Comparison Shopping

There has been a lot of talk lately about rising prices.

Everywhere.

This includes online stores, where I buy specialty items. Yes, the price increases have taken hold there too.

I have been doing most of my specialty grocery/cleaning supplies/hygiene products from iHerb.com although if you are in the US, you can use Amazon, and with their Subscription offers, you can get a great deal!

I knew that often I was paying a slight markup over Vitacost, but the tradeoff was 4 lbs would ship here for $4 versus 3.4 lbs shipped from Vitacost for $10.99. So overall, my orders were costing less.

But recently, when I noticed that some of the prices of items I usually buy seemed a lot higher than they had been, and I started to wonder which would make more sense for me.

So, I just did a price comparison of my shopping list on iherb and vitacost -- I had to take out 2 small items to keep it under the threshold for expensive shipping at vitacost.

Here's what I found:

Seventh Generation Free and Clear Dish Detergent  - iherb price: $4.40, vitacost price $2.80
Bob's Red Mill Baking Powder (aluminum free)  -  iherb price $4.66, vitacost price $3.29
Ricola cough drops  -- iherb price for 24: $2.66, vitacost price for 50 $4.49

iherb total including shipping:  $15.72 
Vitacost total including shipping: $21.57 (ok, so I get twice as many Ricola cough drops with this, but I got to throw in a freebie in my iherb order - so it evens out)

So in this case, it still makes sense for me to order from iherb, as it comes out cheaper despite the higher retail prices. But for some items it really may make sense to order from Vitacost.

I will just have to go back to comparing carefully.

If you've never shopped at vitacost, you can get $10 off your first order of $30 or more by registering here.

If you've never shopped at iherb before, you can get $5-$10 off your first order with coupon code QEJ101, or just click here and the code will be entered into your shopping cart.