SHOP TALK : You Get More for Your Money, but You Have to Get a Lot More : The Price Club sells food, household goods and much else in mass quantities. Is it the right formula for you?

Shopping can be as irritating as it can be fun. The choices are often maddening. Do you get the green or yellow tablecloth to go with the family dinner set? Is the striped tie more appropriate than the solid one for those heavy-duty business meetings? Are those upscale shoes really worth the high price?

Those are the constants, the decisions that must be made from one store to the next.

Then there is the Price Club and other warehouse chains like it, which present another dilemma: Does it make sense to buy large quantities of items in order to save cash?

If you’re not familiar with the Price Club, the Ventura County store in Oxnard stocks clothing, food, household goods, a healthy selection of wines and beers, and many other products, most sold to its member customers in mass quantities for discount prices. Most customers are members through their association with a credit union or by being employed by the state or county. Memberships cost $25 for the first year and $10 thereafter.

The Price Club recently merged with Costco, another discount store that sells in large quantities. And last month, the Oxnard outlet added 15,000 square feet featuring a bakery, deli, and produce and meat counters.

The meats present a particularly interesting dilemma. Shoppers need to answer the question, “Do I have enough space in my freezer, a big enough family, or enough friends to invite to dinner, to buy such a quantity of perishable food?”

Ponder that as we stroll down the meat aisle. USDA choice New York steaks from grain-fed Midwest cows are sold three to a package, ground beef six pounds per package, filet mignon four to a package. You can pick up 10 pork chops or eight tri-tips in one shot. There are whole beef sirloins, whole pork tenderloins (we’re talking over seven pounds), whole top sirloins (10 pounds).

Chicken comes in packages of 10 breasts, 12 thighs, 20 drumsticks or two whole birds.

We did a little price comparison for several items, taking the Price Club cost and stacking it up against average prices from several Ventura County butchers. Here’s what we found as of last week.

Tri-tip was $2.99 per pound at the Price Club, $4.08 per pound at the butcher shops. Ground sirloin was $1.99 per pound at the Price Club, $2.72 at the butchers. Whole beef filets were $6.18 per pound at the Price Club, $10.32 at the butchers.

There isn’t a large selection of fish, but the price is right. Last week, the Price Club was selling salmon fillets for $4.99 a pound, about half the price of local fish markets. The smallest package runs about 2 1/2 pounds.

Whole frying chickens were a mere 89 cents per pound, but think big: They come two to the package, weighing in at six pounds or more.

So who shops at the Price Club? Obviously not bachelors with small appetites and freezers.

“People usually buy the meat and freeze it individually in zip-lock baggies,” said Roger Hogate, the chain’s assistant manager for meat. “Our customers are typically large families or families that shop every two weeks.”

ATTENTION: NIGHT OWLS

Ventura County’s first Wal-Mart store, which opened at Oxnard’s new Shopping at the Rose strip mall a couple of weeks back, is open 24 hours a day. That’s right. Now when you get that 3 a.m. craving for auto parts and underwear, you’ve got somewhere to go.

County residents should feel honored. Of the 1,989 discount stores in the Arkansas-based chain, only 275 are open around the clock. The 147,000-square-foot Oxnard facility brings the number of Wal-Marts in California to 18.

For those who haven’t taken the Wal-Mart plunge, you may want to know the Oxnard store offers optometry services, paint mixing, one-hour photo developing, a portrait studio and a McDonald’s restaurant, along with clothing, fabric, toys and more.