spoke to some convenience shoppers who fully expected to pay a premium for a toiletry item at a gas station. So it doesn't really come as a surprise that the convenience store small tube of Colgate cost about $4.59 versus $2.79 at the grocery store (a 40% mark up). The warehouse store was by far the cheapest at $1.76, but just like with pop, you can't buy a single tube. That price came from a five pack of tubes.         

     So the true convenience store is kind of mixed bag when it comes to cost. Frankly I was surprised to find any bargains, but they are out there. You kind of have to know what you should be paying, and of course balance that with the convenience.

     This is an important point; the convenience store charging more isn't necessarily them taking advantage of your immediate need and sticking it to you. An insider told me that often they get charged more from distributors to buy the pop, toothpaste, and milk than bigger stores, because of that that their profit margins are actually a lot smaller than the places that can sell it for less.