Why or why not? Share your opinion!
For a small household, no, Costco not worth it at least where I live. 1) Pay to shop there 2) limited choices in personal care products, grocery staples, etc 3) proprietary packaging makes comparison shopping very difficult, eg. paper towels 4) parking lot is like NASCAR-bump âem cars hybrid 5) long lines 6) can buy, eg., large package of Bounty paper towels at Target where I shop for free, with larger selection of most everything. 7) Amazon has the largest selections of all, reviews (which I evaluate), free shipping and 5 or 6% cash back with Prime and Prime Visa, and zero time and gas wasted driving around.
A COSTCO membership with the COSTCO Visa card is what I found to be useful. There are some items that I can buy in bulk like paper products. I have noticed some food items have a shorter Best by date so always look at this before buying. There is a Woodmanâs Market near me and their prices are competitive or less than COSTCO on grocery items.
Just buying one whole pizza a month from the food court would make it worth it if you like their pizza.
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Costco is definitely worth it. Pizza $10 and chicken $4.99. My husband get pizza for over $20 a pie. Me I love Costco pizza. I have a freezer from Costco and buy items on sale. I love Panko shrimp, Coconut shrimp, wings, French onion soup, Szechuan shrimp from Royal Asia, coffee etc all on sale. Costco has great prices on furniture and appliances. They have great return policy. Fast checkout unlike Walmart. Employees helpful. Great shopping experience.
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YES!
- Excellent NQA return policy.
- Great prices overall
- Convenient locations.
- Handy gas fill-up
- Friendly staff willing to listen
- Cheapest lunch in town!
Couple those with $ incentives that easily cover membership fees and itâs a no-brainer.
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Costco is worth the cost of membership for us for several reasons:
- Extra warranty on electronics has paid for the membership alone
- No hassle return policy
- There are some items we can only get at Costco that save us money and make us happy - especially the food, both fresh and frozen
- The cash back on the Visa is excellent
- Our cash rewards from store purchases has been excellent also
- We take advantage of gasoline while we are there but donât make special trips
- We feel safe and the employees are happy and helpful - the experience of shopping is fun instead of a chore
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I found it to be worth it for the Vision center, I have quality Kirkland brand glasses that hold up way better then the ones from the Drâs office, and the gas station is worth filling up at when I am there to shop.
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I love Costco exec membership, their top tier gas, with attendants, I the boost I get from my exec membership yearly. I use my Visa card constantly because it pays me back. I put my large purchases on it⌠I have a huge freezer so I fill it from Costco. Even tho I live alone, I still cook so getting the big discounts at Costco pays off for me, IMO. The employees are great. Returns are rare but always simple when needed. They seem to make things work smoothly in so many areas. Long Live Costco!
Iâve been a Costco and Samâs Club member for many years. Both memberships are worth it just for the gasoline savings.
I am not a member of Costco, but have gone there with friends on many occasions. First, I do not agree I need to pay money for shopping at a store. Do we pay a membership fee at the grocery store, Macyâs, at some restaurant, auto parts store, etc? Of course not. Second, being stopped at the exit door to prove I have paid for all my items with their receipt in-handand after I went through their check stand with them ringing up the items; ah, no. Third, when I want to purchase a package of muffins that are packaged as 6 muffins/box, why do I have to purchase 2 boxes? Now, I need to freeze some so they donât get moldy before being consumed. Why do I need to purchase three or four large glass bottles of pasta sauce when I only need one? Fourth, why are they moving grocery items to different locations all the time? If I go to my supermarket for canned baked beans and those items are always in the same aisle all the time. Not Costco. When I asked that question to a CC employee, he said they want me to browse the store. 
I donât want to browse, I want to buy and get out. Thatâs 5 reasons; again, the top reason â donât agree I need to pay the boss to shop in their store.
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âNot a member but have gone there with friends ON MANY OCCASIONS?â
Why would a person keep doing that over an over when they hate everything about the experience? ⌠That doesnât make sense!
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Absolutely. I only go 4x a year due ti it being an hour each way. Last trip I tallied my membership cost, all my purchases and compared them ounce per ounce to my local grocery. It turned out I did save including mileage/ gas costs. The savings were about 15%. Additionally, the clothes at Costco are an enormous bargain, but choices are hit or miss. Costco offers the $5 chickens. My best savings are on pecans, vitamins and over the counter drugs. Now with cell phones it is easy to compare pricing to my local stores to see exactly how much I am really saving before I buy. I enjoy spending an hour there traversing every aisle for new choices, especially seasonal holiday items. Itâs simply fun for me with savings included!
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I am a Costco member and I agree with you here. I was told the same thing by a Costco employee. They also donât have the aisles marked for the same reason. It is maddening to go in and have to look all over for the few items you need. We wanted reading glasses and at Sams they are, logically, by the glasses. At Costco, they were over by the TVs!! What??? We asked 3 employees where they were and we got 3 different answers.
The other thing I wish they had is âScan & Goâ like Sams where you use the Costco app to scan items, skipping the checkout lines. You still have to show them a bar code at the exit, but it is much faster to get in and out. They have implemented it at the gas pumps at my Costco but not inside.
But the positives are:
- Excellent return policy.
- Generally great prices overall
- Extended warranties
- Cheap top tier gas with lots of pumps
- Great cheap hotdog lunch!
- More organic foods than Sams
I actually have memberships to BJs, Samâs and just got a Costco on at a discount (actually all 3 were discounted). Anyway, I think it depends on the type of shopping experience you might prefer. I find BJâs to be low key and prefer it. When they have stuff on sale it makes it competitive with the others. You can catch clothes at a big discount at the end of the season. Samâs is a go to for a lot of things and is a lot busier. Costco is flat out insane on even during the week. They have good stuff but I donât find the prices much better than the others. Their gas is always busy but it is Top Tier and a very good price if one is close to you. They all have their positives and negatives. Try it for a year and if it doesnât work for you, donât renew.
Yes.
Where else can we go to see products that we didnât know we needed ???
For those that says it doesnât work for small households, get a vacuum sealer.
Rule #1 when shopping at Costco â if you think you may want it, but it now, because it wonât be there when you come back.
Years ago, while showing my receipt when leaving Samâs club, the person told me I was charged twice for something and that I need to go to customer service for a refund. More than likely, I would have noticed once I got home so he saved me a trip. It goes both ways.
My husband passed 3 yrs ago. My daughter, 35, her husband passed last year. We doubled up on a membership, instead of buying 2. Apparently, they thing is worth it, because they cancelled my credit card.
A Costco membership would be worth it if not for the incredible rudeness of Costco employees, especially in the self-checkout lane. The minute I approach the area the employees swoop down like vultures, grabbing items from my cart and scanning them. Recently an employee approached just after I scanned my membership card and started scanning, even though I politely asked her not to. I wanted to put my items on two credit cards, for my own good reasons. So she had to remove the scanned items, thus wasting my time. What part of âself-checkoutâ does Costco not understand?