Are Warehouse Stores really a good deal?

I haven't really done any research on this issue, but it strikes me that shopping at bulk stores like that may not be economically efficient. There are a couple of things to consider about this.

1. What would people otherwise do with the space that they use to store there hundreds of roles of toilet paper and giant boxes of cereal and lightbulbs? If there is a better way to use that space, or if people value less clutter, then that is an argument for inefficiency.

2. How big is the discount, and how much do you expect the price of the regular sized goods to increase in real terms? If the price doesn't increase much over time then the discount would have to be more than whatever an individual's cost of foregoing present consumption is, e.g., you can't buy a cd today because you just spent $500 at Sam's or CostCo. I personally place a high value on current consumption, as do most people.

I suspect that the discounts are large enough to compensate most people, but I doubt many people consider the efficient use of space issue. If they did, maybe they would start buying generic goods and save some money that way.