What's the point of showing your Costco membership at the door?

[TehMac]

My neighbor shops at costco. She's a single lady living by herself. She buys in bulk to "save money". Then she ends up throwing out half the shit she buys because she can't eat it before it goes bad

Did she vote for Obama too?

 

[FeuerFrei]

OH it's one of those membership stores?? Yuck.

Guess that explains why they made me jump through hoops when I tried to enter one once. Walked out and never darkened their door again.

 

[killster1]

OH it's one of those membership stores?? Yuck.

Guess that explains why they made me jump through hoops when I tried to enter one once. Walked out and never darkened their door again.

hehe @ not knowing about it being membership store. I dont know about 50$ if you buy a few electronics a year its worth it as they have decent prices and decent return policy. even got a disneyland season pass before for best price from costco but its been a while, i dont have one this year as closest one is like 70 miles from me.

 

[Newbian]

My neighbor shops at costco. She's a single lady living by herself. She buys in bulk to "save money". Then she ends up throwing out half the shit she buys because she can't eat it before it goes bad

Maybe she expects you to join her and eat the food and then spend the night.

 

[esquared]

Because you have to pay a subscription to a store, to save money on deals. You have to purchase quite a lot at Costco to actually make the subscription worth your while.

I'd rather just go to Safeway where I don't have to pay a subscription to be allowed to shop around.

That's not true. You can make the subscription pay off in no time. If I only used my subscription for coffee beans I would make my 50.00 membership cost back in 8 or 9 weeks at my usage of 1 lb per week. I save 5.50 to 6.50 a pound for my Sumatra beans as opposed to buying from Starbucks or Peets. Not a lot of places sell Sumatra beans period much less at 4.50 per pound.

Costco isn't the cheapest on everything but if you can use the bulk amounts they require the savings can be big. I recently picked up a couple dozen binders for work at around $9.00 to 10.00 for 6 binders, depending on the size, atless than 2.00 apiece. The Officemax OfficeDepot price on the equivalent binders are 3.50 to 4.50 apiece. There was another 50.00 savings just on that one trip for binders. Car batteries and car tires are another way to save big.

It's not for everyone but if your buying habits fall into what they sell at Costco, it can be worth it.

Also, most of the time their gas prices are below just about everyone else in the area.

 

[QueBert]

Super Walmarts have a much better selection, better or close to equal prices on just about everything, and you don't have to buy in bulk. Oh and no memership needed. Costco's selection is pretty horrible and a lot of items are non existent. I don't care about the "class" of people who typically go to Walmarts, I go there to shop not socialize. I end up saving a ton of money without needing a membership or having to buy shit like 2 half gallon bottles of Ranch when I want Ranch.

 

[schneiderguy]

Did she vote for Obama too?

She's actually a Republican :awe:

Maybe she expects you to join her and eat the food and then spend the night.

She's old enough to be my grandma D:

 

[oogabooga]

Just to make sure you don't fill up the cart and forget your card, and probably to prevent kiddies from going in to eat free food. I'm fine with it.

This is what I think - it probably prevents a member from coming in, getting to checkout, and realizing they don't have their card once they have a cart loaded with crap, holding up the somewhat slow lines already. If this is the case you can get a one day card at the membership desk anyway, it's mostly to prevent you getting stuck in line I'd guess.

I don't think they care if non-members come in cause you can just walk in anyway. If they have the foodcourt inside I've just walked in through the exit without flashing a card. But it seems like newer ones just have the food court on the outside and they don't check anyway.

Are there people really saying you don't save money shopping at Costco? Really? Just buying various household products and on occasion gas saves me enough money to justify the membership. Add on some bulk food purchases and I'm definitely ahead. I spend enough to justify getting the executive membership. I easily make back more than the cost of the full membership.

Sure if you're retarded, buy a ton of meat, stick it in the fridge and let it go bad - it's more expensive. But most people can save money shopping at costco, their return policy is superb (even the new limited electronics policy is better than most places), their product selection isn't as good as a market - but it's still pretty good.

 

[JEDI]

I don't get that part, you need a membership to pay at the checkout anyway. Why do you need to show it at the door to go in? It seem pretty easy enough to sneak in anyway on the backs of groups or go in from the exit which I've done once because we needed a straw for a smoothie. I'm not a member so enlighten me but I've visited many times with friends who are.

to keep out the riff raff.

 

[lxskllr]

Are there people really saying you don't save money shopping at Costco? Really? Just buying various household products and on occasion gas saves me enough money to justify the membership. Add on some bulk food purchases and I'm definitely ahead. I spend enough to justify getting the executive membership. I easily make back more than the cost of the full membership.

The only advantage I saw, was things are in 1 place. I can get better prices on just about everything, but it requires more than 1 store. A lot of it probably depends on your local retail selection.

 

[JEDI]

why? the prices there for most of their products are way better than other b&m stores.

no. it's just a little better than walmart. and in some cases walmart beats them.

the real value is the free samples, and the coupons.

w/the coupons, it is a bargain.

hm.. then again, you can clip coupons from the newspaper and use it at walmart.

so the real value is not to be shopping along side people of Walmart?

Is that worth $50/yr?

 

[nick1985]

My Costco is full of Indians. I figure I must be doing something right by shopping at Costco, Indians are renown for sniffing out a good bargain. Everyone knows this.

 

[buzzsaw13]

I could make up the $50 in membership fees in their gas station alone.

 

[Damn Dirty Ape]

weirdest experience we ever had at a costco was on a trip to Cali and went to a Costco right at the edge of chinatown in SF.. It was completely filled with Chinese folks, seemed nary a caucasian person to be seen. What I still would like to have explained to me is it doesn't seem if a single ONE of the folks we saw EVER made eye contact.

The difference in cultures? No one was unfriendly or rude, just stayed to themselves and never looked at you.

 

[joebloggs10]

$50 membership? Damn, where I'm at the Gold Star is $25 and Executive is $100. If you get the executive and don't get at least a $75 rebate at year's end they refund the extra $75 you spent above the Gold Star level.

 

[UsandThem]

Costco does this for several reasons.

1. Reduces shoplifting
2. Prevents people from shopping there without knowing they must be a member to buy stuff.
3. Allows them to keep track of "rushes" and to get more people to check out members.

They do not do it for:

1. To prevent competitors from checking prices.
2. To ruin a person's day by making them "dig" in their wallet for their membership card. We all know that is so freaking hard and ruins a person's day.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Their Kirkland, WA store has the food area in a separate section outside of the store, no need to be a member.

The money saved on milk alone covers the cost of my membership.

 

[JTsyo]

Buying tires from them gets you free rotations, balancing and pressure checks. Also the tires are covered for road hazards and punctures. I had one tire go out that had to be replaced, they couldn't get the exact same tire so I got a second tire pro-rated (it was less that $10 since the tires were pretty new).
Though once I went in with a puncture and when I tried to leave, lugnuts fell off my tire. They had not tightened them, it wasn't even the tire that was punctured. They drove me home and had a nearby dealership check and redo the threads.

 

[Damn Dirty Ape]

Their Kirkland, WA store has the food area in a separate section outside of the store, no need to be a member.

The money saved on milk alone covers the cost of my membership.

in Southern California it seemed there were a lot of costco with the outside food courts.

 

[Chaotic42]

The only advantage I saw, was things are in 1 place. I can get better prices on just about everything, but it requires more than 1 store. A lot of it probably depends on your local retail selection.

We don't have Costco here, we have Sam's Club and it's worth the price. Hell, just on stuff like laundry detergent, trash bags, etc. The stuff that you're going to need tons of before you die and that doesn't expire.

 

[PhaZe]

Split the membership with a friend, they give you two separate cards. 25/each. I admit the first time I shopped I bought a few things that expired before I could use them. Lesson learned.

I only buy items that are cheaper than my local heb /walmart. Trail mix bars are half the price , frozen chicken, pizza, paper towels, toilet paper, trash bags, coke. I don't dare buy produce in bulk, I won't eat it before it expires hehe.

And, that hot dog and drink deal is great, I always get it. Even the huge pizza for 9.99 is tasty as well. They recently stopped using Nathans hotdogs and starting using Kirkland dogs instead

 

[darkxshade]

2. Prevents people from shopping there without knowing they must be a member to buy stuff.

Heh, I didn't think of this one, of all the reasons, I think this one makes the most sense.

About the part that some people bring up about the value of a membership. Like I said, I don't have a membership myself so I only buy there when I'm invited by someone who is and from what I can tell, the membership pays for itself very quickly for large households. It's not meant for those who live on their own.

 

[mugs]

Their Kirkland, WA store has the food area in a separate section outside of the store, no need to be a member.

The money saved on milk alone covers the cost of my membership.

I don't think you need to be a member to buy the hot food at any Costco. You just go in through the exit, same as you would to go to customer service to buy a membership or return stuff.

 

[oogabooga]

Split the membership with a friend, they give you two separate cards. 25/each. I admit the first time I shopped I bought a few things that expired before I could use them. Lesson learned.

I only buy items that are cheaper than my local heb /walmart. Trail mix bars are half the price , frozen chicken, pizza, paper towels, toilet paper, trash bags, coke. I don't dare buy produce in bulk, I won't eat it before it expires hehe.

And, that hot dog and drink deal is great, I always get it. Even the huge pizza for 9.99 is tasty as well. They recently stopped using Nathans hotdogs and starting using Kirkland dogs instead

I think people say a lot of the Kirkland brand stuff is just relabeled name brands isn't it? If this is the case, they might still be Nathans hotdogs, sold at kirklands at a 'lower price' or whatever to keep brand value or something.

I don't know if it is true or not - personally I find from experience the quality of the Kirkland stuff to be pretty comparable so I haven't cared who makes it.

 

[JHoNNy1OoO]

The huge bags of chicken breasts alone pay for the membership in a year. Their muffins are also really good. Which reminds me I have to go to Costco tomorrow!