Is a Costco membership worth it.

[jmh740]

jJust found out I can get a Costco membership. Nearest one is 20 miles away (and next to Trafford Centre so a nightmare drive)
Would you recommend it?

I’m debating this too though I’m only 6 miles away from one. The membership fee is pretty steep!

if I never bought anything from the actual shop, I would still be considerably better off just from savings from petrol alone (but I don’t work that far from one, so it’s not hugely far out of my way to go to one)

If your aim is to save money I'd say no but I'm sure posters will come along to tell you what good quality the steaks are and other irrelevant comments to cost of living thread

Im not sure 20 miles is worth it. But the petrol is worth it alone for us as we live 3 miles from one. That and the cheap wine, loo roll and kitchen roll 😂

You need to have a lot of storage space! Gave up mine because my house is too small. Really good quality produce under their own brand, Kirkland.

We found fuel to be a massive saving; around 10p/litre. Nearest is Coventry 30+ miles away which would negate saving as a journey just for diesel but it's on the A45 and we can arrange to be passing going other places.

Otherwise it probably only works if you've a decent sized household and/or can buy and store in bulk. Very little in food/drink would be worthwhile for us as a retired couple where she's vegan and I'm not so we tend to eat different things most nights. Might have worked when the kids were in their teens and living at home.

If you’re wanting to use Costco to replace a supermarket for all or majority of your shop to reduce the amount you spend then no it’s not worth it. Costco is more than supermarkets I find and you buy in bulk so you’re spending more upfront

we renewed last year even though we’d taken a significant drop in income. I like the guarantee (which I have claimed on), the opticians, experience of visiting & quality of products. Our nearest one is about 20 miles away.

Depends on your household size, fuel consumption and spending habits. We live 4 miles from a branch but Lidl is cheaper. My brother is a member so he took me but unless you buy branded processed foods I couldn’t see savings myself

I did find a good deal on a desk chair. Desktop computers OTOH were limited to gamers spec stuff. Laptops might have been better value but not what I was after.

It's a bit like the Aisle of Aldi/Middle at Lidl; savings to be had but don't impulse buy stuff.

How much is it? We have it as dh is self employed and his business partner uses it quite a lot but we never go really. Maybe once every couple of years where we wander around, decide we aren’t the target audience and leave without buying anything 😂
it’s only a couple of miles from us but it doesn’t do petrol.

We're about 4 miles away, we go every two weeks mostly for groceries. Many things are better quality for the same price, or the same product for less. We have lots of space for bulk buying in our house and two teenage boys so we get through some things quite quickly. You have to know prices from supermarkets off the top of your head to assess what's worth it as you don't get any data inside to be able to Google it! We'd miss it.

I've always found the quality good. The fresh fruit & veg in ours is far superior to the local supermarkets.
Toilet rolls excellent value.
Coffee beans, hot chocolate & tea bags good prices.
Bottles of water far cheaper than the kids buying them in secondary school.

We find it saves money buying in bulk & less trips to supermarkets with the subsequent impulse buys.

But yes you need storage space.

The toilet roll and kitchen roll are worth it alone. They are such good quality. You get so much on a roll and it’s nice and soft.

@jmh740 also, you can get things delivered from them once you have a membership

There's tons of threads on Costco , one was recent , a "what's on your list" thread.

It is random what is in stock .
We always buy :
BinsBags
Loo Roll
Foil
Alpro soya (if they have it)
Chicken tenders for DS
Cheddar
CatFood

Clothes you can get some good deals
I bought some Korean facecare last time , much cheaper than in-store but I probably won;t find again

Ours is next to a big shopping centre too . Back in the day I could shop , then go to Costco then buy petrol and go home .
Now I can manage Costco and that's only because the trolleys are brilliant !
But I'm too ancient to shop all day

For fuel yes considerably cheaper.

Also for certain items it's much much cheaper like lurpak, babybel, cheese, rotisserie chicken, quinoa, olives and sausages. Not everything works out cheaper though and you have to know your price per kg equivalent in a supermarket before you go (mine has terrible phone signal!) Birthday cakes are worth it though massive and £18 including personalised writing.

It's easy for it to quickly become a very expensive shop. We go once every 6 weeks or so and only get certain things that we have the space for.

I do really rate certain things at Costco, we get meat and laundry stuff, bottled water and some other bits and pieces like packed lunch box snacks and condiments.

But, we're probably going to let the membership go when it expires as we find we're spending more and more every trip and we do need to cut back a bit. If we miss it too much we'll renew again.

So what I'm getting is that for a vegetarian who drives an EV car I'm missing out on the best deals

Yes, the loo roll is great but I’m not sure I’d drive a 40 mile round trip for it

That’s why I get it delivered - it’s a little more expensive on website but if I go in person (only 10 miles away) I get over excited and spend £200 + 😂

I have one to get petrol because it works out far cheaper than everywhere else and it’s close to my work so i pass it regularly.
I rarely go into the shop. I don’t think the stuff is much cheaper but it is good quality and if you have lots of storage space things like toilet roll is a good deal.
DP drink bottled water and that’s a good deal too.
i always end up spending a fortune if I go in and always buy extra things I dont intend to buy! So it never actually saves me any money!

That could be the case. Plus it's 20 miles away and in a location that's unpleasant to visit at the weekend.

We only ever go in the evening, it's a lot closer and we get fuel, toilet roll, Lavazza coffee, batteries, deicer, butter and sometimes some other stuff.

Same always spend a fortune cause it’s exciting g!!!

fabulous username by the way, I can’t get enough of that all in fact the whole album is brilliant