I'm not finding my best values at Costco. . .

[BarbecueMom]

12 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

 

THank you for that.  Gas buddy is reporting it being 2.67 and I know the lowest in the area I saw was 2.69.  But maybe that isn't with member pricing.  Can you non members buy gas there too at normal prices?

No, you have to have a membership to get gas there.  Pump won’t start without it.  At least that’s how it is at ours, YMMV due to state laws and such.

[cintinative]

3 hours ago, marbel said:

I am not sure this is always true though I have heard it before. I have tried more than once to find this information on the Costco website and have not found it yet. I have read that they will refund the difference the first year, and downgrade the card to a general membership.  I investigated this quite a bit when I got my check last year, because it didn't quite cover the executive membership.  I ended up keeping the membership because we anticipate more high-cost purchases this year than last.  (2 sets of tires, for example!)   I think I was also told somewhere that it might depend on the particular store, though that really makes no sense to me. 

 

I've gotten the refund two or three times, but last year our rebate check exceeded the price difference.

[TechWife]

When I use coupons and wait for sales, I can get things less expensive at Target. I haven't done that in a couple of years now. Even without coupons, some things are still less at Target than at Costco.

However, we save a lot of money on gas - about 15 cents per gallon - and don't have to go out of our way to get to the gas station. I also like the Kirkland brand toilet paper - it's much better than Charmin and less expensive. We don't buy food there - we are a small family and we don't have a freezer, so bulk food would go to waste.

 

[three4me]

3 hours ago, Alicia64 said:

 

Costco has its own mobile app. You can take photos on your smartphone and use the app to send photos to the nearest Costco. Pick them up that day at awesome prices.

I’ve never heard of this. Take photos to send to the warehouse and then go pick it up?

[sgo95]

4 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

For people who say gas.  How much is gas by you and how much does your Costco gas cost? 

Right now in my area, gas buddy reports that the other gas stations range from $2.89-$3.09 while Costco is at $2.59.  Sometimes it can be as much as $0.50 cheaper.

[KungFuPanda]

4 hours ago, cjzimmer1 said:

For us the biggest difference I have ever seen is 2 cents.  Most times it exactly the same as everywhere else. But I know my state has a minimum markup law which I think why nearly every gas station everywhere in the city is pretty much the same price.

I live in the town where you don’t want to buy gas because it’s more expensive here. Costco gas is always significantly cheaper.  Right now Costco is $2.64 while the gas station closest to me is $3.15.

2 hours ago, TechWife said:

When I use coupons and wait for sales, I can get things less expensive at Target. I haven't done that in a couple of years now. Even without coupons, some things are still less at Target than at Costco.

However, we save a lot of money on gas - about 15 cents per gallon - and don't have to go out of our way to get to the gas station. I also like the Kirkland brand toilet paper - it's much better than Charmin and less expensive. We don't buy food there - we are a small family and we don't have a freezer, so bulk food would go to waste.

 

I liked Kirkland tp fine, but ds and Dh protested and demanded Charmin. It is noticeably thicker, but I don’t understand what they’re doing in there that renders the Kirkland tp unacceptable. I also don’t understand why it takes them 30 minutes to do it. 

[linders]

Forgot to mention, DH often buys big-ticket items at Costco after much research of other prices. My new, fairly-high-end Dell computer is a Costco purchase, a few hundred dollars cheaper than the best price elsewhere. And I know our cars are wearing Costco tires.

[Carrie12345]

I get a 6-month free trial with BJs every other year or so to see if anything's gotten better (specific to my needs.)  Hasn't happened yet, lol.

My regular supermarket is already usually better than Walmart's grocery prices except for a few things, and has a much wider selection, so there isn't much that BJ's beats.  I do like their gas prices, but the distance is too great to come out ahead.

I really like convenient mega-packs, so I want to like warehouse stores. They just don't have the things I want at better prices! So I splurge on junk food and grab some seasonal items once in a blue moon.  And a tank of gas or two.

[TravelingChris]

I do not go to membership stores.  We have both Sam's Club and Costco here.  I am simply not interested in going to very large stores for almost anything.  I shop at Publix, Fresh Market, Whole Foods and the commissary- not all of these even in the same week.  I generally refuse to travel far for groceries.  Publix and Fresh Market are both the closest to me at 2.5 miles and Whole Foods is a little further at probably 3.5 miles.  THe commissary is 7 miles and I combine that with gas and do not do that every week.  I buy most of my groceries at Publix.  It is close, clean, good quality and convenient hours.  Fresh Market has a very good butcher where I can buy just the amount of meat I want.  They also sometimes have better prices on some of their produce than Publix.  I usually stop at Whole Foods on my way home from something.  But unlike many of you, I do not like buying large quantities of just about anything.  I have limited storage space so a 12 pack of toilet paper or 6 pack of paper towels is about as large (spacewise) of a purchase I will make.

I do not buy any food at Walmart and rarely go there at all.  As to Aldi, there are two in my area but both are about half an hour from me so no to that too except if I am already in the area.

[marbel]

10 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

<snip>

I liked Kirkland tp fine, but ds and Dh protested and demanded Charmin. It is noticeably thicker, but I don’t understand what they’re doing in there that renders the Kirkland tp unacceptable. I also don’t understand why it takes them 30 minutes to do it. 

Charmin in the preferred paper here, but not just because it's nicer than the Kirkland. Kirkland makes me itch.  

[BarbecueMom]

If you like Charmin, Amazon’s Presto brand in the purple package was similar.  We like the blue one, which is not as thick as Charmin.

[cintinative]

19 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

and demanded Charmin. It is noticeably thicker, but I don’t understand what they’re doing in there that renders the Kirkland tp unacceptable. I also don’t understand why it takes them 30 minutes to do it. 

 

Charmin clogged our plumbing at our old house so I banned it . . . ?

[Targhee]

It’s still worth it for us - we have an executive membership ($125 a year which pays for itself with the %back for every purchase we get). And sometimes it isn’t that Costco is cheaper than another store but that the quality of the item is better for a similar price (eg beach towels, or wool socks, or linens). Costco deals for me: (ymmv) 

organic raw cashews, pre-popped Nearly Naked popcorn, kitchen and large black garbage bags, cleaning wipes (Kirkland brand pop-up style, I hate the wipes in a plastic cylinder), Izzy sodas, vanilla (which right now has CRAZY prices everywhere), cinnamon, men’s shorts and dress shirts, batteries, organic boneless/skinless chicken breasts, GASOLINE!, Kirkland Brand TP, Excederine, Acetaminophen, Naproxen, kids gummy vitamins, printer ink, organic pure maple syrup, organic almond butter, pasta sauce, almond flour, fresh flowers

[Targhee]

We live in the rural west where there’s not high taxes on gas but there’s premium on cost because of remoteness. Costco is around ten cents cheaper on average.

Costco is 50 miles away from my house. I do grocery shopping a couple times a week where I live, and then I go about twice a month to the town with Costco. The Costco town also has a handful of other places like Target, Natural Grocer, Barnes and Noble, I visit while there.  It’s nice to be able to get so much at Costco in one stop so I can go spend some relaxing time in Barnes and Noble.

[Targhee]

28 minutes ago, cintinative said:

 

Charmin clogged our plumbing at our old house so I banned it . . . ?

Ditto. Tough on septic too

[vonfirmath]

On 7/14/2018 at 3:54 PM, marbel said:

I am not sure this is always true though I have heard it before. I have tried more than once to find this information on the Costco website and have not found it yet. I have read that they will refund the difference the first year, and downgrade the card to a general membership.  I investigated this quite a bit when I got my check last year, because it didn't quite cover the executive membership.  I ended up keeping the membership because we anticipate more high-cost purchases this year than last.  (2 sets of tires, for example!)   I think I was also told somewhere that it might depend on the particular store, though that really makes no sense to me. 

 

Yeah, I hear this all the time but Costco definitely did not do it for us when we tried the executive membership. We eventually cancelled Costco and do Sam's Club instead because, for where we live now, it was the best deal. Now they are building a Costco in our city, IF it has a gas station, we'll investigate again. The Sam's is REALLY convenient.

[Guest]

I keep dithering on my Costco membership, but each year, it works out better to stay in than to quit. I have the Executive Membership and get a refund that makes my “real” membership cost very small. 

There are certain things I love getting there and I love having some items last for ages, like toilet paper, laundry detergent, dish soap. The Kirkland Brand of many items are excellent; even Consumer Reports frequently puts Kirkland (Costco store brand) as a great value on many items - batteries, laundry detergent. I buy boxes of candy bars there for my son’s candy sales business at co-op. Spices, Vanilla, Maple Syrup, Olive Oil are all well-priced. 

I have also bought random things that I ended up loving. I just bought a package of underwear that I loved so much I bought a second set. 

[cjzimmer1]

While I shop at Costco weekly, I still don't understand the devotion some have for it.  I vastly prefer Sam's but alas ours closed and Costco is our only option.  I share the executive membership with my mom and combined we don't even recover our membership fee (but it does bring it done to something more reasonable).  There is very little there that I can't do better or equal on if I coupon/sale shop but it does save the time/energy of coupon/sale shopping so there is some value there and I like buying huge quantities of something and not having to think about it again for 6 months or a year.  Really where we make out is when they have stuff in their coupon book.  Then I seriously stock up because those are actually good deals.

[Amber in SJ]

We don't have an Aldi's, so I haven't tried them out.  I have shopped, very infrequently, at Wal-Mart for groceries and been disappointed in the quality, particularly the produce. every time.  Costco's organics are often cheaper that other store's conventional meats & produce the very small amount of dairy we have and we also wait for the annual coupon on children's allergy medication and stock up.  It is really just a matter of knowing your prices.  Sometimes Costco will have a coupon that will bring things down lower than the local Safeway.  Costco & Trader Joes are in the same shopping center with a Wal-Mart super center, just up the road.  I am not a fan of Wal-mart's business practices and I am thankful I have other choices available to me.

Amber in SJ