[ot] costco membership: is it worth it?

[Fred]

Hi,

I joined costco last year after they were mentioned here a lot. I've had a letter saying my card expires next month but I'm not sure whether to renew it. I don't think I've done much shopping there. With Christmas on it's way, I had a look at the spirits but they are all about £15/litre, much the same as the supermarkets. I've also bought nappies for my nephew but again, there is not much difference in the tesco price. Perhaps these are just bad examples?

When I bought my tv, it was cheaper elsewhere than costco.

OTOH all their other stuff seems to be in bulk quantities and I don't have the room to store 200 toilet rolls in one go or buy 20 kilos of coffee. Perhaps I should build a bigger shed ;)

What do folk here think of costco. Bringing back to diy, is it only the tools that you go there for?

Or does it depend on your location? Are some stores bigger and thus stock more items than others?

TIA

[Invisible Man]

I didn't renew a long time ago. OK if you have a large family or are happy buying in bulk and storing for a long time. Things tend to be cheap in bulk but expensive single items can often be found cheaper with a bit of research.

[Dave Liquorice]

It's the bulk or larger quantity buys that I go for:

Loo rolls (12 x 4 pks) =A31.33/pack Extra Virgin Olive oil (5l) =A33.38/l Full fat coca cola (30 cans) 23p/can Pasta (6 X 500g pks) =A31.60/kg Sun Maid Raisens (2 x 1kg pks) =A32.28/kg Rice (10kg bag) =A31.40/kg Chopped Tomatoes (12 x 440g tins) 29p/tin Washing Powder (7.2kg box) =A31.68/kg Screenwash Conc. (5l) =A30.94/l

1st Class NVI Stamps (60) =A30.37 ea Soy Sauce (1.9l) =A32.45/l Veg Cubes (6 pks) =A30.83/pk Ketchup (2 x 1.35kg) =A31.81/kg

There probably isn't a great difference in the prices compared to the likes of Tesco (our normal supermarket). The quality of CostCo's goods is above average, they don't sell cheap, crappy, no-name or odd branded stuff. Ketchup is Heinz, Soy sauce Kikoman etc.

Now go about every two months and combine it with the weekly shop, going to Tesco, Hexham instead of Carlisle. Only adds about 50 miles instead of the hundred odd that a special trip would be. Hexham or Carlisle are about the same distance from here and that trip would be made anyway. Probably just about break even taking into account the membership fee and extra miles. If it was closer I might pay more attention to the fresh produce which is supposed to be good.

No, of the CostCo's I've been in they are all pretty much identical, right down to the layout and on which shelf a given item is on. The tyre bay may shift about a bit but not the inside

[Steven Campbell]

Think you have answered your own question Fred. How many times have you used it in the last year? Has it saved you the cost of the membership over the last year or allowed you to by goods you wouldn't be able to buy elsewhere? I did have a card but never renewed. My parents have a card and added me as an additional card holder for £15 (I think) otherwise I probably wouldn't bother.

[Peter Parry]

Unfortunately not, SWMBO insists on going as well. We certainly save much more than the membership mainly buying meat (which is of a far higher standard than supermarket offerings), fish and other foods. Large goods such as TV's are usually as cheap as anywhere else but have the advantage of a 3 yr warranty from Costco which they honour quite happily. Their normal returns system for faulty goods is excellent - take it back and they refund your money without quibble. Overall costs are at worst broadly comparable with other places, at best considerably better, however the quality of all their goods, and particularly their own brand stuff is uniformly excellent. You also get some American goods which are not easily available elsewhere such as a variety of sauces including an excellent piquant sauce, corn chips and chocolate cookie mix. Currently they are doing the rather useful Contour Avenger gloves at about £12 for 10 which is about half the price others sell them for.

[Bob Eager]

I'd agree with all of that. First thing we bought was steel shelving for storing the bulk dry goods. Meat, as you say, is excellent, as are cleaning materials, and quite a lot of prepacked food such as coffee. Other stuff varies but I keep a careful analysis of relative prices.

In fact, my wife is there this afternoon...it's nearly 50 miles away so she's taken my car (S-Max) and a son...will expect a very packed car.

Usually I go but I had surgery on my hand two days ago and "can't lift anything"...!

[Richard Russell]

Same here. We're fortunate in having the space to store the vast quantities of stuff (in the interests of accuracy I've just checked - we've got 152 loo rolls 'in stock' at the moment!).

Again, we do the exactly the same. I've never calculated whether the savings compensate for the subscription plus extra mileage, but there are intangible factors - we treat a visit to Costco as quite an 'event', especially at this time of year when they've got the Christmas stuff out!

Richard.

[Tony Bryer]

Australia's first - currently, only - Costco is less than a mile from here and I joined mainly to sample the experience. I've bought very little there since the prices don't seem to be compellingly cheaper than my supermarket. It might be different if I were shopping for a whole family instead of just myself.

When I was a child, one annual 'event' was the pre Christmas trip to the Houndsditch Warehouse in London, which was really much the same - members only (card free IIRC) and bulk quantities. In the days of resale price maintenance it did provide real savings.

[Andrew Gabriel]

They were vastly cheaper when I was buying boxloads a few years ago for my niece and nephew.

Again, they were £100 cheaper on my TV than anyone else, _and_ included a long waranty which was otherwise only offered by John Lewis (for much more money).

Well, a major part of using such outlets is bulk-buying, so if you can't, you are missing out. However, if your local supermarket has a BOGOF running, that is likely to be cheaper.

They do also do some things which I don't know where else to get. As someone else said, their meat is vastly better than supermarkets, and most butchers. The meat and fish is always consistantly good. Their own label Toscano extra virgin olive oil is the best I've found, but they only have it for about one month in the year, I presume when it's pressed. Their Feit 23W CFLs are the cheapest genuine 100W equivalents I've found anywhere, and seem to be high quality (long life without significant dimming). A particular vice of mine, Pepsi-Max, is much cheaper there than elsewhere. The birds seem to like their large sacks of birdfood too.

I've never bought tools there. I did consider the set of wrecking bars as a birthday present for the 5 year old nephew ;-)

[Graeme]

In message , Peter Parry writes

Completely agree. We use the branch at Westhill (Aberdeen) for the usual bulk goods, meat etc., because of the higher quality. Where we have really saved is with large, one off items such as bikes for our son, netbook etc. However, for the ordinary shopping, there is not much point unless you have space to store bulk packs.