I am a Sam’s Club member. I assume it is similar to Costco. I buy a shitload of toilet paper (for work, my home bathroom and my gf’s home bathroom), so I only have to deal with TP about twice a year. Same thing with paper towels.
I also buy the big box containing dozens of small packets of pistachios. Our African Grey gets 2-4 pistachios a day. By opening a small pack each week they are never stale (although he loves pistachios, he demands they be fresh).
I thought the prices on electronics were quite good but I have not seriously compared them to elsewhere. They did, formerly, have a very generous return policy so that some people abused it by buying an HDTV, using it for a couple of years and then returning it so they could instead buy a newer model. I think they’ve since tightened the return policy to prevent this. (As with LL Bean’s famously generous return policy, a few people ruined a good thing for everyone.)
It may because it’s Hawaii, but certain things like soda are more expensive at Costco than in other stores when it’s on sale. My cousin worked at 7-UP and while he could buy X number of cases a month, his cost was higher than the store sales price also. What I think happens is that Costco negotiates for X number of cases/pallets/truckloads for a set time (probably years) for a set price. Regular stores however are offered pricing based on holidays (monthly and seasonal) when the production lines ramp up (since soda is perishable) and they may double or triple their regular order.
As for electronics, particularly TVs, Costco often has their own unique model numbers and the TVs have more or fewer features depending on what price point they want to target. This doesn’t account for the double price mentioned above* but may be the reason for higher prices at Costco.
Chain stores like Walmart and Best Buy also have unique product numbers, but they’re usually exactly the same as the regular product line. They do this to prevent price matching which usually requires the exact same model no.
*This is really odd since the markups on electronics is really small. Was the TV discontinued or going to be discontinued? Was it new or a demo model?
Also, here’s guide on what to look for at Costco to get the best deals https://www.businessinsider.com/costco-prices-tags-explained-2018-4#sales-prices-ending-in-9-other-than-99-may-or-may-not-indicate-a-deal-3
The two main ones are: * means the item likely won’t be restocked. I’ve seen items with an asterisk reappear after a while. If there’s a .88 or .00 it’s likely a marked final sale price and may mean the item won’t be restocked.
Here’s the website referenced in the article which tracks deals at Costco https://costco97.com/
Finally, I don’t know how it works in the continental U.S., but since we’re so far away, our prices are almost always higher. It’s frustrating to look up something online, put it in your cart and the price increases. SIGH
This is why I love shopping for electronics at Best Buy. Unlike other chain stores, their pricing is national. We get the same sale price as New York!
I’ve found good prices from a lot of pet meds that aren’t covered by insurance, often way cheaper than directly from “human” pharmacies.
The $1000 I get every year in executive membership rewards more than makes up for any of the cons you listed. YMMV of course.
Plus, their food court is incredibly cheap.
Same in California. I never buy soda at Costco because I can do better at my grocery if I wait for a sale and buy tons of soda.
You have to be careful with lots of items. Bacon is not that much cheaper than the store, maybe a bit more expensive for good sales, but the quality is better.
Two things not mentioned. Costco has a travel service. I haven’t used them for airline flights, but I always use them to rent cars. When visiting my grandson the price at the airport is less than what I used to pay off-airport, and a lot more convenient. You can - and they encourage you to - cancel and rebook if the price goes down.
Another thing I like about them is quality. There are enough items there that are just better than what I can get in the stores that it is worth membership. Ours used to have this awesome bread, as good as you can get in a bakery and better than any I’ve found in a grocery store bakery. Now they have great rolls.
Our store has interesting ethnic food. I’ve bought prepared goat at ours.
I seldom buy meat there since we don’t have freezer space and we can do as well on sales. And the vegetables in ours are bleah.
Have you considered a second membership – maybe someone else in the household – so that you can get past that limit?
That’s why I buy at Costco, their quality does seem to be better. They also seem to pre-vet brands for you. And their house brand is as good as any name brand.
Longtime warehouse club members, have you noticed a significant change in the types and number of products they sell?
We had a Costco membership in 1988 when the first location opened down the street from where we lived and as I recall, the selection was heavily business oriented, particularly the food items. There were few, if any household items like beds and loungers. And the book, clothing and electronics sections were much smaller.
They definitely have strict requirements for what they sell since they’re usually buying in the thousands or tens of thousands. I don’t recall if it was on TV or an article I read, but the products are quality tested before they’re allowed into the warehouses. This is the same for any house branded product which comes off the same lines as the name brands. Just makes sense when you’re buying thousands or or tens of thousands+ of the products.
Something that hasn’t been brought up is “Why do companies want to sell their products for a lower wholesale price?”. Volume, guaranteed and potential repeat sales.
Volume - One of the key metrics for the success of any company is cash flow. Making 10% profit on 100,000 units is better than making 15% on 10,000 units and having 90,000 sitting in warehouse.
Guaranteed sales - You see it all the time on Shark Tank. Contestant is asked about their sales and they say they have a pending order of X dollars. The sharks scoff and explain unless you have an actual Purchase Order, there’s no guarantee the store will actually buy their product.
Potential repeat sales - The product of the manufacturer/distributor sells really well. The Costco buyer asks “What else do you have?”.
Plus, their rotisserie chickens are much larger and , IMO, better tasting that those at the grocery stores.
Even the phone company? Makes things awkward, wot?
I haven’t had my own card in years, though I’ve glommed onto family memberships at times. These days if I go to a Costco, it’s straight to the moderately-priced snack bar for a Polish sausage and fries.
The likelihood of two people being in together to sell a few hundred dollars worth of goods is far less likely than one. Add in that there are usually two people manning the exit (and the second will call you over if you’re next in line), means that three people would need to be in cahoots for a few hundred dollars. Extremely unlikely!
The thing to keep in mind when it comes to large chain stores, is that almost nothing is decided at the local level. Everything is based on research against a certain percentage or all of their locations. Somewhere along the line, it was determined that the savings realized by having your receipts checked outweighs the loss of sales of potential customers like you.
Bottom line, you’re just a number on a spreadsheet. 
Man, after reading this thread, I’m thinking of signing up. They can have blood and urine samples if they want!
Naturally.
I believe that Costco’s customers are generally wealthier than Sam’s Club’s and Costco has fancier merchandise. They have fine jewelry in the store near my parents’ house and really fancy stuff on the website. I think someone bought a $400,000 diamond ring recently.
Man, if they’ve got enough inside jobs going to justify one or two FTE’s to check receipts at every store in the chain, it’s not working. Are they really losing that much money that this is worth doing?
Most likely it acts as a deterrent. Paying a penny to avoid losing a dollar.