oxi clean

Target Temporary Price Cut

Last summer, I found a San Francisco Bay Area Target selling a 6 lb tub of Oxi Clean for $8.49, which reflected a temporary price cut off the $9.99 regular price. So, is $9.99 the real regular price? During the winter break, I was able to shop at a Southern California Target. I wasn’t really focused on the temporary price cut v. regular price issue, though it is good to know that items marked as discounted are truly discounted even if they are not discounted to a Costco level. I really wanted to figure out whether Target and other large retail stores varied their prices by regions, much like the gas stations. Turns out, that is not the case, at least for this item.

Oxi Clean at Safeway

Sometimes, the Safeway Club Price is a good deal. Sometimes, it is not.

For the rest of this year, Safeway is selling a 6 lb. tube of OxiClean Stain Remover for $12.99. A dollar cheaper than OSH; however, the same price as the 15 lb. box at Costco.

Oxi Clean

Previously, I tracked the price of Oxi Clean at Costco and Target. I experienced some serious sticker shock when I spotted this tub of Oxi Clean at OSH.

$13.99! The same size that Target was selling for $8.49 on sale and $9.99 regularly. Compared to Target’s sale price, OSH is selling the same product for 64.78% more. $13.99 is a buck more than the sale price I paid for a 13 pound box of Oxi Clean from Costco.

Oxi Clean: Costco Instant Rebate

Costco regularly sells a 15 lb box of Oxi-Clean for $16.99. Currently, Costco has an instant manufacturer’s rebate of $4.00, which drops the price down to $12.99. So, if the sales prices at traditional retail stores are almost as good as the regular prices at Costco, how good are Costco’s sales prices?

Mind you that this is not a mail-in rebate or one that requires a coupon in hand. The discount is automatically taken at the register. Since, 1 pound = 16 ounces, Costco sells Oxi-Clean at $0.071 per ounce (regular price) and $0.0541 per ounce (sale price).

Target sells a 6 pound tub of Oxi Clean for $8.49, marked as a temporary price cut. The regular price is $9.99. So, Target sells Oxi Clean at $0.104 per ounce (regular price) and $0.0884 per ounce (sale price). Currently, the OxiClean site has a $1.00 OxiClean coupon for any OxiClean powder (56 oz. or larger). Since 6 pounds = 96 ounces, the tub qualifies. So, at $7.49, the unit price is now $0.0780 per ounce, which isn’t even better than the Costco regular price. The killer deal is that the Costco sale price is over 30% the Target sales price + coupon! For the same amount of stain remover, 6 lbs. at the Target sales price with coupon is $7.49 and 6 lbs. at the Costco sales price is $5.19.

Granted, whether you are buying 6 lbs. or 15 lbs. of Oxi Clean, either size will last a long time. While you do save $2.20 per 6 lbs., saving a couple dollars a month isn’t the same as saving a couple dollars per week (or per day).