Costco is great if you like meat. When we were on food stamps we were able to eat meat every day thanks to Costco. You can buy whole pork loins for $30 and then butcher it and freeze it yourself. I could buy 60 pounds of high quality meat for $100 and combining that with my deep freeze more than paid for my membership.
I live 40 minutes from the closest Costco so I don’t have a membership now but since I like to eat meat I could save $150/month on meat. My wife is trying to talk me in to it for that but I need the deep freeze back up and running first.
Just be careful of those over-sized shopping carts. You don’t have to fill them up before you check out. Its best to go shopping there after you’ve had a big lunch. That way you won’t be so tempted to buy those bulk sized packages of food that you may never get around to finishing.
or… go to their food counter and get a hot dog & drink for a couple bucks. Heck, get two!
I bought a tablet a few years ago for the same price that Best Buy announced as their Black Friday sale price a week later. Costco had pallets of them just sitting there…
Answer is yes if a single person who spends a fair amount, food and all the other things Costco offers, not a very frugal or financially strapped single person. And, if after getting the membership you find that Costco offerings and prices fit your needs for a pretty large chunk of purchases in all the categories of goods it offers. If you spread your bargain hunting around to a lot of places, it’s less likely the Costco purchases alone justify the $60. So as others said, I think trying it is the only real way to answer the question for any given person.
We’re a now quasi-empty nest couple (though big, with big leftovers, weekly meals including grown kids are a noticeable part of our food budget) and the double price (but 2% cash back) Costco membership is a complete no brainer for us, hard to see that even just one of us couldn’t justify the regular membership.
I added up how much I would save on things I buy regularly and it didn’t amount to enough to make it worth getting a membership. I don’t really need a 3-pack of brownie mix, anyway. I did go with a friend who had a card, so that’s a good option if you have a friend who’s a member.
It would be more tempting if I lived closer to a Costco. The nearest one is about 30 minutes away.
I’m a single person with a CostCo membership. Renewe for several years, because I find it worthwhile.
I buy gas regularly. Also at times, auto stuff like tires, battery, and oil.
Their liquor is a good value (especially Kirkland brand), though I don’t drink much.
I get eye exams & glasses through them.
I get milk regularly, some meat products, & frozen stuff. Often too-big packages, but can be kept frozen. Produce is often of high quality, and usually small enough packages.
I buy paper products in bulk: paper towels, tissues, toilet paper, napkins – those store for months. Also laundry detergent.
Pet supplies & food. Not medications, can get those cheaper online. Gardening supplies & seeds.
A lot of their food products are in packages too big for one person. Even bakery items. But they seem to be moving to multi-packaging – instead of the huge jug of peanut butter, they now offer a 3-pack of regular sized jars, 6-pack of cream cheese instead of the 3-pound block, etc. So I can open only 1 container, and store the others.
It wasn’t worth it for me. I never did the math but when I’d go I’d barely buy anything and the sizes of what I did buy were so large that a lot went to waste. I don’t have a big freezer and don’t want one. The only thing I remember buying that I thought was a real bargain was a big package of Venus razors. And that tequila. I bought tires but I don’t think they ended up being any cheaper than other places. The gas isn’t any cheaper than the cheapest places you can get it around here and only one cent less than a whole bunch of other places (as of this morning). Plus, it was a time suck. Whenever I’d go there I’d walk around and look at *everything *but buy very little.
Even when I had a roommate, it wasn’t worth it. We loaded up with bulk items like paper towels, toilet paper, laundry detergent and the like. And that lasted us a whole year. But since we didn’t share food or other consumables, there wasn’t much else for us to buy in bulk.
The Costco gas station isn’t particularly near our house, but it is close to places we go regularly, so it’s still worth it to us to buy our gas there.
It depends. One time, I did join Sam’s because I could get tires there at a better price even with the membership fee added. I was away from home when I did that and closer to that store. However, the nearest Sam’s is over an hour away from me, and there really isn’t much there I need that justifies the gas costs and travel time. The nearest Costco is over a hundred miles away. Until one is as close as the nearest Wally World, I shall not bother.
I’m glad it works for you; however, I don’t find it worthwhile. $60 to use extra gas/time doesn’t work out in my case.
There are none in my neighborhood; which means I need to drive past multiple grocery stores & a two Targets to get to one. The two closest don’t sell gasoline; the closest one that does is 35 mins away. Even when I’m out that way it’s still 5 mins out of the way.
They can’t sell (hard) alcohol in this state. IF they get a separate license, they can sell up to two six-pack of beer (want a case, must make two purchases of two six-packs each, at the associated six-pack marked up price) & it must be separate purchase from your shopping basket & you must show ID (something you don’t need to do at a distributor or a bar). If you want a case or a keg, go to a beer distributor. Throwing a dinner party & want more than three or four bottles of wine (not sure of the exact limit), again either make multiple purchases or go to the state store. Yes, this is a bass ackward state when it comes to selling of booze…& it’s gotten better in the past few years. [/rant]
i get these at the local supermarket when they go on sale.
No pets. (I’m away too much.)
This. I’d rather buy three different boxes of cereal when they go on sale than a three pack of the same thing so as to have some variety in life.
We don’t have a Costco around here although I’ve heard rumors that one is coming. We do have Sam’s Club though. It’s just me and my husband at home now with 2 dogs and grandkids coming over on a regular basis. Sam’s is my go-to store for:
Produce - they gave great produce - watermelons, berries, cukes, etc.
Meat - their ground beef is wonderful - I get a 5-6lb tray of 90/10 for $2.89/lb
Anything electronic - I haven’t been through Best Buy’s doors in years
Clothing - I get a lot of my clothing and gift clothing there.
Christmas gift items - Slippers, socks, books, gift cards, snacks, etc.
Paper products - toilet paper, paper towel, Kleenex. Sure it’s in bulk but I like knowing that I have extras of that stuff in the house.
Tick control meds for the dogs - waaaaay cheaper than the vet and even cheaper than WalMart
Dog beds - half the price of Petco and even Amazon
Office supplies - I get most of the company’s (my place of work) supplies there - copy paper, envelopes, etc.
Party stuff - best place for chips, paper plates, snacks, etc.
I have noticed some CostCos you have to pass through the door to get to the snack bar and some you do not. At the latter you need not show a card to buy your hotdog but I wonder if you could tell the door-checker, “I’m just getting something to eat.” As a member I’ve never had to worry about it.
My family’s been members of both; I’d say that in general, that if Sam’s Club wasn’t useful for you, because there wasn’t enough you wanted to buy in bulk, then you’re going to face the same exact issue at Costco that you would at Sam’s Club.
The main difference is that Sam’s is still nominally oriented toward small business owners, and have a lot of stuff like commercial kitchen ware, to-go packaging, etc… along with bulk sized office supplies, food and produce. Costco is nominally oriented toward families, with a larger selection of stuff like meat, prepared foods, and less of the restaurant/small-business specific stuff.
Most Costcos I’ve been to have an entry door w/ at least one controller/id checker and an exit door w/ only receipt checkers. That exit door is where you go in for customer service and IME, the cafeteria. I smile at the receipt checker when I walk in if they even catch my eye, which they never seem to try doing.
I don’t know how it works at the walk-up Costco cafes, I haven’t seen them in person.
All Costcos I’ve been to have the cafeteria after the register, presumably because you can add an order to your regular receipt without having to wait in line twice for food. Then is the return desk. It is common for people to either use the exit or cross over through the gate if they want to return something or only food.
By the way, now I think I find more value in Costco single than I do as a family. I bought more meats and stuff and froze them and saved value, now my wife has taken over almost all freezer space so I can’t make those savings often.
One reason I might discourage a single person from using Costco is because the food quantities are so large it could encourage overeating. Every person is going to be different, but some people will find it harder to control portion size when the package is so big. For things that spoil, a person may feel more compelled to eat more so that they don’t have to throw anything out.
I find shopping at Costo/Sams as a much bigger hassle than at the local store. If I’m buying a ton of stuff it’s not a big deal, but a single person won’t be going as often and buying as much stuff to offset that. If I were single, I personally would rather shop at the grocery store than Costco because I doubt my personal savings would be significant in any way. Any small savings would be overshadowed by the hassle of the club shopping experience.
But if a single person is trying to decide between Costco and Sams, go with Costco. Costco has many more products geared towards consumers and food items will be more appropriate for household use.
I don’t know if this practice is a violation of either Sam’s Club or Costco rules but my parents had a Sam’s club membership and would do this all the time. This happened two or three times a year at least. Maybe this practice could be of value to the OP.
Basically my parents would gather six to ten of their friends in somebody’s van, Dad would follow in his big panel van and all of them would walk in to the store as a group while Mom waved her card at the door person. Once in the store, everyone would split up, often grabbing multiple cartloads of stuff each. At checkout, each person would go through in turn using Mom’s card and Mom would put everything on her credit card. In the parking lot, receipts were passed out and everyone wrote a check to Mom to pay her back plus a few extra bucks. I know that one particular trip rang up to more than $12,000 in total. Because we lived in a small town more than an hour from the nearest Sam’s Club, this kind of bulk shopping run made sense to them.
This action of sharing membership benefits is almost certainly a violation of club policy but 15 years ago in Salina, KS - nobody even blinked at it. Maybe it could work for you?
this thread was started with misinformation on my part. When I started this thread I thought a costco membership is $120 a year and a sams club is even more expensive. Apparently its only $60 for Costco and $45 for Sams club. Thats only $5 a month and not really hard to justify.
(I’m away too much.)