Warehouse-style stores like Costco and Sam's Club offer grocery shoppers volume discounts in exchange for membership fees ranging from $20 to $50 a year. Shopping experts say you can easily recoup that membership fee, making the warehouse store a good deal. But you'll save even more if you approach your warehouse shopping with a retail mentality.

Here are some tips from Philip Lempert, food editor of NBC-TV's "Today Show," host of radio's "Before You Bite" and editor of Supermarketguru.com:

• Make a shopping list to avoid impulse purchases and buy what you really need.



• Use a regular shopping cart instead of the big "flatbed" carts some club stores offer. Piles of groceries look small in the big cart, tempting you to buy more.



• Bear in mind that not every item is a steal. Don't be fooled by the high ceilings and concrete floors into thinking that every item in the warehouse is inexpensive.



• Don't buy more bulk food than you will eat before it expires. For instance, "A 64-ounce container of salsa will last a family of four three or four months," Lempert advises. If there's too much to eat, or so much that you just get tired of it, it will languish in your refrigerator.



• Make sure you have enough room in your car for your purchases.



• Be sure you have enough room in your home. "If you buy 100 rolls of toilet paper on sale, but you live in an apartment in New York City, that's not too smart," Lempert says.


• Make sure you have enough room in your freezer before you go wild in the frozen food aisle.



• Think small. In amongst the big bulk items are some great buys on the little stuff. Lempert has found deals like six name-brand toothbrushes for $4 at Costco and Sam's Club, when the same toothbrushes were selling for $1.50 each at non-club stores.



• Costco shoppers should look for meats, poultry, and seafood, which Lempert praises for consistent high quality and low price.



• Use the buddy system. That six-pack of discount ketchup is a better buy if you can share it with a friend or two. Buddy shoppers often can be seen using their cell phones like walkie-talkies while they stalk the aisles, checking to see which items their friends will chip in on, then meeting in the parking lot to split up the groceries. It's not always just two buddies. Sometimes it's four or five.



• Look for wine and spirits (in states where they can be sold in grocery stores). You're likely to find attractive savings.

With your wallet taken care of, let's look at your waistline. Bulk shoppers can become bulky shoppers, and the experts want to help you visit the warehouse without turning your home into one, or, yourself.

In his 2006 book "Mindless Eating – Why We Eat More Than We Think," Cornell University Professor Brian Wansink addresses a chapter to the "Curse of the Warehouse Club." He says:

• Break it down. If you buy food in jumbo containers, repackage it into smaller bags or Tupperware-style containers. Big containers prompt people to eat more, especially during the first week after purchase. Then they run the risk of eating even more "to finish it up."



• Hide it. If you buy dozens of snack-sized items bundled together, like small bags of chips or microwave popcorn, put a few in the cupboard and then place the rest out of sight, into a closet or basement.