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After hearing so many people singing their praises, I finally got a membership.
I used it precisely once. Their prices really were not very good on 90% of what I looked at. Plus they really encourage overconsumption.
Aldi ends up being more convenient and generally cheaper for groceries for me.
I'm not trying to yuck your yum, I just wanted to express an unimpressed opinion for other fencesitters.
If you're not buying in bulk a lot, it's not worth it. I've been tailgating on my mom's membership for years and I don't think I'd have one if it weren't for that.
The optical department is worth the price of admission alone. I recently bought 2 sets of glasses, 1 regular with transition and 1 sunglasses with the bells and the whistles. Costco doesn't charge extra or up sell for most of the add-ons, they are just part of the package. I paid $287 for those 2 pairs before my insurance reimbursed me. Not even accounting for the higher end frames, I would have probably paid $500+ for those 2 with all of the extras.
The pharmacy is worth it as well if you have meds that can be expensive. They can't get everything cheaper but the ones they do are way less expensive than most other places.
Also for those who happen to live in states where ABC doesn't control everything, Costco has Kirkland brand vodka and other alcohol that I've heard great things about (my state is an ABC state). For the alcohol and maybe the pharmacy you don't have to have a membership, they escort you to the alcohol and then through checkout.
If you are willing and able to put out the extra cash to front load your food needs for awhile and are capable and willing to do the work to repack and freeze the large amount of food you get, you can find yourself with a lot of extra cash on hand with fewer visits to the store. These days Aldi, Lidl, Teeter, etc are mainly about little things we need day to day and Costco is our big shopping trip once every couple of weeks.
Costco has other services that definitely more than pay for the membership fee. I won't go into detail because I have covered it in two other comments but optical is worth it alone, their pharmacy is usually a lot cheaper than elsewhere and their tires are top quality at the price of mid tier at other shops.
I'm not meaning to shill for Costco. I was a skeptic until I started comparing their offers to others and realized that for almost anything you need, Costco is usually the best option. My wife has been a member for something like 20+years, I'm more recent convert but now we check Costco first for things like appliances, coffee makers, etc.
Agreed. But they do have a generous return policy - they will refund your membership fee if you just tell them you didn't get value from it.
For individuals it's not necessarily the best choice. As for their prices. You were likely comparing them 1:1 with elsewhere and didn't account for the larger quantities being not only less per ounce than other stores but usually being a much much higher quality. You have to be smart about what you buy and if you buy the huge packs of sandwich meat, split it up and possibly freeze some, you'll still end up saving money.
I do argue with your assessment about over consumption. The larger quantities are how they roll and they are most definitely cheaper than most other places for food. They do have a limited selection in brands but they make up for that with either larger quantities for the same or less than elsewhere or if the manufacturer won't let them price cut too low, they have said manufacturer add more value than the same product elsewhere.
Costco was never meant to be used by individuals feeding themselves, but, if you have a family or roommates you can save a shit ton of money and if you spend enough annually you can spend an extra $30/year (iirc) that gives you 2% back in cash. Most years the cash back covers the upgrade cost but when we are ready to drop $2k+ on appliances or a new couch or a storage shed, that cashback will end up paying for more than the upgrade and whatever we buy will be a better deal than elsewhere.
Costco is like 15 miles from us, we do large shopping there but smaller trips and/or when Lidl, Aldi, Teeter, etc have deals, that's where we go.
One last note and I'm done here. If you wear glasses, Costco optical is worth the price of admission alone. Before insurance refunded me, I paid just shy of $300 for 2 sets of glasses that would have run me $500+ elsewhere.