Cash & Carry

I can sort of understand why a C&C might want to restrict membership to traders, but why do they grant membership to people from various professions? What's in it for them?

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Reply to
Graham.
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Graham. wrote

Do you think they have any way of checking the validity of 'proof' they require? They're happy to take anyone's money and from what I've seen, they ain't exactly chock full of bargains.

Reply to
Jabba

When I was running my magician business I got given a Macro card :-)

Magicians of course are well know for buying large quantities of groceries & household essentials.

I agree though, stopped going because prices weren't that good.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

Last time I went to one there was nothing there I wasnt better off getting at the main supermarkets. Mostly pointless - the only upside is that you can turn up & bulk buy items without preordering, as you often need to at supermarkets.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

Many of the sites have planning conditions that restrict sales to members only usually to businesses.

Reply to
Peter Crosland

Depnds what class of member you are going for "trade" or "personal". For "trade" I think they reuire reasonable evidence of being in business like your VAT registration certificate. "Personal" may need a ID card from the "profession" or similar.

"Trade" means you ca shop in the mornings before the sheple get in the way and you can buy the bulk paracetamol (24 pks of 16 tabs @

15p/pk). "Retail" customers are limited to 2 pks in any shop IIRC.

Varies widely compared to the big five supermarkets. You have to have a good grasp of the prices elsewhere. I find that pasta, raisens, AA/AAA betteries, washing powder, A4 paper, Geta's mango chutney, Kikoman soy sauce, rice are all substantially lower.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

I thought it was something to do with different permitted trading hours or other permissions for establishments that aren't open to the general public. They care only about giving the appearance of being exclusive.

Reply to
Mike Barnes

They bypass some of the trading laws.

Reply to
dennis

They don't cost that much in the shops.

Reply to
dennis

More sales, more volume, better supplier pricing, better profits.

I think that if they make it open to everyone, they would have problems with their suppliers for the prices, as their other 'never knowingly undersold' or 'price match' retailers would have to stop stocking those products. Price matches don't apply to C&C's or clubs.

If you can bulk-buy (afford the up-front cost and have some storage space), they are vastly cheaper than supermarkets for many products, and never more expensive. Occasionally, a supermarket might just slightly beat C&C standard price if it's running a BOGOF, but usually BOGOFF doesn't even match C&C standard prices.

It's not just pricing though - I don't want to be carrying bog rolls, bottles of Pepsi-Max and other regular things back from the supermarket each trip, so I buy them in bulk with the car less often. Then my regular supermarket shop can be done on foot every couple of days, as it's easily carried home.

C&C's carry only around 1/20th of the stock lines that a retail supermarket will have, so some of your favorate products won't be carried, or only a different brand or only one (giant) size.

Costco also carry a lot of excellent lines which I've never seen elsewhere (or at least, not outside the US).

What I don't understand is why the supermarkets don't offer similar bulk-buy pricing. They are currently waving goodbye to a significant market sector.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

What do you buy? I have seldom found something in a c&c that was significantly cheaper and most of the time its more expensive.

Reply to
dennis

Sounds like yours is very different to ours. The prices here just dont make sense.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

You do have to feed all the rabbits inside the hats.

Owain

Reply to
spuorgelgoog

Costco aim to make 15% on the sales to cover expenses, the membership thing is their profit. This may change as the owner/starter has recently retired and it was his hobbyhorse.

Reply to
EricP

A man of many talents!

Reply to
GB

Of the two things I mentioned, toilet roll was less than half the supermarket price. So it was still cheaper when supermarket is running BOGOF, and Cosco often have it reduced too anyway. Must admit, I have no idea how much toilet roll is in supermarkets nowadays, as I haven't bought it there for over 10 years. Of course you have to buy 40 or more rolls from Costco. Similar for kitchen roll, etc. Kleenix Mansize has to be under £1/box for me to buy, which usually means Costco, although Waitrose occasionally manage it on double pack BOGOF. (Just noticed Costco will be having it on offer for £4.78 for 6 boxes.)

2 litre Pepsi-Max (something we get through loads of) is usually around £2 in supermarkets (£1.80 - £2.30 would be the typical range). Best supermarket price I see is BOGOF 2 bottles for £2. Standard Costco price is £5.98 for 8 bottles, and occasionally it's even less on special offer.

Breakfast cerials are significantly cheaper and the parts of the family that use the ones they stock always buy there. Unfortunately, they don't do the ones I eat -- the US granola they do has US sugar quantities in it which makes it sickly sweet (same with their US ice cream), and they don't do any makes of bran flakes.

I quite often use a side of salmon. I used to order this from Waitrose (no fish monger anywhere near here), but I found the Costco sides of salmon to be not only much cheaper, but also much better quality, and there are a hundred or more to chose from in the cabinet so I can get exactly the size I need.

Their Gazpacho is superb and half the price of supermarkets (or rather, twice the size;-), but is only available for a few months. Their extra virgin olive oil in glass bottles is very good too, but does often run out between pressing seasons.

We're well past having any children in nappies in the family now, but if you do, then their nappies, baby wipes, etc were very much cheaper than retail outlets.

I'm not a big meat-eater, but I'm told by those who do that the quality is very good. If I was to buy mince (which I never do), it would be there, because I can watch the quality of the meat as it goes into the mincer. Having worked in a supermarket as a weekend job when I was a teenager, there's no way I would buy mince in a supermarket, having seen it being prepared behind the scenes.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

When I go to Costco I have my phone tuned in to the Tesco website, and I just feed the items into the search engine. Instant comparison. There's only certain items that are cheaper. Most aren't.

Bill

Reply to
Bill Wright

Most of their stuff is way more £ than at supermarkets

NT

Reply to
meow2222

Strange I'm not rich really :-)

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

I'd agree with all of that. I used to go to Costco every three months (it's a 100 mile round trip) although these days SWMBO goes on her way to her mother's.

I used to find that the saving on three months' supply of cat food easily covered the cost of the diesel...

I really like being able to load the car up with about £600 worth of groceries in bulk. I too check the prices carefully, and have found that Sainsburys often have the Kleenex at under £1 a box. We buy a fair amount of meat, and the mince is very good. Also cereals, soft drinks, washing powder (as recommended years ago by the big washing machine expert that used to hang out here). Also buy a lot of tinned goods, bulk packs of various foods including Marmite!

Reply to
Bob Eager

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