Is opening up not too far from where I live, it will be the first one in Australia. Are they actually any good or is it all just hype
good
Good ~ I recommend you compile a list of prices at the stores you normally go to and then compare vs costco to see if it is competitive in your country.
Good for certain items.
Good for certain items, and if you have sufficient storage space.
[quote]kinein wrote:
Good ~ I recommend you compile a list of prices at the stores you normally go to and then compare vs costco to see if it is competitive in your country. [/quote]
QFT.
We let our Costco membership expire. I found it was lower prices, but on higher end products. For example, I could get broccoli florets for a dollar a pound compared to a dollar and ten cents in the grocery store…BUT…I could get broccoli including the stems for 50 cents in the store, but Costco didn’t carry whole broccoli.
Another reason I let it expire was I spent 2 to 3 hundred dollars every time I went. Whether I went once a month or once a week. I’m a very organized shopper and always shop by my list, but once you get into Costco and see all the stuff they have, it was tough for me not to pick up a bunch of stuff I hadn’t planned on.
A lot of their stuff is frozen convenience food, which works out great for feeding my kids without doing any work, but I got tired of watching them always eat frozen food.
Oh yeah, that’s another thing regarding lower prices, but less actual selection: I could get 3 Digiorno pizzas from Costco for 10 bucks vs. 15 at the grocery store, but the only type of pizza they had at Costco was half pepperoni, half cheese. Combine that with the fact I can get 4 ‘store-brand’ pizzas for 10 bucks at the grocery store and I didn’t see the value with Costco.
Finally, (maybe) their fruits and vegetables didn’t make me happy. Green bananas, hard oranges, mealy peaches, lettuce packed in plastic bags and then again in plastic containers and you have to buy like 10 lbs of everything so I’d end up with produce that sucked and that would inevitably spoil.
I loved Costco for a long time, but no longer. Do not be put off by my experience. Give it a shot. Tis better to have volume shopped and lost than never to have value shopped at all.
I haven’t really done any specific price comparing. But I buy most of my food there and the quality seems to be better than regular grocery store stuff around here for the same or lower cost. And almost everything is in bulk/larger sizes; great for some things, doesn’t work for others.
It is a mixed bag. I dig blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries–you can pick these up ther at near half the cost of a normal grocery store.
I also don’t mind butchering a beef tenderloin of pork loin into fillets and storing them–of which the pork is always cheaper than the grocery store and the tenderloin is never more. Ground turkey is again half-price.
Boxes of spinach leaves are close to half-price and they keep well. Cheeses in bulk are cheaper and usually of better quality than the grocery store.
Beef is the thing that gets me. I buy whole loins and roast and butcher them down to NY Strips and Filet Minon. I get to have whatever amount of fat I want on them. Sometimes they are considerably cheaper than the market.
Other times I can buy already butchered steaks at the grocery store for the price I would pay at Costco for the whole loin…
I guess I am saying if you have a freezer and spend a few hunderd on meat each year, then you will come out ahead.
I hate the entire Costco experience. They charge you an annual fee for the privelege of shopping there and then they make you show your card on the way in and your receipt on the way out. I fucking hate it.
However, I am a member. The only thing I buy there is protein isolate. They charge $45 (Cdn) for a two kilo tub. The brand they carry is Kaizen Whey which is delicious. It is substantially cheaper than any where else and this alone pays for my membership. I’m a protein whore. What can I say?
I used to belong but gave it up. I get one of those “free trial memberships” once in a while and go to pick up things if I’m having a party or something like that.
If you have a business and need bulk items, its great. But for my family, it doesn’t pay for me to do it.
Just because Sen Say can’t control his “shopper’s urge” doesn’t mean the place isn’t good. lol!!
I like it there. Cheap eggs, meats fruits and veggies… and bestselling books at better prices than Amazon.
Plus, they treat their employees far better than WalMart and Sam’s does.
I like Costco.
Good bulk fish, chicken and beef. Good prices on Eggs and veggies. Also they have bulk bags of rice, 25 and 50 ib. size. Tough to find sometimes.
I split the membership with one of my girlfriends, so it doesn’t cost much.
I buy frozen fruit, canned tuna, and nuts there. I can get meat cheaper at the regular grocery stores around here. I also get apple juice and stuff for my son’s lunches in bulk.
We only go a couple times a year but it’s definitely worth it for me.
All of this talk of cheap meat is making me want to join a Costco. There used to be an awesome meat place in the Strip District in Pittsburgh but it closed down a few years ago. That was a sad day.
Man, if your diet includes large quantities of anything a membership will pay for itself.
I went shopping this past SUnday, and walked out with…
-2 10 lb bags of frozen chicken breasts
-2 5 lb bags of frozen flounder filets
-a 5 lb box of Oatmeal
-2 48 count packages of fat free cheese
Sooooooooo worthwhile!
S
You guys pay for your membership? Hmm, weird.
Good.
Costco’s good, but the other customers will only lower your opinion of humanity.
[quote]Uncle Gabby wrote:
Costco’s good, but the other customers will only lower your opinion of humanity.[/quote]
Very good post.
[quote]Uncle Gabby wrote:
Costco’s good, but the other customers will only lower your opinion of humanity.[/quote]
Uncle Gabby! You’re back!