# CostCo coming down under

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costco-coming-down-under/423111>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 17, 2007, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costco-coming-down-under/423111 "2007-10-17T23:45:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costco-coming-down-under/423111/21 "2007-10-18T18:21:12Z")

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For no particular reason except I’m bored, here’s a cobbled-together list of the stuff I normally get from Costco, mostly because it’s better value (cheaper and/or better). I generally keep my grocery lists, so it’s easy to figure out.

Flour (30lbs for about nine dollars)  
Local cheddar  
Chocolate syrup  
Eggs  
Milk  
Butter  
Sugar  
Lemon juice  
Baking soda  
Croissants (their croissants are quite good and really cheap)  
Vanilla  
Laundry detergent  
Heavy cream  
Roast chickens  
Stewing and ground beef (both at about sale price at a supermarket)  
Granola bars (we go through enormous quantities of them)  
Mini pizzas  
Cereal (quite a bit cheaper)  
Honey  
Olive oil  
Frozen berries  
Garbage bags (really cheap)  
Parmesan  
Canned tomatoes  
Yogurt

Their in-house baked goods are good, and their packs of bread, bagels, and pita, but I do a lot of our baking and don’t buy a lot of bread.

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**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costco-coming-down-under/423111/22 "2007-10-18T19:55:51Z")

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[QUOTE=gotpasswords]  
Good point there. Go to Safeway, and they’ll have nine brands of diapers, but only one or two at Costco.  
[/QUOTE]

> [@](#):
>
> Costco does not carry multiple brands or varieties where the item is essentially the same. This results in high volume of sales from single vendor, allowing further reduction in price, and reducing marketing costs.

Source: [Costco - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costco)

While a store may carry nine brands of diapers, I’m betting there are only two, maybe three manufacturers for all those brands. IMHO, some brand products are worth it because the quality is still there. However for the most part, brands no longer mean much, other than manufacturers know people still maintain a “brand loyalty” when it makes no sense.

I buy Costco jeans. They’re just Kirkland branded jeans, but they’re made by Lee. Why buy the brand name for essentially the exact same quality product, but at twice the price? Quite a bit of the Costco Kirkland “brand name” products are made by well known brand quality companies. Since they don’t have a “brand name” there’s no advertising markup to artificially increase the price.

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**Author:** ![MissGypsy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@MissGypsy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissGypsy)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costco-coming-down-under/423111/23 "2007-10-19T01:05:21Z")

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I, too, love Costco.

I can get a 12-pack of regular sized cans of tomato sauce, a couple of cases of diapers and wipes, a 6-pack of 6-packs of toilet paper, 24 rolls of paper towels, these lovely frozen chicken breasts already packaged by two, excellent meat that I can divvy up, pack and freeze myself, a couple gallons of laundry detergent in a handy dispenser, and enough dryer sheets to last a year. For less than $200.

Cheap cigarettes, good price on a Dyson, great price on a new Gateway (my 2-year-old spotted that one).

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