No Costco closer than a 45 minute drive…so I’m not a member. We are BJs club members, but membership cost is less, I think. DH goes there more than I do. But I will be getting our 8 hanging plants there…and last year, they were the best.
No need for huge quantities of things, but we do get things like TP and paper towels there.
Thanks for this, we don’t rent cars often, but I was debating renting one for a college graduation from the airport. My daughter lives 45 minutes away and offered to pick us up, but can’t drive us back, so a $100 uber. Car rental through Costco is $220, and wouldn’t have to inconvenience our daughter graduation week. Plus who knows tbd uber availability during this time in Clemson. Much cheaper than booking directly.
We live about 40 minutes away and aren’t near many stores so Costco is our place to stock up. I go about once every three weeks . I love wandering around the place. If I go during the week the place isn’t crowded. We have bought tires, glasses and furniture there and have rented cars through them. We have a shelf unit in the basement that is dedicated to Costco stuff. I even like some of their clothes. Great return policy. I got a $400 rebate check this year .
Ah yes, we always rent our cars from Costco and get a great price and ability for 2nd driver! We like that option and their prices are often if not always lower than the competition. Plus if you have any issues with rental company, Costco will take your side and it’s promptly resolved!
This. Plus, you automatically get the pre-pay rate without having to pre-pay, so you save w/o having to give up the flexibility of cancelling. That’s Costco squeezing the rental car companies. Once my SIL point this out, we never again rented a car outside of Costco Travel.
Oh, I frequently re-check Costco rental car rates and rebook with Costco at lower rate and cancel higher reservation. Sometimes I save hundreds doing this.
Frankly we like the vetting of products the most.
Our 8 yr old TV will go out eventually and we will get our next one, like the current one from Costco. H was excited then disappointed the other day when we couldn’t turn it on- but we were just using the wrong remote.
We live 2 hours from Costco in Colorado, but 15 minutes when we visit D in Seattle. We save a lot on cheeses alone- the parmesan blocks. About to get another set of hearing aides - our insurance covers $2500 and I’m guessing that will cover it. The hearing aides I have studied their brands extensively and even compared to Sam’s and private practice.
I bought my iPad, Mac laptop which has an extra year of coverage. I mostly order in bulk for toilet paper and paper towels.
I’m not data driven like @Data10 but I am good experience and quality product driven - and Costco gives me all that .
Products that I think are superior in quality to typical big box stores:
Produce
Protein (especially beef and fish)
Cheese
Frozen convenience items
Products that save $ in addition to the above:
Canned goods like chickpeas
Organic chicken broth
Dog food especially with frequent coupon
GAS
I could go on and on. I save $ and usually my sanity of driving to too many stores. Most of my shopping is Costco, farmers market/local produce store or online retailers.
Even when busy I don’t find Costco too time consuming.
As others noted, the executive membership increased price from $120 to $130 this year. The regular membership increased from $60 to $65. The rebate check is based on 2% of purchases, so if your purchases exceed ($130 - $65) / 2% = $3,250 it’s more preferable to have an executive membership than regular membership. You clearly exceed that threshold. $159 back implies $8k/year spending.
However, the size of your 2% cashback tells you little about how much you saved over alternatives, as Costco is not always significantly lower priced than comparable alternatives. Many people also purchase more at Costco than they would have if they shopped elsewhere, which I expect is by design. I previously mentioned aisles have no item labels, and items may change or move location. This encourages impulse buys where shoppers find and purchase new things they hadn’t previously planned on, while wandering around the store.
Agree that Costco can be a quick in & out stop or much slower and longer, depending on the shopper. Yesterday, we went specifically to buy apples, oranges and pruscuitto. We got there, got our items plus one extra (One Upon a Farm baby food pack) and self checked out and got home very efficiently. We would have spent significantly more $$$$ at any of the other markets acquiring similar items.
I only go about three times a year as it’s about 25 minutes from my house and Trader Joes and an excellent grocery store are within 3 minutes of me, but my college kid likes having Costco for getting food for sports and camping.
I always comparison shop, and the car rental via Costco has been the cheapest by 10-18% for each year that I look around and book.
We go to Kauai most years, and we always stop at the Costco in Lihue 10 minutes from the airport to stock up for the trip: groceries on Kauai are very expensive, and not only are there delicious and different products that you’ll find at that local Costco, the prices are far better than anything you’re going to find whether you’re staying down near Poipu or up north. So we stock up at Costco and then hit the farmers markets for everything else.
Prescriptions. My pet needed two prescriptions and they were half the price of anywhere else.
Right - but I figure if I get at least that back, the my membership is “free” or better.
We do the same, in both Maui and Costco. We didn’t realize it closes early on Saturday, and we didn’t get our rental car til fairly close to closing time. I made a list on our way, and we “made it” with a few minutes to spare :). I actually couldn’t believe my husband agreed to go on our way from the airport in Maui, after we’d been traveling from the east coast and we were exhausted. I’m training him - lol.
How much do we save. Tons! Anything from Optometrist and their eye wear to savings on gas to everyday item’s we get there at a discount. We get those checks a few times a year and it’s hundreds of dollars back. We also buy items for our office at a savings. I could go on and on.
I save a LOT of money at Costco every year (though it’s possible the impulse buys negate a fair amount of my savings:rofl:), but even if I didn’t, the company culture with respect to how they treat their employees would compel me to continue shopping there.
Whole Foods no doubt. How they stay in business is a mystery to me.
Worse! PCC! Organic everything yet wilted and overpriced.
For those who want to learn more about why Costco is a good company to support right now - I highly recommend the aforementioned Acquired podcast on Costco; it does a very deep dive (almost 3 hours) on the Costco values and business model. Paying good wages and offering very good healthcare is part of the model. Customer loyalty is built upon the trusted value and quality they consistently offer. How they have been able to successfully grow and sustain this model and their brand is all laid out in the podcast. H and I found it super interesting (we listened to it together on a long car trip.) The history of the company is long but it is integral to their success and their values, so I do recommend listening from the beginning all the way through despite the length.
Several post mention savings on prescriptions. I don’t have any regular prescriptions. I compared prices I paid for the 2 prescriptions I had filled in 2024 at my local CVS vs Costco, using Costco’s current listed prices on website. Costco doesn’t seem to be universally less expensive for prescriptions, but certainly good to comparison shop when you have an expensive regular prescription.
Prescription 1 (generic, 90 day supply) – CVS = $5.27, Costco = $13.79
Prescription 2 ( Zolpidem Tartrate, 30 day supply) – CVS = $0.56, Costco = $10.99
Several posts also mention eyeglasses. I bought glasses for the first time earlier this year. My vision is good enough that I can function without glasses, but it’s not 20/20 and seems to be declining over time. I compared prices at a variety of vendors prior to buying, including Costco. Costco’s sticker price was excellent – not as low as places like Zenni that start at $6.95 per frame + $3.95 for lenses, but better than almost any optometrists, some of which have a net of as much as 1000% markup, with Luxottica brands being able charge ridiculous prices with their near monopoly. Nevertheless, the price came out lower at my optometrists than Costco due to the structure of my insurance. My insurance has a special carve out for Costco that makes Costco more expensive after insurance than basic options at optometrists, which I expect was intentionally negotiated. The person at Costco I spoke with says this is fairly common with vision insurance.
In my experience, the medical area where Costco really shines is with hearing aids, which are typically sold through audiologists at huge markups. Customers don’t have the option to buy a comparable discounted hearing aid on Amazon or Zenni-like website, as they need to be tuned to hearing loss by an audiologist. When I was comparing hearing aids, a pair of Costco’s KS9’s were less than half the price of any comparable product i found, including if purchased through chains known for lower prices. It was less than 1/3 the price of comparable products sold through an independent audiologist. In addition to the low initial price, there are unlimited audiologist free calibration/customization appointments, unlimited free cleanings, unlimited free filters, … There is also a far superior warranty including things like replacing a hearing aid for reasons such as lost it, rather than broken. My Costco audiologist proactively suggested having all the internal parts replaced when near end of warranty to extend life. Choosing to buy hearing aids at Costco saved me thousands.
If I was buying a hearing aid, I’d absolutely get a Costco membership. However, my 5 year old KS9 is a quality product, so I don’t expect to need to buy one any time soon. I wouldn’t say the same about the KS10 and their switch to rechargeables that led to the end of the Costco KS hearing aid line, which I hope Costco resolves by the time I am in the market again.
@Embracethemess you can upgrade your membership at any time. Just stop by the membership desk and they will prorate the cost for you. @rockymtnhigh2 hearing aids are $1599.
We won’t buy supposedly high end cuts like NY Strip or Porterhouse from the regular grocery because of the mediocre quality. I think what our grocer carries is USDA ‘select’ or ‘choice’, and if you are willing to pay $30/lb you can get ‘prime’. I think CostCo sells ‘prime’ for just a little more than the ‘select’ at our grocery, and that is their superpower.
And while we are on the subject of CostCo meat, if you like corned beef load up on Morton’s corned beef there around St. Patty’s Day. Unfortunately, they only have it for around five weeks around the holiday. We buy four or five and freeze them.