My wife and I signed up for memberships at Costco. I heard many good rumors about their prices and decided to find out for myself.
I was disappointed after a few times visiting my local Costco. Their prices are actually higher than what I can find at my local Walmart or local Target. And shopping in bulk doesn’t add up either, since the prices my wife and I saw were no cheaper than if we bought the same amounts elsewhere.
So, my wife and I will keep our memberships, because, the price for gasoline in their adjacent gas stations really is cheaper, where we can save around 20 cents per gallon. But, I still haven’t made back the ‘price of admission’. The $3-4 I save per tankful of gas will make the memberships worth it, but only after 1-2 years.
For my wife and I, Costco savings are a myth.
Costco sells no Diesel.
A strong negative.
I am a long time Costco member. A few facts.
They are a far left wing nanny company based in Washington state. They choose their products based on their idea of your health, like getting rid of the polish dogs, deli mustard, onions at the food court.
They have always paid their minimum wage workers far above the minimum wage and merely passed on the additional costs to the customers . All there stuff is mostly china made so don’t expect any stainless steel item not to rust after the one year warranty period.
One great thing, they accept returns forever and without the package . Except electronics and a few other items.
All in all it’s a pretty mixed bag/ you really gotta need what they hve to put up with the hassles, clogged aisles (mainly by the horde of Asian women described in the article) and you have to watch the prices.
Excellent summary. I pretty much agree.
The clientele at Costco is a couple of notches higher than Sam’s club (if you know what I mean); please don’t ask if I am being racist.
For Costco to be worth it you need kids, so it works for me. I would be bankrupt if I tried shopping for what I get at Costco. Also, I would rate Kirkland branded food and items with an over 90% certainly they are of good quality and value.
Whether these bulk places are a good deal or not seems to definitely have a regional element to it. Not that Costco or Sams is changing prices by region but by who the competitors are that they are being judged against.
Its similar to some of the conversations that occasionally pop up regarding prices and which is the best grocery store chain. Sometimes it really seems that the more common chains across the majority of the South (dont know much about Florida) are working together to fix prices at a terribly high point. It not uncommon for someone around here to comment that if they watch the sales then they can get a pound of name brand Thingy for only $5.99 at GrocerX and a quart of Whatsit for $4.59 at GrocerY when I can get either at my same local store regular price for only $3.