Friday, June 25, 2010

Good News, Bad News





Well, it's finally happened... Someone is now shipping diapers up to Nunavut. For all you parents out in the land of ice and snow, this is fantastic news! Costco has added Huggies and Kirkland diapers to their online catalogue and true to Costco's fantastic-ness, yes the shipping is free. 

Now, before you all go doing the dance of joy and hurt yourself, please note the bad news in this situation. From what I can see, the diapers themselves have quite a mark up so it's not the deal it seems on first glance. Their Kirkland brand size 4's come in boxes of 186 and cost $59.99. The same box, if you buy it in the store is $41.99. The Huggies brand box of 200 also goes for $59.99 yet in the store it goes for $44.99. So it seems that the hike in cost is helping cover the shipping.

Just for comparison, this week on Foodmail I ordered a box of Pampers size 4's (126 diapers in a box) and it cost 34.99. Nick tells me you can assume Foodmail shipping is about 30% on top of the original cost on average so you can say that would be just over $10.  So, the box cost a little more than $45. Considering you get 60 or 80 extra diapers with what Costco offers, it's actually cheaper to buy from them. (I'm hoping my math is right on that, if not blame Nick. I'm math challenged) With Foodmail ending it's program next April and the fact that my local Northern Store charges $71 for that same box of Pampers... I say Yay for Costco. This is good news!!!

Having said all that, I order my diapers on sealift for the most part. However it's very difficult to guess how many diapers a newborn will go through, how fast they will grow out of different sizes and how much longer will Oliver need diapers? My brain hurt for days after figuring all that out for this years order. If I did well, I won't have to worry about where to get the best deal on diapers. If I didn't this news is very important. Only time till tell.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I read an article in one of the Northern News papers, and they said in the article that individuals are still going to be able to put in orders through the foodmail program, even after it changes - not sure how that would work, if you would have to place the order with the store or what, but they did that individuals can order somehow?

But if you do run out from sealift (and I agree, that definitely is a hard number to figure out!) it is nice that you have costco as an option - it's still better than paying full price up here!

Aida said...

man, i am sooo glad to be done with diapers!! i would imagine its still cost effective to buy from costco even with the $10 mark up.