Why is Costco so expensive?!

Why has AI answered this thread? Bizarre.

Anyway, Costco is brilliant if you have a large family. We also have staples we buy every time: croissants (freeze them in smaller batches), cookies (same), lurpak butter - which is cheaper than store brand in Costco, crisps, welch's fruit snacks, Happy Monkey smoothies are super cheap in there and the only reliable way to get fruit into my food restrictive DD. Their box of macarons is ridiculously good value. Petrol, of course. Tins of tuna are the size they used to be everywhere else, and still the price they used to be. We also buy laundry pods there for less than they are in Home Bargains etc.

We often get things like a crate of Pepsi/pop, more bakery items. They do some lovely naan bread. Last time we bought 1kg of strawberries for less than Aldi prices and they didn't go mouldy within 24hrs like Aldi/Lidl fresh produce.

I can't understand the obsession with Aldi and Lidl for fresh food tbh, the quality is dire. I assume the people who think otherwise have never experienced actually decent food, for which I do feel sorry.

Our Costco membership more than pays for itself in the savings we make over the year.

I know, it’s not like being a member of the Groucho Club 😂.

It's like a cult I think, people feel like they have to love it because they have paid to be in this exclusive club.

Calm down, it's £33 a year.

You're not alone in feeling that Costco seems pricey compared to Aldi or Lidl. While Costco offers bulk deals, they don't always translate to savings for smaller households. However, there are ways to make the most of your Costco membership:

• Look for price tags ending in .97: These indicate clearance items and can offer significant savings.
• Check for asterisks on price signs: An asterisk means the product won't be restocked, so it might be a good time to buy if it's something you use regularly.
• Stick to a shopping list: Costco's layout encourages impulse buys. Planning ahead can help you avoid unnecessary purchases.
• Compare unit prices: Sometimes, supermarket own-brand items are still cheaper per unit than Costco's bulk offerings.

Costco can be great for certain items like fuel, rotisserie chicken, and household staples if you have the storage space and will use them before they expire. But for everyday shopping, especially for smaller households, sticking with Aldi or Lidl might be more economical.

Agreed, they're absolutely disgusting and full of all sorts of unrecognisable ingredients.

Shame we've not got one close enough to where we live. Closest is around a 90 minute drive away so even if we made savings, it probably wouldn't cover the petrol used, not to mention taking the best part of a day.

It's probably worth it for the toilet roll and petrol alone.

We also get the Crosta & Mollica frozen pizzas which are £7 for 2 instead of £6 each in supermarkets.

Last time we got 3 massive bottles of scracha sauce for £6, so worked less than half the price per ml compared with the supermarket.

Some things aren't cheap, but it you shop carefully there are good savings to be had.

It isn’t for me, DH and I joined a few years ago to see what it was all about.

It wasn’t for us. The vibe of huge boxes of UPF sheet cakes, massive jugs of syrup and people pushing big overflowing trollies around a warehouse was all a bit too American. The fruit and veg did look decent, but not any better than our local supermarket, just huge portions. I’m not into any snack or condiment enough to have a huge everlasting vat of it in my cupboard.

Seeing as everyone keeps mentioning the bin bags, we did buy some very good food bin bags, but then they didn’t have them ever again when we went back. Got some similar ones on Amazon though, so we recovered. We also got a great deal on a Sage coffee maker once.

Def a yes to leggings! I probably have a dozen pairs.

It is not always about cost it’s about quality even on the own brand products .

The beef fillet is also really really good!

I do t get it either, Lidl is cheaper across most things including random crap you don’t need. Costco only is cheaper if you buy branded items (I don’t). Even pastries are cheaper from Lidl and warm!

A lot of what they sell is branded so they’re never going to compete price wise with own brand Lidl/Aldi.

I get branded compost, laundry liquid, salt, trainers, alcohol, etc there - all items where the difference in quality between the cheapest and branded makes it worth spending more.

Oh no! 80p a week!!

You need to do the math, I’ve never spotted cheaper for same volume elsewhere.

Like others in most areas of my life price isn't my driving force, quality is, eg Costco white bin liners. If you want cheap shit, Costco isn't probably for you. The quality of their meat is high. We go every few months, and have done for over 30 years.

I've been a member for about 20 years, and not in that timeframe. They display the price without VAT as well as with (much smaller!). A business would be able to claim back the vat so maybe that's what you were thinking of?

I went yesterday and got a pair of Skechers trainers for £20 plus vat and a huge 750g jar of Bonne Maman strawberry conserve for £3.99. Bargains!

I was taken to Costco as a guest and the stuff looked good. But membership is £42 per year!

Certain things are cheaper than the supermarket and then other things are better quality for the price. You just have to study the prices and plan your shopping. My main gripe is that our local one has become too crowded and full of families treating it as a day trip.

My son had to double or even treble bag his bin bags. He lived in a 3rd floor flat, no lift, and the bin store was across the large car park. When he started living there, it was a constant problem of the bags splitting, sometimes before he even left his flat, which caused grease stains etc on the carpet in his flat (he had to carry through the lounge and hallway as the kitchen was the opposite end of the flat, and not by the entrance, and more often, on the stairs carpets. He didn't over-fill them, but simply by the movement through corridors, down stairs, across car park, they'd snag on something or something sharp would move around and cause a rip/tear. Different people have different circumstances. I use cheap bags which is fine for me because the kitchen bin is literally 5 feet from the back door and the kitchen floor is tiled, and the wheelie bin is right by the back door, so very little chance for them to be snagged or for sharp objects to tear them, and even if they did, a quick mop would clear up any spillage.

I love Costco. The Chocolate Panettone alone is worth the membership fee.

I also buy coffee beans, pickles, shampoo etc and have a never ending roll of clingfilm.

Had to stop buying the peanut butter filled pretzels for my Dh as they formed an unhealthy controlling relationship. 😁

Everything I have bought from there is top quality.

Has anyone used the non stick greaseproof paper and is it good?

Again, not at my local branches, everyone pays the same but I do realise that they may different policies in different places.

Quote didn't work, that was to @Simonjt

We buy the cakes quite often for parties and gatherings (DH’s family is huge and we need a choc fudge, carrot cake and an apple pie for Christmas!).

I like the two bite brownies and cinnamon rolls, Costco is the only place we can buy the welches fruit snacks that are my eldests favourite snack - they come in boxes of 180. Generally we’re eating the Easter ones until summer, the summer ones until Christmas and the Christmas ones until Easter! But I take no notice of the use by dates on that kind of thing.

I also like the clothes. They sell 32 degrees gillets and Orvis leggings plus mondetta active stuff that I can’t buy any where else. I recently had some lovely DKNY denim shorts and my DH likes the Gerry brand stuff. One of my friends describes my style as ‘Costco chic’.

Someone up thread mentioned that it’s brand quality for Aldi prices and I think that’s bang on. We’re just selective about what we buy and as we live close by and my office is even closer calling in for petrol on the way home and picking up the odd pizza for work meetings (that I’m imbursed for) make it worth while.

Oh when did it change? They were when I sometimes had to get bits for the restaurant I worked for.