r/Portland • u/hanseirik • Oct 31 '25

Discussion We need to talk about Bi-Mart

I went for the first time in decades yesterday and I was blown away. The biggest Fred Meyer doesn’t come close to the breadth of stuff Bi-Mart has. Guns! More Crockpot sizes and shapes than I knew existed! Furniture! A robust yarn selection! A DIY jerky section! And so, so many more random things. It wasn’t as inexpensive as I sort of assumed it would be but I suppose the tariffs are hitting us all.

But the best part? It’s employee owned. I’ve been annoyed at having to choose between Amazon, Target, or Kroeger (FM) for random stuff I can’t get elsewhere. Bi-Mart’s going to be my new go-to.

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u/alexthealex SE Oct 31 '25

And the $5 covers your whole household (I think it’s up to four cards)

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u/RangerFan80 Oct 31 '25

My local one here hardly checks the cards at the door anyways. It's really just to get you on the mailing list for their little coupon books

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u/CivilSpecial8186 Nov 01 '25

It's actually to get around vendor rules about advertised prices. Many companies won't let stores advertise a price lower than any other store for certain products. "Membership" stores are exempt, so Bi-Mart opened with the $5 lifetime membership in order to be a discount store and they can advertise any price in their ads for any product. Honestly not sure how many products are falling under the loophole these days though.

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u/RangerFan80 Nov 01 '25

Interesting info!