Why is Costco so expensive?!

[MooFroo]

I know I probably am BU but went to Costco after ages, and it’s insanely expensive 😳

I was walking around and comparing the prices to Aldi, Lidl and B+M bargains where I normally shop and didn’t find anything cheaper! And because everything is larger sizes or multipacks, it costs even more!

The tills all had queues and lots of people with full trollies - what am I missing??

Is there a hack to Costco shopping for normal households and families or are people happy to pay more for convenience of bulk buying/larger packaging? I know their electrics etc have longer warranties and they have some cool random stuff, but I am talking about every day food, drink and household stuff like cleaning items and pet food.

thanks!

@Moonshinerso rubbish samples today which didn’t help 🤣🤣

We definitely got some random shit today - DH went missing for ten mins and I let him unpack when we got home so no idea what he got! 🤣🤣 I will just wait to be surprised at some point!

I'm in Vancouver, Canada and do most of my shopping at Costco. On average you get about 1/3 more for the price. If you don't waste then you are saving.

We have the higher price membership that pays for itself because we shop there often enough. We also look out for deals on furniture/home stuff. Works out cheaper for us in total. We get very specific things from there. All of it is great quality lasts a long time so the supplementary supermarket shop is cheaper and less frequent. Once in 4-6 weeks. Fruit/milk as and when it's required. We have the space to store stuff. We go at the start of every month. We don't buy the fruit and veg from there as there's so much in their packs they go off before we get a chance to finish it off.

Some things are cheaper , some are not but the quality is generally excellent . We have the room for bulk buying loo rolls , kitchen rolls etc .

I'm happier bulk buying their toilet roll, kitchen roll, bin bags, washing powder etc a few times a year than regularly having to remember it in the regular food shopping.

As my username suggests

To save money you need to shop when things are on offer, which doesn't always work as people don't always have the space for it.

We're a big family and we save a fortune on toilet rolls, breakfast cereals, diluting juice, fizzy juice, liquid soap, chopped tomatoes, beans, ketchup/mayonnaise, fruit cheese and yoghurt.

For everything bar the last three we only buy when they're on offer though.

It's not that it's cheaper, but about quality.

I always think of it as Waitrose quality at Tesco prices. (Obviously, this isn't exact, but it's representative.)

I just like being able to buy bin bags that don't rip and kitchen roll that you can soak in water and it doesn't desintigrate.

I think that it's very good quality, meat, fish, fruit and veg in particular. I also think it's cheaper than like for like, although probably not cheaper than the real cheap stuff.

It's also about convenience, we go once every 4 to 6 weeks and then only have to do small top up shops in-between at our local butchers and greengrocer.

And every April we get money back, sometimes into the hundreds of pounds.

Which one is your favourite? I like Still Creek or downtown.

I don't know why people rave about Costco cakes - they are vile, over sweet and probably a danger to health as so big you get given a huge portion.
I had a card used it once but not impressed

Cheap supermarkets and offers/bogofs in normal supermarkets are generally cheaper than cash n carry’s these days. I’ve got clients who have shops, cafes, takeaways, guest houses etc who shop at Aldi, B&M, Tesco, etc rather than proper wholesalers like Booker and Costco for lots of the stuff they need. Booker is really only good for alcohol and cigarettes these days or stuff that supermarkets don’t sell such as cheap/unpopular brands/flavours of crisps, soft drinks or catering size packs of stuff, etc. Anything mainstream is cheaper for businesses to buy in supermarkets. One of my clients has a convenience store and spends hundreds of pounds at Home Bargains, Tesco, Aldi, B&M every week buying stuff that’s cheaper than wholesalers. Of course he sells it higher price in the shop, but if he bought at Bookers he’d have to sell it even higher! If you go to any supermarket first thing in a morning you’ll see traders with full trolleys, typically bread rolls, crates of soft drinks, etc who are stocking up for catering vans. Wholesalers are typically too expensive for lots of small business types and these days rely more on domestic customers especially with the drastic reduction in small businesses like shops and guest houses over the past few decades.

We choose it for the quality of the products. Off the top of my head, bin bags both the black ones and the white bin liners. Cling film and tin foil. We also buy meat, chicken, fish, eggs, milk, cheddar cheese and tinned stuff from them.

We have been members for about 20 years, have default items we get every time and I price check every couple of years but think some things are just better from there the same way I feel about some Aldi or Asda products. It is personal taste and choice.

We also have our fuel from there. We are on a 2% cashback so never pay for membership so it doesn't actually cost us anything. Their 5 year guarantee on a TV we bought came in handy when the on/off button died at 2 1/2 years in. Fixed it then rang me to ask how good the company they used was.

I have a pantry and a larder freezer in that pantry (also a fridge freezer in the kitchen) so buying in bulk is not an issue for me. We divide up the huge packs of chicken breasts, vacuum pack and freeze them. Plus we have storage for things like toilet roll and tissues.

Some things are so much cheaper than the standard supermarket. Cod loin for example in a third off Tesco price. The meat and fruit are far better quality.

What are you buying in the Chinese import tut shop B&M that you actually eat? They are an awful company. Terrible employment practices, ripped off the country during Covid taking millions in relief then issuing dividends to its owners, currently being sued for ripping off other companies. I’d starve before I set foot in there. They thought they could come to my pretty little town and compete with Tesco and Waitrose. They are currently laying off staff. Hopefully it won’t be too long before they retreat to where they came from.

I agree about the cakes.

But there's a lot more than just upf stuff.

We buy fresh meat, fish, dairy, fruit and veg, pasta, rice, flour, tinned toms, chickpeas, lentils, toiletries etc.

Plus other random things like potting compost, batteries, A4 paper.

Being able to buy in bulk in one place is very convenient.

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.

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.

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 😂

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

This perfectly sums up Costco

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.