Costco - is it worth it for the average family?

vikingaero

I agree with sumo.

Costco have very good offers at times with their members passports. I always stock up on as much as the car will carry for tissues, kitchen towels and bogrolls. One of the main attractions is that they sell things that they import themselves and you can't find on the high street.

Some of my friends do almost exclusively shop there. If I buy bulk products then I usually stop on the way home at my mums and split half the excess product with her.

Costco tend to be poorer value on computers and laptops.

The best thing about Cosco (apart from the Hot Dogs and Chicken Bakes) is the absolute no quibble return policy.

hev_2

It depends on your buying habits. Cat food is definitely cheaper at Costco, white sugar is definitely cheaper almost anywhere else apart from the corner store.

Costco does mainly high end stuff. My DH will only eat Heinz Baked Beans. At Costco I save a packet, especially if you get a passport offer buy three trays for price of two.

Another thing - do you have the space to store huge bulk buys of loo rolls etc. I save my membership fee easily on washing powder and cat food, but I do have enough space to store six trays of 36 tins of baked beans each.

I love Costco, and wouldn't trade my membership for anything, but it is easy to get sucked into 'oh look, what a brilliant idea, I can stock up on washing up liquid, and while I am here I can bulk buy the tuna and the ketchup' and get home to realise that while the washing up liquid is definitely cheaper, the tuna and ketchup would be cheaper at M&S!

NB the Costco own brand (Kirkwood) is worth trying.

Hope this helps.

Hev

Essex_Maid

Like all shopping you have to scout around. I've found Costco excellent on some things. Croc shoes £21 children's £13. Box of mixed cards, beautiful would be at least £2.00 each in shops, Costco around 40p each, cannot remember exact price, same with a box of "present" bags. Agree with other posters, ask for a day pass/free visit, or find a friend who is a member. Their book's of special offers are really good, and we have found the quality first class.

feival

There are a few rules with Costco:

1) Don't buy fruit and veg - the prices are way higher than your local market but possibly slightly cheaper than mainstream supermarkets
2) Ruthlessly exploit the voucher books - I pay for my membership through the voucher book alone - at least two large boxes of Persil, toilet rolls, kitchen rolls, 250ml apple juice for the kid's lunch bags
3) If you are the type of person that buys own label or no frills toilet paper etc. don't join - I am afraid you are too much of a money saver - Costco truly only sell quality stuff
4) If you can get all electricals from them - they tend to stock the "best" (I don't mean top end necessarily but just the models people actually want) models and great quality, prices are good and as other people say the refund policy is amazing
5) The tyres are cheap. Just one tyre a year will cover the cost of half the membership.
6) don't join Costco if you don't have serious storage space. A loft is fine but a spare kitchen cabinet is not enough.

barginunter

Stick to Lidl (does bread flour), Aldi, tesco etc. Costco is great now and again for specials but not for everyday stuff - I'm not going to bother renewing this year.

ultrak3wl

If you just simply want everything as cheap as possible don't bother with Costco. By shopping around at the pile-em-high places you can almost certainly find a better deal.

If you want top quality all the time for decent price with no messing then get down to Costco right away.

I've mentioned this before on MSE but I love re-telling it... bought a £300 camcorder at Costco for £250 + their free £50 passport voucher. FOUR YEARS later it packed up so took it back and got full cash refund for £300 on the spot, no argument. This is normal. Try that one at Lidl!

retrospek

What are these Member Passports you are all mentioning ?

I joined Costco a few weeks ago.. so are you saying I should start receiving offers through the post for money off ?

newleaf

retrospek wrote: »

What are these Member Passports you are all mentioning ?

About once every 3 months Costco send out booklets, called Passports, containing vouchers for special offers. Each week usually has a few specials, you can only use the vouchers on the specified week. Toilet rolls crop up regularly in these offers and can work out a good deal. I've found they are not very reliable at sending out the passports though, I've only had two so far, but I believe you can sometimes pick one up instore.

To the OP. I echo what others have said. Joining Costco is probably not your priority at the moment, but you can go and have a look round for nothing. Just go to the customer service desk and ask for a pass - but you won't be able to buy anything until you sign up to membership.
Costco's target market is small businesses, particularly in the catering and hospitality industries. Only rarely worthwhile for general households. If you are anything like me (kid in sweetshop) you will spend a fortune on impulse purchases. The point made about needing loads of storage space is very important - where do you store a thousand bog-rolls?

Lizbetty

Thanks everyone for your replies. I definitely think after some consideration of what everyone's said that joining Costco might give us more problems than it might solve....space is a problem and I sometimes get carried away when things are on BOGOF, so I should imagine that buying it by the pallet load is tempting fate, lol!

I see that it's a good thing for some, but I've definitely decided not to bother with it for the time being. Thanks for saving us from certian death by drowning in toilet rolls, lol!!!!

Lucy

arightdinger

My wife got the option to join because she works for the local council, when we went to have a look, we decided it weren't worth it.
We then went back a year later and decided to join.

For our £30.00 per year fee, we can recoup that money back in just three month on the very lovely trays of lager we buy, the cheapest we could buy it for was £20.00 per tray, at costco we pay no more than £17.50.

we buy bulk foods, i.e. fresh meats (mostly quality), frozen foods (not all to our liking but if you dont try you dont know) and personally for me, the deodrant that has the women chasing you down the street is as little as £1.50 (for a pack of six) instead of £2.48 in tesco.

On the last note I am thinking of consulting a solicitor as I use the deodrant and dont get chased off any women at all, good looking or not???????