Why is Costco so expensive?!

The prices are no different for trade in the UK.

Well we’re all different! I’ve never gone just for bin bags, that would be fucking weird 😂, but while I’m there I buy bin bags. Just like I would at a supermarket.

I go once a year as a guest of a friend who has a membership. Stock up on cleaning products both for house and self

Just this week I finished a box of dishwasher tablets that were bought a couple of years ago

I know that month I will spend a lot but if I split that across the year, I know I am getting branded products for the same or less than discounted brands

Plus there is also the extra treat that month of the brownies and cinnamon bites

My friend is also good at picking me up stuff. Just this week she has dropped off several bottles of Nando perinaise which DH goes through a lot of but we only buy if it’s on offer in Tesco

Well this is rubbish IMO , and I don’t pay for my membership my sister does . The petrol is at least 5 p per litre cheaper than my local Tesco ( which is the cheapest in my area) , their Kirkland Kitchen towels , toilet rolls and batteries are definitely big brand equivalent ( we use to be an Andrex loo roll family) . The smoked haddock and salmon fillets are much better quality than from any local supermarket and the rotisserie cooked chickens are excellent . We went yesterday and only spent about £180 , mainly on paper products , porridge ( on offer) , coffee , olive oil and bottles of water - which is ridiculously cheap for still and sparkling . We always price check whilst we go round . You can also get some excellent bargains on garden bits / toys , Lego in particular .

Trade is an hour early than general admission and has different pricing.

Agree. I can't really imagine the kind of life I'd be living where I'd be taking a drive to a big box warehouse store in order to get the best quality bin bags!

Some are cheaper, so are not, some are much better quality, I find it worth it.

Petrol, jeans and leggings and shirts - good quality and price, bread deals are good and for tinned goods. Great tomatoes and oil. I covet their massive olive trees but they are too expensive

Apple products are cheaper than in the Apple Store. We go when we are doing parties as their meat and fish is excellent and I can bulk buying fruit, veg, snacks and drinks

I love the bin bags too, never break no matter how heavy and massive too. You could bury a body in them.

Just go in with a receipt of all the stuff you usually buy, multiply by the markup, and see if it works out better. Obviously factor in use-by dates as you don't want to buy 20 of something and only use 10.

I mean, just personal choice though. Not bothered what bin bags other people choose!

I like mine to be good quality so they don’t split, that’s all.

A couple of posters have mentioned bin bags, why do they need to be high quality? Don't you just put them in the inside bin then throw in the outside one when full? Or does everyone live in areas where they have to put the black bags at the road side?

I want mine to be the cheapest that are up to the job and couldnt bring myself to pay a lot for someone I'm literally going to throw away after a few days

The enchiladas are so good, cottage pie too. I live next to an M&S and would say Costco ready meals are as good, if not better. Plus the bin bags and kitchen roll! Kids snacks in bulk and shelled pistachios… I don’t buy booze there yet though.

It's focused on Wholesale mainly, that's why there are two prices on things.
It's not great for small household living with no storage.
I used it when I had a home daycare and fed many kids. We also had a lot of storage for everything and went through lots of milk, butter, bread etc that I no longer buy there as many things would go off before I could use them all.
I still buy things that last and they have a fantastic return policy. I remember returning a vacuum cleaner I'd had in use for about three months. Took it back they looked up my account, and saw it and refunded as they no longer had that model, I went in a got a different one that last years.
Petrol is a good price too if you have time to line up.

This perfectly sums up Costco

I think there’s an assumption that everyone’s main priority is that things are cheaper than elsewhere, when that’s not why I shop at Costco. As I said upthread, their black bin bags are far superior to any I’ve found elsewhere, even the most expensive supermarket ones. They’re not cheap, but I buy them for the quality. Ditto the kitchen roll and foil.
I also have an autistic child who is very specific about brands and their Heinz ketchup, for example, is often far cheaper than I can find it elsewhere.
Overall though I don’t have membership to save money (although I think I probably do overall, especially when I was buying fuel from there), but because I can buy particular things from there that I rate, that I can’t buy elsewhere.

The quality of the cheap stuff at Costco is usually better than the cheap stuff at Lidl. We pick and choose our purchases at Costco, I love buying in bulk but realise that not everything is cheaper, particularly the food.
The tin foil lasts us 5 years, the kitchen roll is excellent quality. We also buy toilet roll.

Like a few pp I'm on the 2% cashback card. My mum has the other card and I take friends. This means the card pays for itself and I make money.
I have a regular lists of things that are either cheaper then supermarkets or the same price but better quality. If I see it cheaper in Morrison's or Lidl I'll buy it there. I'm sad they stopped selling Birkenstocks because they were about 1/3 of the retail price.

We go 3-4 times a year for stocking up on things like coffee, tinned tomatoes, beer, dishwasher tablets. It’s not always cheaper so I do check the same item’s supermarket pricing as well. Costco often have deals on what we get so that way it does end up less on those things. Fuel is definitely way cheaper and quite often it is worth driving out of the way to go there rather than pay more locally.

In our Costco the main type of businesses that shops there are restaurant owners and hospitality, they use the ingredients to make something that’s worth paying for.

We only had a card for 1 year. I remember the Persil washing powder being so expensive when compared on a cost per wash basis with supermarkets.

I regret not getting the sofa armchair drinks holder though 😂

Never really thought it was cheap but the meat is all good quality compared to a lot of supermarkets. I also found they have things there that you can't get elsewhere.

I think there a bit of an illusion that it's cheaper because of the bulk but I think it's probably comparable to Lidl it Aldi.
If you use one with a petrol station the fuel is cheap enough for me to cover the subscription a couple of times over.

And the ready to cook meals are great.

We tend to do the big freezer shops there about once every 6 weeks. I wouldn't use them for the weekly shop.

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.

I've found their own brand products to be inferior and more expensive than the likes of Aldi. Their branded products are cheaper than Sainsbury, Tesco etc. So it's only really worthwhile if you are a brand shopper.