I don't understand all the love for Costco here. I recently rejoined and now remember why I canceled in the first place. I recently had a baby, so I joined for the diapers. Well, on my first trip, I learned they don't carry P or N sizes. Now that my baby is big enough for size 1, of course they are out of Huggies in size 1. But they have the Kirkland brand, which is a crapshoot in general.
I used to love some canned mushrooms they had, then they just stopped carrying them. I loved calzones they stopped carrying 5 years ago. Sometimes you can get Tide or kombucha there, sometimes not. Kirkland products can be great, then they suddenly change them. And nothing makes my blood boil like a line to leave the store for the receipt check while you have to fight off the Lennox, phone, and solar sales people.
At least my neighborhood King Soopers is consistent with stocking products and keeping their store brands the same.
I’m going to go against the grain here and say I absolutely dread going to Costco but tolerate it because of the prices and bulk availability of certain produce.
A quick ranty list of complaints:
The store is too small for the amount of people and the enormous carts. It is a game of bumper cars every time.
Similarly, more than once I had to give up since the parking lot was completely full and I could only take so circling the lot. The gas lines are reminiscent of the pictures from the ‘73 oil embargo.
The location of items and item selection changes constantly.
There is few staff available to help you find anything.
The free samples attract hangers on like moths to a flame, blocking traffic. People treat the samples as a free lunch for their kids, and let kids ride unsafely ride inside the cart and not in the cart seats — no one stops this.
I have more, but writing this is already getting to me.
I have a hard time understanding why people enjoy shopping at costco. I have had a membership there in the past and did not like it. Its always lined up so you can't just pick up one or two things (I am sure this is by design), its very difficult to find items with no signs so you are forced to walk around the whole store (Again, im sure this is by design).
The amount of extra time it takes for my wife and I to buy groceries there easily costs more then any potential savings. I suspect it adds over an hour to our trip rather then buying from our local grocer. This doesn't even factor in the stress of driving there, finding parking etc. I think I will continue to walk to the closest store and pay a little more at the checkout.
I struggle with Costco's inconsistent assortment of products and poor online presence. I don't like going there to be crowded for two or three hours only to walk out with $300 in impulse purchases (I am weak, especially to food) but not what I came for.
And they're not good for all things. Their furniture might be reasonable quality but none of it belongs in my home, for example. Gigantic and dated-looking.
What's with wrong Safeway? I much prefer shopping there over Costco. Going to Costco is a stressful unpleasant experience starting from the insane parking lot filled with oversized vehicles. The inside is a dimly-lit warehouse packed with zombie-like shoppers making a b-line behind their oversized shopping carts for the overrated kirkland toilet paper (yep I said it!)
A grocery store like safeway I find much more relaxing and laid back and doesn't have obnoxiously large quantities & packaging.
That said I've been invested in costco stock for a long time because I recognize the cult-like devotion of their shoppers.
I agree with that for a lot of items. But part of it is that I don't think Costco ever does loss-leaders like grocery stores will (except in gas and their restaurant). Hence why I don't buy Costco's milk.
Costco is in a league of their own in Canada (and probably Iceland where they have a location). ex-USA, you just don't have deep-discounters.
With such massive turnover, is that everything is fresh at Costco, and it's not because they're throwing anything away. Their stock probably sells out daily.
And if you're not happy with them, you know you can return it a month later with a smile.
Basically, when I buy something at a regular store, I'm shocked at the recent inflation.
But at Costco, most things have barely budged at all in the past few years. And that's starting at a lower base as well - at the moment it's simply nuts how much cheaper things are there.
In fact, if you look at their financial statements, their entire profit equals their membership fee income - this means you're buying things at cost price on average. And Costco is known to be brutal to their suppliers, using their market position to force lower prices and larger pack sizes onto the manufacturers.
They don't sell everything though - there are some items you have to buy on Amazon or a regular grocery store. But almost (not entirely) every time that Costco sells something, it's the best deal you can get.
Another downside is you have to buy a LOT of what you're buying. So it only makes sense if you're planning ahead somewhat, and if you have room in your fridge/freezer/garage.
EDIT: actually the main drawback is the hugeness and remoteness of the store, and the immense number of other shoppers. But again, this plays into going every couple of weeks and buying ahead. These things are inherent in their model and I accept it. I actually spend less total time shopping now because I do all of it in 60-80 minutes every two weeks.
Another edit: none of this means that the quality is any lower. Somehow, they're delivering excellent meat, produce, and more at a fraction of the cost.
Maybe I should buy shares in this company. They barely have a profit margin though.
Kirkland Signature is reliably great, especially in comparison with other store brands. I’m a bit of a Costco fanboy though, in full transparency.
My partner and I used to argue over who gets to make the monthly Costco run but now we just make it into a big family outing (Friday evenings are an amazing time to shop there).
the only reason I don't shop at Costco anymore is because we could almost never buy goods in quantities small enough to be feasible for our living space and rate of consumption.
We (family of 4) shop at Costco every 2 weeks; get all of our staples, fruit/veggies (we eat a lot of that and they have a very good selection of organics), cheese (good selection, much cheaper than other stores); great deals on wine too, and sometimes beer when they carry our craft beer of choice (our local Costco has a lot of nice craft beer), dog food, etc. Some favorites we don't find elsewhere at that quality/price are the Kirkland organic tortilla chips, toasted seaweed (kids' favorite), organic flour tortillas (freeze them and they last), roasted almonds, dried fruit (figs, apricots), reduced sugar fruit spread, etc. For a big wholesaler we find they have a very good selection of healthier food (as healthy as you can get in the US, but that's another story), at least in our city. I find the layout to be pretty consistent and we know where to go to get our regular purchases. Often along the way we'll see something we haven't tried before and get that, though you do sometimes find that they stop carrying it, or it was seasonal, but I can live with that.
What we don't buy there is meat, fish, milk, eggs, all of which we buy at local grocer (sourced locally), plus we're not big meat eaters and don't want to fill up a freezer with it. Besides that, we get some specialty stuff at Trader Joe's (a nice place to shop and the best checkout staff ever -- I think they attract the right kind of employees, a bit like REI). And that's about it. None of those companies are perfect but I feel like they pay and treat their employees well. We shun Safeway/Albertsons/Kroger, and don't get me started on Walmart. I truly hate Walmart for having destroyed so many US towns--will never give them my money.
Eh. I had a costco membership for one year in order to get cheaper tires. I shopped there for food once. It's fine if you only eat shelf-stable heavily processed food. I prefer fresh produce. It really puts you in the mindset of high consumption. If I had four kids I would probably shop there more often, but since I don't I prefer the grocery co-op down the street that stocks produce from local farms and has bulk bins for almost everything so I can buy small quantities of really fresh food. I used to live in the north Texas food desert and I can imagine it would be a much more attractive retailer there because fresh, local food doesn't really exist in north Texas.
My main memory of Costco is seeing tons of products that were presented as bulk, but were actually regular. Like a bottle of 200 Tylenol (normal size that every small pharmacy carries) but at Costco it was in a quart-size bottle and each individual bottle was placed in a giant cardboard tray and shrink-wrapped to make it physically take up as much space as possible. And it was selling at an above-average price.
I used to love some canned mushrooms they had, then they just stopped carrying them. I loved calzones they stopped carrying 5 years ago. Sometimes you can get Tide or kombucha there, sometimes not. Kirkland products can be great, then they suddenly change them. And nothing makes my blood boil like a line to leave the store for the receipt check while you have to fight off the Lennox, phone, and solar sales people.
At least my neighborhood King Soopers is consistent with stocking products and keeping their store brands the same.
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