Aibu to wonder what’s the big deal about Costco

[MyCakeFellOnTheGrass]

Apart from the big cake I can’t see the point really if you’re just a person and not a business.

How many ordinary people even have storage space for bucket sized washing up liquid etc.

We live close to one and we love it!

Yogurt (natural only £1.49 for a kilo)
Tinned Tomatoes, Pasta and other food stuff
Dog Food
Detergent
Toilet rolls
Kitchen rolls
Bread/flatbread/dinner rolls/cakes/muffins
Clothes
Kitchen stuff: Dinner plates, cups, mugs etc
Batteries, Stamps, Books

I agree. We ditched our membership because we didn’t have storage space for massive things, and we were spending more than we saved on giant cakes and medjool dates!

Our closest Costco is a 20 minute drive away so bi-weekly or even weekly trips are possible.

I love it and find it excellent value for money. We eat lots of fruit in my family and the quality of the fruit is great and it is cheaper for better quality than an Aldi or Lidl and because I am only getting one giant punnet instead of many little ones, better for the environment. With a teenage boy, the snacks are great to stock the freezer with - Jamaican patties, microwave rice, peanut butter stuffed pretzels, big containers of nuts.

I stock up on cleaning products, britta filters, sonicare toothbrush heads, tinned tomatoes, large bags of cacao, organic quinoa, maple syrup, cheese, wagu beef burgers...not cheap, but I do end up saving money

Additionally, as a company, I think it is extremely well run and it treats its employees very well so I am happy to give it my money.

Love Costco.

We have the space for storage and use it to fill the car full of petrol on my way to work. Books and toys are excellent value, especially at Christmas. Works well for us.

I think the cakes/muffins/pizzas are horrific though in terms portion size. I think the prevalence of obesity amongst Costco shoppers is higher than your standard Aldi.

Love Costco. Been members for over 20 years. Hot dog and drink? Their fruit and veg is fab, their meat is top quality.

I absolutely love it.

But I go for the samples, not to buy anything...

YABU sorry. Costco is life.

You do need to know prices. Supermarkets can be cheaper (especially if they are doing a multi buy)

But the Costco meat is the same price, but much better quality.
Tray if 12 tinned tomatoes is good value and quality.
DH and DS like the pancake mix
Tubs of marmite!

Things to watch out for

1. Use by dates, they can sometimes be short. You might be given 2 weeks to get through 50 bags of crisps (or whatever)
2. They will just stop doing stuff (always stuff I want!) they used to do a twin pack of spray oil.... Now nothing 😭

@KenAdams Renewal for a standard membership is £30 a year not £50? The £50 one is the premium one which gives you some kind of false hope about cash back?

We love it, but we make sure we shop cleverly and actually do save money. We also have two garages, a shed and a utility room so no storage issues.
Plus the DD’s get a free lunch with the food samples

I use it a lot, but have a “cupboard under the stairs” I can store things in and I stand there googling to make sure it really is the best price

Now that the DCs are eating more, the membership is proving useful. We also have it joint with others at work so I think only pay about £15.
Washing liquid, tinned tomatoes, cereals and dishwasher stuff is a lot less than the supermarkets however as PPs have said, it's worth knowing looking up supermarket offers. We have just about room for storage.

Ah, I used to live in a flat that was directly on top of a Costco... fond memories..

You do have to be realistic about what products you as a family can consume in bulk and what you can't, but lots of stuff is in small enough packets. Saved a fortune on electricals, and the random stuff. Particularly good for buying stuff for parties.

@XiCi It's £30 a year x

We go but not a lot. We've got a baby so we go to bulk buy wipes, nappies and washing liquid/fabric softener. We keep it in the garage till we need it.

Love it. Saves us a fortune on washing powder, kitchen roll etc

I do shop in Costco but probably bulk buy no more than a dozen items maybe 5 times a year.

I try every time to find something else cheaper than a supermarket but in the one near me it's very much branded food that I don't buy.

I'm sure you could probably save money on large electricals but for me day to day shopping probably just about breaks even but we do like the cafe.

The petrol at mine is no cheaper than my nearest Sainsburys, not worth the drive for that.

The meat alone is far superior to anything you will get from Lidl/ Aldi/ Asda etc.

emotionallydestroyed it's £22 a year and that includes a card for my mum. I renewed last week.

Im self employed so can get a trade card, not sure if that makes a difference to the price.

I think the cakes/muffins/pizzas are horrific though in terms portion size. I think the prevalence of obesity amongst Costco shoppers is higher than your standard Aldi

This is hilariously batshit. The cakes are catering sizes for buffets, parties etc. That's what alot of people join Costco for, not to buy a mammoth carrot cake to chow down on whilst watching the ☓ factor

Lavazza coffee is much cheaper there than anywhere else, and it is frequently on offer, so you can get it at half the price of the supermarkets.

As well as things mentioned by others, books can also be very cheap and some of the clothes.

We have membership on and off. Ours has just run out and we'll probably renew the middle of next year so we probably pay for membership every other year on average.

I joined last autumn because I wanted the £60 gin advent calendar that was better than the others sold for £100+, but I've just seen that both Morrisons and Iceland have similar ones for about the same price. Gutted that I never spotted the Liverpool gin while I had membership though.

TBH, the big cake is the least attractive thing about Costco. It contains about a million artificial ingredients and tastes nothing like actual cake.

Sliced meat (naice ham etc) is excellent quality and very good value too.

Big packs, but freezes well.

I think the cakes/muffins/pizzas are horrific though in terms portion size. I think the prevalence of obesity amongst Costco shoppers is higher than your standard Aldi

I don’t think people tend to buy them for family consumption! The whole point is that they’re catering size.
We catered for a party of 30 children and 20 adults recently and the large cheeses/ pizzas etc were fab.

I've never been. But I'm a single mum of one so bulk buying isn't really something I think about. Fresh stuff would get wasted and I've not got the room to store much.

Love Costco. We live near one and when the kids were little we used to go for tea once a week: massive jacket potatoes or pizza for next to no money.
The Christmas stuff is great and we get pet food which works out well.
Sandwich platters are great for kids parties.