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.
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.
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).