Superfans of certain stores risk being blind to deals elsewhere

Are you a superfan of a particular store? If so, you’re probably doing tremendous damage to your wallet.

All human beings go through the process of selection and find favorites. We’ve talked about this in the past with regard to favorite shopping websites. But you’ll overpay if you always stick with the same site or store.

Superfans can account for up to 20% of a retailer’s customer base, yet they are six times more likely to shop at that particular store, according to a recent study.

Clark is no stranger to superfandom. It’s no secret that he’s a superfan of Costco Wholesale. He even named one of the family’s dogs Costco Wholesale! (The other dog was named QT for QuikTrip convenience stores.) His problem is that he has to fight the instinct to assume that Costco always has the best deals. The truth is that no one place or site always has the best deal every single time.

Too often we find a deal at one website and, because we’re pressed for time and have so much noise in our lives, we’ll go right back to that site each time. But there’s a hidden danger here.

Remember, you need to know the reputation of an online retailer before buying, in addition to their physical address and their contact number. You also need to be sure that an online retailer has a friendly return policy before you do business with them.

So the takeaway for you is that you need to comparison shop, whether you’re shopping online or in a store. When Clark goes to buy anything, he first visits multiple comparison shopping sites. For travel, he likes Kayak.com for airfare, but also checks ITA Software’s Matrix Airfare Search, which is available as an app for Apple and Android phones.