Explain Costco to me.

[Jophiel]

@lingyi

I was told by some employees that they had to keep busy or they’d be written up.

Yeah, that’s retail for ya.

[Balthisar]

@Dahnlor

One thing to add to all the above is the fact that they have a very good car-buying service. When I was in the market for a new car, I used TrueCar, AAA and Costco to set myself up, and the AAA price was negligibly cheaper than the raw TrueCar price (unsurprising since AAA actually uses TrueCar), while Costco was nearly $1000 less.

That reminds me, they work with local HVAC fitters, and that service wasn’t too good for me. The Costco quote came in at double the local quote, for identical equipment. Literally identical equipment. I went with the local guy instead of the next town over guy.

[Jophiel]

@Balthisar

That reminds me, they work with local HVAC fitters, and that service wasn’t too good for me. The Costco quote came in at double the local quote, for identical equipment. Literally identical equipment. I went with the local guy instead of the next town over guy.

I had a similar experience with contacting Home Depot about a new water heater. The price they quoted was twice what I ultimately paid and the guy I found on my own did the job quickly and professionally. Not that you pay for a Home Depot membership but I guess these “pass-through” contractors assume they have an easy market, plus the store’s cut.

[Enright3]

There are so many posts here, that I doubt the OP will continue reading this far down; plus the other posts are what you’d expect. Different people have different reasons for joining.

@gaffa

They charge a fixed amount over wholesale cost, and make almost all their money from memberships. They also do an incredible job of evaluating products, and have a really great return policy.

My personal reasons for joining are mentioned in gaffa’s post. In my experience, Costco does a great job of finding good products, and selling them for a good price. I’m not the kind of person that wants to do months and months of research for a mostly replaceable product. If I get the ‘2nd best’ I’m OK with that. In other words, I’ve always been happy with Costco’s products, and I can shop there without too much worry that I’m buying junk. That’s not true if I go to Wal Mart or Target.

I’d also like to note to the Dongyang2016 that IMHO the olden days of buying in bulk are not the same as today. In the olden days of Sam’s Club, yes, you’d buy “a gallon of peanut butter, five gallons of beans.” I don’t feel that’s true anymore. In my experience, you’ll MOSTLY find a large size of products that matches what you find in a grocery store. The next step above that is several items bundled together. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, but I don’t recall the last time I saw industrial sized products in Costco.

@Jophiel

I had a similar experience with contacting Home Depot about a new water heater. The price they quoted was twice what I ultimately paid and the guy I found on my own did the job quickly and professionally. Not that you pay for a Home Depot membership but I guess these “pass-through” contractors assume they have an easy market, plus the store’s cut.

I had just the opposite experience with regards to my HVAC AND my Garage Door Installation. With the HVAC service contract I paid less by going through Costco, than their regular price. With the Garage door installation, I had an agreed upon price. After he installed it, I told him I found him on costco, and I was expecting a cheaper price. He contacted Costco, and they (Costco) mailed me the discount check.

[carnut]

@gaffa

They charge a fixed amount over wholesale cost, and make almost all their money from memberships. They also do an incredible job of evaluating products, and have a really great return policy.

This.

And then I work it with friends and family. A friend is my spouse member so she shops there too. I used to shop and split things with my mother, now it is with my brother. Do I need a huge number of their store brand paper towels? Not really, but I buy it and split them with my brother. We both have pets and resort to paper towels because sometimes a washcloth won’t cut it. We can buy a whole tenderloin and cut it up into steaks for both households, great price and we don’t have meat languishing in the freezer, getting old. Then, by buying a water softener through their services, I got a quality softener at a decent price, and a kickback of money to spends at Costco. It’s win-win.