Costco’s meat is certainly better than any large chain grocery but there a plenty of smaller places I can get the same quality for cheaper, but that may not be the case in all areas.
I will say this, Costco routinely carries large cuts that are very hard to find anywhere else. I can get a PISMO or a brisket cheaper, but Costco is the only place I’ve seen an entire whole 7 bone beef rib side.
Or have a Costco buddy. For a while we’d shop with my husband’s best friend - two small families can split six avocados and six heads of romaine and a huge tray of pork chops. And storing half a Costco sized purchase of toilet paper or paper towels is much easier on the pantry than trying to store the whole thing.
In Victoria, yep. Not in NSW though (well, last time I went to a NSW Aldi…'bout 12 months ago).
My favourite store, Trader Joe’s, is owned by Aldi.
Nothing like Costco.
My local IGA sells alcohol. As does my local Coles. Aldi seems to be a bit hit and miss. My local one doesn’t, but I’ve seen it available in other Aldis around Sydney and country NSW.
Costco employee here.
I’d say that a lot of valid points have been hit so far. Namely, almost all the goods we carry are good to very good name brand stuff. We have a standard mark-up on nearly everything straight across the board so in some departments you get terrific savings. In other departments if your local store is running a loss leader or great coupons we won’t beat their price. I work in a few of the departments so have a pretty good idea of what’s going on.
On of the drawbacks is that our selection is less than a store like Von’s (my local store.) Because easily half of our food goods are stocked by the palette load their just isn’t the room available for variety that Von’s enjoys. In other words, we don’t have “shelf space” for the majority of groceries, but what we do have is higher quality brands over Von’s house brands. One drawback of this lack of variety is the rotation of goods: when the PTB decide to bring in something new, some other item gets bumped and it’s impossible to tell for how long.
Others have remarked on the size of some of our packing. When I’m speaking with members I refer to it as “Costco Portions”. I live alone so there are a raft of things that I just can’t reasonably buy because of the storage space and time to get through the whole amount. Canned goods and jarred stuff do well but I can’t go through, say a 30 count flat of eggs; I can barely get through a dozen eggs before they head south. Again, Costco portions.
One thing that Johnny L.A. mentioned about meat is true. Not terribly cheaper than elsewhere but our store carries around 25% prime cuts. Oh, and we don’t sell porterhouse steaks: everything is marked “T-bone” but they all have a terrific filet side one them.
I shop there for free but had a membership before I started. I made up the membership fee in contact lens savings alone.
MM
Things we buy regularly at Costco because they are way cheaper per unit than other places, and we use them a lot and/or Costco sells them in quantities that we can use before they go bad:
Onions
Plain yogurt
Walnuts and sometimes other nuts
Raisins and other dried fruits
Various canned tomato products
Butter
Milk
Whole coffee beans - these are half the price or les of comparable items in a regular grocery store or specialty shop
Basmati rice
Crimini mushrooms
Better than Boullion
Sometimes other produce (more often fruit than vegetables - apples, berries, sometimes peaches)
Cheese, especially higher-end stuff
Honey
Wine/beer/other booze
Olive oil and other cooking oils, such as canola or coconut
Bulk packs of chicken, already subdivided into convenient freezer portions, like 4 thighs
Toilet paper
Cat litter
Things we buy now and again:
Fish (fabulous tuna the past couple of weeks!)
Meat other than chicken, though the pork comes in HUGE packages, and we are trying to eat less red meat
Basic baking supplies (flour, sugar, yeast, etc.)
OTC meds - the loratadine alone is so much cheaper than anywhere else that it pays for the annual membership!
I’m sure there are things I’m forgetting. And yes, I do check per unit prices.
Two brothers - one ones TJs, one Aldi - different companies.
Costco is for rich people
Sam’s Club is the poor man’s warehouse store
My wife and I are both on disability.
You couldn’t pay us to shop at Sam’s.
I haven’t seen mentioned yet that gasoline is generally cheaper at Costco than at surrounding gas stations.
But they are different companies. Aldi Nord operates Trader Joes and is run by Theo Albrecht, Aldi Sud operates Aldi’s and is run by Karl Albrecht. They’ve been legally and financially separate since 1966 (over a dispute over selling cigarettes) but will sometimes do vendor negotiations together and some of the house brands are the same products in different wrappers.
(Intrestingly, it looks like the U.S. is the only place you’ll get both brands in the same region).
This can be regional - in Minnesota there is a statutory minimum on gas - you can’t undercut (years ago, big gas stations were putting little Mom and Pop operations out of business, so…you can’t sell gas at a loss - there is a percentage over the wholesale price - or something like that). So gas tends to be fairly close to the same price - although gas stations close to a Costco or Sam’s Club that sell gas all tend to be cheaper than gas stations that don’t face the competition.
I’d think liquor would have some of the same sorts of strange regulatory issues - where Costco can sell it at all, there may be limits on how cheap it can be. Its just one of those commodities we like to put regulations around.
(Minnesota has a state minimum on cigarettes as well).
I’m a big fan of Aldi, and on most of their products they really do beat the local supermarkets, often times even on sale items.
Aldi Sud which operates Aldi stores in the United States is still owned by Karl Albrecht, one of the original two founding brothers. When the two brothers had their big split they basically agreed to not compete directly against one another and carved up regions for themselves. Theo Albrecht of Aldi Nord eventually bought Trader Joe’s as he saw it as a way to expand into the U.S. market but without directly competing with his brother–since Trader Joe’s isn’t really the same type of store as a regular Aldi.
The original Theo Albrecht of Aldi Nord died in 2010, though. So the current Theo Albrecht that owns it isn’t Karl Albrecht’s brother, but his nephew. Theo Jr had a brother himself co-inherited Aldi Nord, but that brother died recently.
In Illinois, at least, you don’t need to have a Costco membership to buy alcohol at Costco. I assume that’s part of some regulatory issue.
Any calculation of savings at Cosco for me has to include an evaluation of the value of my time. The Cosco near me is *always *packed with people. It takes a long time to weave a cart through the massive hordes. I have to wait in a ridiculously long line to check out (sometimes the lines stretch halfway to the back of the store). Then, the ultimate frustration, after I’ve waited in a ridiculously long line to check out, I have to queue up in another, even longer line, just to get out of the goddam store, because they have to check everyone’s receipt and mark it with a magic marker. I get so pissed off waiting in this line (the last time I was there it took like 25 minutes, which is precisely the reason that it was the last time I went there) that in the past I have blown around it and been yelled at by the employee as I bolted for the door. But, it has been pointed out to me that they will not take a return on an item if the receipt does not have that magic marker line on it (I don’t know if that’s true, or if I could just make my own magic marker line on a receipt and pass it off).
I hate crowds when shopping, and I do my regular grocery shopping at 7:00 am on Sunday to avoid them, but Cosco’s hours are limited and I’ve never found a time, when I’m not at work, that they are not packed to the rafters. So, even though I like their products and their prices, the time factor–both time spent in the store and time subtracted from my lifespan by the blood-boiling frustration–is just not worth it.
The things I buy at Costco are significantly cheaper:
–Our preferred brand of cat litter
–Glasses and contact lenses
–Tires
–Cheese
–Liquor
We also buy wine there. The $20 bottles of Kirkland Chateauneuf du Pape definitely are a bargain. But we aren’t comparing prices for the same bottle of wine at another store. We just like the reasonably priced options that all have reviews/descriptions posted.
We don’t buy food there (except cheese) because it’s just the two of us, and everything is packaged in enormous quantities.
I hate going there for these reasons as well. What makes it even worse, at least at the stores around here, is that they set up these goddamn “free sample stations” at the end of every aisle. So, the store is jam-packed with people to begin with, then they block half the entrance to each aisle with these stations. The other half gets blocked by all the morons who just stop there to partake of the free samples. It drives me absolutely batty.
I’ve found that if I go on a weekday, showing up right when they open, I can get in and out before the huge crowds show up, and before they have all of their stupid “sample stations” set up. I have my list, and I barrel through the store as quickly as possible. If I can’t get there at opening time, I wait until another day.
So, you just need to take some time off from work to go at the right time. 
I go there for paper towels, toilet paper, booze , laundry detergent and some food items. But because there is only two of us, I don’t get a lot of food items. You really have to check the unit prices, somethings are cheaper in a grocery store.