Is Costco really worth the price of the card?

[Pantopeach]

My husband can get a card for £35 through his work. I’m tempted but only if it will be worth the saving on the cost of everyday items.

We have a chest freezer and have space to store bulk items. I’ve had a look on their website but they tend to show the prices of large ticket items rather than food / toiletries.
I’d be buying meat, cheese, loo rolls, pet food, big bags of frozen food etc.

Does anyone have a card and are they worth it? Or are supermarkets just as good?

DP has a membership card through work so we've been a few times and I always come out feeling a bit grubby. It's an unabashed altar to shameless consumerism. However, the staff are lovely and super-efficient: theirs is not an easy job!

The trollies are bigger than any others I've seen, more like trailers, and I'm always astounded by the amount of food and stuff people pile in to them. You couldn't shop like that if you didn't have vast amounts of storage (or plan on eating a lot!). As there is only one size of trolley, you can't really dash around, but are forced to trudge around the aisles at a snail's pace, following the current of other shoppers. It's not a nippy experience.

The savings don't come from budget options but from buying in bulk. They have big sacks of things like frozen chicken nuggets or battered cod bites, but they're premium range and quite pricey. If we go, we buy goyza in bulk, and huge blocks of cheese, some condiments, vitamins, but not fresh produce as we couldn't store it in the quantities available. In our local Costco, there is a huge area which looks like it should have hazard tape around it for public health reasons; cakes, pastries, donuts and biscuits sold boxed in massive quantities, some of it with icing as thick as a slice of bread. It's grotesque.

I'd go with a friend and not bother with the membership if possible.

I bought a card but never use it as the nearest one is quite far away so the petrol costs would rule out any savings 🤦🏻‍♀️

We save £100 a year on toilet roll, kitchen roll, eggs, cheese and salmon alone. When you add other stuff like Christmas / Birthday presents / stationary / books it is often much higher. But we have the space to bulk buy.

Since they started selling petrol we save £50 a month

Not really. The quality is fantastic and we go every few months to stock up on our staples but if I had to pay for my card, I probably wouldn't have one.

Having said that, the kitchen foil is incredible and may last me another 5 years and the bin bags are so tough, I could bury a body in them. We do get Xmas gifts and wrapping paper from there.

Depends on family size, the sizes are huge often eg pastries. Lidl is cheaper for us

We use it for petrol. Today we picked up de icer. Just over £8 for 6 cans. Tesco sell the same de-icer got about £3.75 a can. With 2 vehicles it's much cheaper.

Their cooked chickens are good. Their clothes can be great and we often get books there.

Yea those Kirkland cashmere cardigans were amazing from around 2010. Never bobbled.

Wish they still did them

I like it for the rotisserie chickens. There’s random stuff that we tend to buy - sweetcorn, fajita packets, coffee, jam and peanut butter. Generally it just the choice rather than the cheapness that we use it for.

There’s a petrol station at the one I go to. If it was closer to home, I could save more than the card. We do buy in bulk regularly. Meat, fish, butter, cheese, washing powder, wine etc.
Give it a go and see how you get on. We on and off renew our memberships, depends what we need.

It doesn't pay for itself unless you're close enough to buy all your fuel there, imo. I don't think there are great savings to be had if you're a canny shopper generally.

Having said that, I do love a Costco run. We tend to have one year on, one year off for membership. We're not close enough to get good value from it, but we like a trip out so my husband can laugh at me pushing the massive trolley and holding massive versions of normal things.

We had a membership. Went a few times, mainly to get stock for a school Christmas fete, but didn’t renew. I found the shopping experience a PITA, I didn’t find it particularly cheap but probably most importantly the range is limited. So for example there is say 1 type of ketchup or baked beans but I live in a house full of fusspots who would refuse the eat them because it is not the right ones.

I get the online only card (about £15) and get stuff for us, MIL, SIL, my sister… saves a fortune on some things (olive oil, apple vinegar, chia seeds, nuts, spices, Christmas goodies…). You can also buy gift cards at a discount too.

I have to disagree as well.

their bagels are amazing, their croissants are very good (even better with a blast in the air fryer) and their cookies are GOOD.

I haven't had any of their big cakes in a very long time, but their carrot cake was always very very good.

my friend loves the muffins.

@VisionsOfSplendour

I can see that if you like gaudy OTT Christmas decorations you could find things that you can't get elsewhere

was that entirely necessary?

Their wrapping paper is great, they have catering size cheese that supermarkets don't have as well as other great catering stuff. They do have some decorations I wouldn't buy myself, but that's not what I go there for.

For us it's worth it for the petrol. Currently 10p per litre cheaper than anywhere else at 139.9 for e10.
Also get my toilet rolls (40 pack of kirkland signature 3 ply just under £20) and my washing detergent from there.

Oh, and my partner demands one of their £15 birthday cakes to stuff himself with every year

For nappies, milks, baby wipes, toilet roll & kitchen roll, laundry balls and tablets etc we find extremely useful.

For fuel- absolutely. We live near enough it's the only place I get petrol. For the rest, there's o my 2 of us so not usually.

If you buy branded stuff then it's good value but we often find the supermarket prices are as good on their own brands. The cafe at Costco is great though (pizza slices, jacket potatoes, hot dogs) and very cheap.

It's not usually cheaper, no, but they do good deals on eg lego sets that usually cover the cost of membership for the year, and I like buying in bulk.

They take large cash payments so a lot of people use it to launder money as well

It's good for bulk buying larder items.

Buy 1 massive box of washing powder twice a year.
Beans, ketchup.
Massive spice jars, absolutely felt like stealing.

Haven't been in a while. It is worth keeping a note of the individual prices on your normal shop and then checking that the bulk buy is actually a discount, it's not always!

We stock up on things like loo roll, kitchen roll, washing powder etc.
Also bottled drinks such as orange juice are so much cheaper for a huge tray.

Wish ours was, they're currently only about 4p cheaper on diesel.