is costco's membership worth the cost?

[Ns1]

Just got tires there. Saved ~$75 vs tirerack and america's tire + got the free road damage warranty. Granted, I would rather two tires not be $600, but one purchase was still worth the membership.

free balance/rotation too

 

[Eos]

I'm done with Les Schwab, so my next set of tires will be from Costco.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Very worth it since I mainly use it for gas. I commute to LA four times a week. Shit gets expensive.

 

[TridenT]

Nope.

 

[GoSharks]

Are you telling me there are Costco's that aren't packed to the brim every second they're open? The ones out here between the sheer number of people in it, and the ones who leave their carts in the fucking middle of the isle. They're almost impossible to navigate.

Salt Lake City's is pretty quiet.

 

[SunnyD]

Short answer is HELLS YEA!!!

Long answer if HELLS YEAH!!!

 

[ichy]

Yes for me. The biggest items I get are gas, coffee, greek yogurt (breakfast of champions!), tomatoes and meat. Unfortunately there's no alcohol in Maryland Costcos 🙁

 

[Gibson486]

Depends what you buy. For me, no.

I used to want to get it because of the gas, but the stop and shop starting to doing gas rewards. Just last week I got gas at 2.10 a gallon with the stop and shop rewards card. It is also good at most Shell stations too.

I used to get it for meat, but then i found that Market basket sold it at the same price. Costco has good quality high end meat, but i usually never pay a premium to eat that meat.

Electronics....yeah, there are some good deals, but nothing that makes me lose sleep if I miss it. If I wanted to buy Sony TV, I would just go to the Sony Store in Wrentham.

If you have a family, yeah, its worth it. If you do not, then it is kind of like a luxury to have it.

 

[Fritzo]

Depends what you buy. For me, no.

I used to want to get it because of the gas, but the stop and shop starting to doing gas rewards. Just last week I got gas at 2.10 a gallon with the stop and shop rewards card. It is also good at most Shell stations too.

I used to get it for meat, but then i found that Market basket sold it at the same price. Costco has good quality high end meat, but i usually never pay a premium to eat that meat.

Electronics....yeah, there are some good deals, but nothing that makes me lose sleep if I miss it. If I wanted to buy Sony TV, I would just go to the Sony Store in Wrentham.

If you have a family, yeah, its worth it. If you do not, then it is kind of like a luxury to have it.

With their AmEx card, it's hard to beat their with their gas .20 discount + 3% back, plus the cash rewards you get for using the card for autobillpay. I seriously got $800 back last year for just buying gas and paying bills. Makes you wonder how they can make money 🙂

 

[ichy]

I seriously love Costco's big tubs of cherry tomatoes. During the summer I'd rather get my tomatoes from the farmer's market, but in the winter Costco tomatoes blow away anything you can get at the super market.

 

[lurk3r]

If you like Wallmart just get out of the thread, you'll never understand, and are most likely the 400lb tub of goo jammed into a spandex suit. Costco is not always the cheapest, but you can usually be certain you are getting a decent deal on a good quality item. Yes you can shop and find the item cheaper on sale somewhere, I for one don't have that kind of time. The steaks are very hard to match even at top dollar butchers, the chickens are dirt cheap and as good as kroger for at least a few bucks cheaper (I don't personally like the chicken, GF does though, to me it just tastes wrong).

People missed the best deals on booze, the Svedka and Sobiesky (SP) vodka for ~20 for 1.75L.

Tires used to be among the best place, but with the at least 20 min wait for the dude in the back to put his cigarette down and come up front and having the warrenty claim denied because I didn't use them to rotate every 5000 miles (all 4 tires worn perfectly evenly and 30k miles before warrenty) I went with Yoki's from Discount for much cheaper than any of the Fatboys from costco.

Furniture is nice, but very seasonal and you can never count on getting the same thing in the same store, stock seems to rotate around every 6-8 weeks, and its gone.

Tools have been dirt cheap and reasonably reliable (better than the junk Sears is selling these days at less than half the price).

 

[JeepinEd]

I buy my meats from a Super Target in my area, very good quality and great price. Either that or I have a neighbor who's in the Navy bring me back Rib Eyes from the Commissary. Awesome steaks and much cheaper than Costco. For the produce I get I like Walmart just fine, they have fresh Honeycrisp apples & Grapes that's about the extend of product I get outside of the salad in a bag. Which is the exact same brand Costco has. In the end the selection is what gets me going to a store. I'd have to go to 3 other supermarkets to find everything I get at 1 Walmart.

Looks like you're already going to at least 2 places to get your food.

I bought a pack of bacon wrapped fillets at a Super Walmart once. As I started to put them on the grill, I noticed the fillets were made of clumped pieces of meat, held together by a piece of bacon. Nasty stuff....

Costco Rules!

 

[juiio]

Yea depends. I save enough on diapers alone to make up the membership, let alone the meats, trash bags, zip bags, milk, eggs, etc...

Amazon Mom is the king of diapers now. It beats Costco, even with Costco's regular coupons.

That being said, Costco is still easily worth it.

 

[Ns1]

I seriously love Costco's big tubs of cherry tomatoes. During the summer I'd rather get my tomatoes from the farmer's market, but in the winter Costco tomatoes blow away anything you can get at the super market.

definitely the cheapest price anywhere. great for sauces.

2nd cheapest is TJ's

 

[QueBert]

Looks like you're already going to at least 2 places to get your food.

I bought a pack of bacon wrapped fillets at a Super Walmart once. As I started to put them on the grill, I noticed the fillets were made of clumped pieces of meat, held together by a piece of bacon. Nasty stuff....

Costco Rules!

There is no 1 place that has everything I'm buying, but hell I can't even get the cheese I like at Costco. Costco's great if you need huge quantities of shit and selection doesn't mean anything to you.

 

[JEDI]

used to be in the refrigerated section where the fresh cut fruit is, now moved in the breakfast section right next to eggs/bacon/etc

Not as good as TJ 100% Fresh Squeeze but costs 33% less. Best part? If it's bitter take it back to the CS counter and get a new one.

i believe it's called Kirkland Signature 100% Fresh Squeezed Valencia OJ

none at my costco in northern va.
only oj they sell there is Tropicana four 1/2gallon containers 🙁

 

[GoSharks]

I buy my meats from a Super Target in my area, very good quality and great price.

The Target steaks that I've had have been horrible - they put additives into the meat.

 

[OutHouse]

I would never, EVER buy meat or produce at a Super WalMart instead of Costco. Meat at WalMart is waterlogged. Produce is terrible. Meat at Costco is awesome and produce is of decent quality. The trick to Costco meat is to buy a $100 vacuum sealer and then loins/primals and seal/freeze what you don't do right away. Nothing like pork chops or NY Strip for $0.99/lb or $5.99/lb.

ever look at the label on a steak at walmart? its says right on there "beef flavor added" WTF!!!

 

[skim milk]

none at my costco in northern va.
only oj they sell there is Tropicana four 1/2gallon containers 🙁

I picked up the brand that Ns1 suggested last night. They are 100% freshly squeezed (not from concentrate) type so good call on that.

 

[mizzou]

CORRECTION! Milk is 2.55 /gallon walmart/samsclub too I believe

3.59 at regular store

 

[Eos]

We buy skim at $3.98 for a 2 gallon package at Costco.

 

[sjwaste]

Nah, I'm letting my membership lapse.

In my particular corner of VA, the Pentagon City location sucks ass. It's packed all day every day and parking isn't free unless you buy something - then you're validated for 2 hours. Great, but 2 hours of free parking isn't enough time if you go on a weekend.

The other option is to drive out to Fairfax, but I live inside the beltway for a reason.

I also had a pretty bad experience at the Carlsbad location when I went with my inlaws.

Costco is overrated. Prices are pretty good on groceries, but you're still subject to what they stock. I'd still be okay with that if it weren't for the crowds at the locations closest to me.