Costco often has discounted restaurant gift cards. Yesterday I paid $160 for $200 worth of cards for a nearby restaurant that allow dogs on the patio. Toby will be very happy.
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I get my dog’s prescriptions there. Much cheaper than the vet and cheaper than Chewy ( a company that I also love).
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It depends on several factors. For example, when I was a Costco member, I only ordered via sameday . costco . com when Costco offered a 30% discount on Sameday orders. And I payed for the Sameday orders using Instacart gift cards, which were purchased at 15%+ discount. This resulted in an effective net price well below in store sticker price, prior to considering gas and time savings.
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Basement storage? Side by Side freezer? You must live in a mansion! (I have a small freezer on top of a small fridge, and no storage at all, but still like Costco)
I just bought a gallon of milk at the regular grocery store which I probably won’t finish but the sell by date on the 1/2 gallons was today and I figured even if I have to throw out some of the gallon it would be better than the 1/2 gallon going bad by next week.
Very true. This is how my daughter and her boyfriend look at it (and they are in a tiny apartment).
I did end up going yesterday and getting a few things - a couple of snack things and some other non-food supplies. It was as crazy as it always is - seems like there are a number of people racing around with their carts - maybe it’s the Instacart people trying to get the job done quickly?
My daughter says I need to go with her and she will show me which bulk food items they get and make into meals.
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While Costco seems extra big, plenty of things come in reasonable quantities. Some items are bigger and priced at less cost than others at the grocery store. In other words, a bag of pretzels might be twice the size of a bag at Kroger and yet cost less than that smaller bag, especially with a coupon.
Many do small shows at Costco - as large as it is, if you know what you’re in for, it doesn’t take long. And by us we have self checkout and it goes quickly - especially because when you’re in line, an employee will come scan your items so when you scan your card, it auto loads. And we have a $7.99 car wash - which is great - at our Costco.
Plus clothes - sure, not highly styled and no where to try - but cheap!!
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Car wash at a Costco, never heard of that, very cool!
and that’s me running around quickly with the cart - a pet peeve I have are the people (I know they are many and do it for many reasons!) who lean over the cart and saunter around the store with no regard for anyone behind them or trying to get a product they are blocking etc! 
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If you live near any of these….I imagine they’ll add more:
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Unfortunately no - while Idaho is there, I wonder if states who get winter 
, might not rank priority??? Car washes can be pretty desolate when the temperature gets below 30.
You can also buy larger quantities at a traditional grocery store. The difference is at traditional grocery stores, you are not forced to take that option. A traditional grocer gives you the option to stock up if there is a good sale, while also buying a smaller quantity of an item that doesn’t store well before going/tasting bad, such as milk. I often do buy larger quantities at traditional grocers when there is a good sale. This relates to some of my “overpriced” comments in my earlier post. Costco has low markup on all items, but that low markup may still be higher than sale prices elsewhere.
For example, Costco sells Cheerios, yet I always buy Cheerios at my regular supermarket instead of Costco. Once in a while, the supermarket has a sale where they offer the 9 oz Cheerios at $1.49 per box. I stock up during these sales. I stack these with the $.50 off supermarket GM digital coupon and the $0.75 off Ibotta digital coupon, dropping price to $0.24 per 9 oz box or under $0.03 per oz. Costco’s price is $6.99 for 41oz box or $0.17 per oz – 6x higher price than my supermarket discounted price. I also prefer having the smaller box size. My experience is cereal is freshest soon after the bag is opened, and gradually gets less fresh over time since bag is open. With many times smaller bags, it’s a better tasting cereal, particularly with cereals where high sugar content is not drowning out natural taste, like Cheerios. Better tasting and better price.
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There are many things that I buy at Costco and many that I pass up because the quantity is too large for H and me. I would not buy 4 pounds of berries no matter how cheap they were because I would be the only one eating them and they would go bad. Also our home is only 1500 square feet here in SoCal so I don’t have a basement that I can store a lot of bulk items in.
We do by wine, trash bags, bread, some meat, rotisserie chicken, cheese, olive oil, some lettuce, fruits if small quantity are available and other items we see when we shop there. H usually goes to Costco for me, but I go with him about once a month.
We also get gas at Costco since it is near us and the price is cheap.
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I haven’t set my foot inside a typical Kroger or Albertsons in a long time. The chichi market is my last resort and only because I can walk 2 miles to it. My time is too valuable to hunt for sales and count pennies. I have probably 25-30 years left on this planet, and I don’t want to spend any of that on couponing. Besides, a lot of the things we buy rarely goes on sale, like produce and good steaks. So load up the fridge once a week and done. I time my shopping such that I am in and out of Costco in 30-40 minutes. I have not had the problem with berries going bad. I cut strawberries up and put them in one of the “miracle” Rubbermaid containers. That works great. I recently ordered a vacuum sealer and containers but they have not arrived yet so no reviews.
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This is me 
I’m reading every label (lots of things I’m trying to avoid/many family food allergies) - but I do have an extreme sense of spatial awareness and will gladly move out of the way. I usually try to do that from the onset, so I can read my labels in peace. It’s tough to do in a Trader Joes because the space is so small. Going there at certain times of the day can be very anxiety-inducing for me 
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Costco has wide aisles so there’s less “blocking”. Some ditch their carts to walk around another aisle or to another clothes area. But usually people that ditch their cart have it on the side - or if they see their cart is in the way, they run over and move it and apologize. Or if you move it, they don’t care.
Costco shoppers are typically nice.
Another great Costco perk - discounted gift cards at both local and chain restaurants and sporting events. Oh, and turbo tax discounts - I assume when I go next time, I’ll be buying and it will be discounted - which is funny because it’s always discounted - so why they don’t just use the discount price as their regular, I don’t know.
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And I respect that reason - or as I mentioned people who are slow because their bodies are doing the best they can slow - its the people who are not paying attention to their surroundings or too busy planning their free sample haul (like standing right in front of a free sample or blocking the aisle waiting for one)! Label reading can be important!
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I posted about the gift card discounts in the earlier thread. When I was a Costco member, I probably spent more on gift cards than any other regular spending category. And one the key reasons why I chose not renew my membership is that Costco started removing the gift cards that I purchased. Instacart was particularly noteworthy. For years, Costco had sold Instacart gift cards for 20% off, and those same Instacart gift cards could be used to make purchases at Costco via Sameday. The result was a discount from in-store sticker price on Costco purchases, as well as most of my grocery purchases.
Unfortunately Costco removed Instacart gift cards ~1 year ago, and it doesn’t look like Costco is going to return them any time soon. The lack of available Costco gift cards led to searching for other sources. I quickly learned there are many secondary market peer-to-peer gift card buy/sell websites, and nearly anything gift card sold at Costco can also be purchased on such websites, without the bulk size requirement.
For example, you can buy $100 in Domino’s gift cards for $80 at Costco – a 20% discount. Or you can buy $25 Domino’s gift cards for $19.33 at GCX – a 23% discount. I prefer the latter – primarily because I prefer being able to buy in units of $25 instead of $100, rather than the slightly higher discount %.
Every year Amazon has an equivalent TurboTax deal to Costco. It usually starts on January 19th or so.
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I saw online somewhere that Costco will put Turbotax on sale Jan 18th this year so you might want to wait until then
Cool - I mean, when they have it, it’s on sale. I’ll prob buy out of state. I’m in a tax free state but i want to get one that includes a state - for my kid who is in CA and theirs is a pain the arse to do by hand. In fact, I might have him buy it. Or buy online if it’s the same price. Ours only sells the federal, no state only.
Yes, that’s what I alluded to earlier. In addition to the current ~30% off discounted price, Costco and Amazon give a $10 credit. It’s the same price at both Costco and Amazon. The extra $10 credit was supposed to start on January 19th, but apparently Costco started early in CA – not other states.
Isn’t a company that offers you this kind of service plus sells products you buy and enjoy worth the yearly support? Especially when the annual cost is only $65.
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