Is Costco worth it?

[Greenleave]

My husband loves Costco beef, I was only there once. I dont know if it was cheaper than Waitrose, it doesnt have everything we need though. Plus the annual fee, any of you is a Costco member and do you find the annual fee is worth it. We mostly get stuff online so I am against going to another supermarket. AIBU that I told him that I dont think its worth the hassle(shop in another super market) and cost(annual fee membership)

[Loopytiles]

Very good value IMO for stuff like washing powder, toiletries, loo roll, tinned tomatoes and beans, if you can afford to spend a lot in one go and have storage space! Quantities of fresh/frozen food are too large for our family of 4 with normal size freezer!

[TheSecondOfHerName]

Yes, but beware. We ended up bulk buying so much stuff that we had to buy some extra shelving to store it all. Luckily Costco had some...

[PoppyFleur]

If you have the space to store bulk purchases then Costco is great value. We buy toilet & kitchen rolls, certain toiletries, soft drinks, wine, beer, and food staples liked tinned tomatoes, pasta, tea, coffee & cereals. On average we visit once a month to stock up.

[SerialReJoiner]

Some of their electricals and kitchen gadgets are very good value.

[TheSecondOfHerName]

In our experience, they are extremely good at accepting returns of any electrical goods that break down.

[Loopytiles]

We go around three or four times a year. It would be easy to spend hundreds of pounds! Loads of stuff you might want but not planned to buy: in the past DH has come back with all sorts and spent a fortune! Eg a gazebo - FFS. Now sticks to the list or has a self imposed cool off period before returning to buy anything off-list!

[00100001]

We "share" our membership with friends and family.

So cost is about £5 each :)

Some things are very good value,others not so much, sometimes supermarkets are cheapest especially if they have special offers on.


The meat is very good.

Is worth it just for the pizza in the cafe

[oblada]

We do ocado online shopping every fortnight and Costco every couple of months. It's fab! But it's for stocking up so u need the space. It's not for your weekly shopping but great for certain things. We get staples like toilet paper kitchen paper wipes from there. Also kids pouches, various tins, some branded products the kids require. Good on alcohol too and some frozen fish. Can be useful for fruits and vegs but in big quantities. Good for cheese. Also nuts and snacks. They have cool electrical items, fab birthday cakes and party food and sometimes some nice clothes and other random things. For us it works :)

[TheMysteriousJackelope]

Where we are, we have an 'executive membership' with Costco. It is more expensive, but we get 2 - 3% back on everything apart from alcohol, petrol, and cigarettes. The refund comes as a gift card once a year. I use it to pay the next year's membership and the refund is usually high enough that it pays 4/5 of the membership. I don't know if that is an option where you are though.

The Costco business model is they only stock around 700 items and make a 15% profit on everything. This means that no, they won't have everything you would find in a supermarket. I find that they are normally a lot cheaper than a supermarket, particularly for things like alcohol. DD also likes the 'Madras Lentils' and we get those on sale at Costco at roughly a third what they cost in the shops. They do stock consignments of things (such as Orvis jackets and toffee pretzels) that you'll see for a month and never again which can be frustrating. Their own brand (Kirkland) is of excellent quality - I think the vodka is Grey Goose. It is worth keeping an eye on supermarket sales though as when they are running loss leaders, they will undercut Costco.

We usually do one big shop a month when we happen to be on that side of town so it isn't too inconvenient. We buy household staples like toilet roll, paper towel, bread, coffee, cleaning supplies, oats, cereal, pet food, flour, sugar, some spices, bottles of water for lunches, snacks, toiletries and laundry supplies. Even without meat we still spend about two hundred a month in there and probably another hundred and fifty at the petrol station.

I am very much in favor of Costco. They are an excellent employer too.

[user1483046088]

In a word yes and no

If your haveing a party then yes
Or have a large family bulking up of things we use often tinned toms or things we only buy branded like Branson beans Ect hot chocolate

But the real wins are things like loo roll and washing powder we use the Kirkland stuff it's lasts us about 6 months and there are 5 of us you can also was your floors and sook pots with it

Also the meat we buy sandwich bags buy the meat and section it up its really good quailty

We go about 5 times a year

We get
Loo roll
Washing powder
Tin toms
Beans
Hot chocolate
Brownie mix
Mince
Diced lamb
Fabric softener
Beer
Butter
Cheese (we gate then freeze use for pizzas tosties Ect)

[00100001]

OH the tin foil and cling film, sandwich bags etc are excellent

[Greenleave]

Thanks for your reply. Last time I went we spent £300 easily(including some small household stuffs and I didnt plan to get them). We are a family of 4, 2 small children so not too sure about the bulk buy. I must say we love their beef and their chicken. They are as nice as Waitrose. I dont see them as good value in terms of discount though, supermarkets always has some offers and savings going. I am trying to tell my husband not to go this weekend, havent found a valid reason though.

[DailyFail1]

We managed to cut £200/mth by shopping there, so definitelt worthwhile for us. The meat/fish/eggs/bread/essentials are very good if you buy in bulk

[HeCantBeSerious]

Buying 90 contact lenses a year saves me the annual fee several times over.

[littlemissangrypants]

We love Costco. We have limited ourselves to 1 trip a month and spend a lot. The little extras we pick up add up a lot. The meat is very good at Costco and the use by dates on fruit and things is very good and much better than most supermarkets.
Their returns policy is brilliant and they recently gave full refunds on three year old pushchairs. No receipts needed for returns either so you don't need to keep them. The price of things is pretty good too. We bought a TV which was a lot cheaper an currys and other places online.
Not everything is cheaper when you think about offers at supermarkets but the Costco price is year round. The also do coupons that are automatically taken off at the till which adds more saving.

[Greenleave]

Last time we went our French neighbor allow us to come with their membership to try. They have been shopping there for more than a year, they are quite choosy in terms with cheese and breads and fruits and they love Costco. To me the hassle of going to another super market while we have so little time for weekends is daunting, however if the quality is such great I could do once every other month.

[Notso]

It's great for us as a family of six. Our self imposed rule is that we only buy stuff we won't use more of because we have more of it.
Its saved us money as having a good store cupboard cuts down on top up shops, and we haven't had to send anyone to the corner shop for an emergency loo roll in about 18 months.

[DailyFail1]

The majority of the cheese is French which is prob why your neighbour probably liked it. No difference in quality at all. I personally prefer British cheese but don't eat it often so will just buy a small block from M&S or Waitrose whenever I have time.

[SomewhatIdiosyncratic]

I've had at least 2 Christmases of wrapping children's toys from one of their rolls of wrapping paper!

Chocolate cake.
Nuff said

[Akire]

I dislike a shop I can't use because I don't have right sort of "job"!

[Madbengalmum]

Certain things are very cheap with dettol laundry cleanser,parma ham and coffee immediately springing to mind. Some things are not particularly cheap and you have to buy vast quantities of them. They do have different offers every month or so, and some of these things are very cheap and worth having.

[Daytona79]

We love we get loo roll, meat ,fish, dog food, nappies , razors,crisps, it good for books for kids. £3 for hot roasted chicken love that deal , also the pizzas are fab

Worth it to us.

[ShastaBeast]

Akire - we are also locked out because of our jobs. They posted a few fliers for a new store but they block us going - my old job would've been fine, it's just weird. We have decent professional jobs so plenty of money to spend. Although we hate shopping and have little storage space.

[Greenleave]

Akire, shasta: weird rule, it sounds discrimination. I didnt know they select their shoppers.

[228agreenend]

Definitely worth it, and the chocolate cake is so good. I bought a huge Black Forest gateaux for £8.99. Bargain and lovely.

We spend around. £100 a month.

Staples include toilet roll, kitchen roll, washing up liquid, washing powder, coffee, cereal, bottled water, orange juice, batteries, mince, Swedish meatballs, large apple pies, muffins, Danish pastries,

It's always good yo go with another Costco shopper because they will introduce you to,things you've never seen.