On 9/29/2015 9:04 AM, danny burstein wrote:
In "Robert Green" writes:

How much is a Costco membership? I would have to have my neighbor take me
and use their card (which I like to avoid) since I am not a member. That
unfortunately has to figure into the total price as well. And as Perce
pointed out, it could be a rebate sponsored by a local utility that I am not
eligible for.

Costco membership is $55/yr ($110 for "executive")

However, there's a sneaky way aeound it.

Ask your neighbor (pay her back, of course), to pick
up a bunch of ten dollar Costco "cash cards" (gift cards).

You can then tak one to the store and use it, without
having a membership, to buy stuff. If it's over $10,
you can pay the additional balance in cash..

It's not sneaky. Costco wants you to do this. They even mention it as a
way to allow your kids to shop at Costco without paying for another
membership.

Personally I wish Costco would offer lower cost add-on memberships for
adult children aged 17-25. This would help college students and other
young people get into the habit of shopping at Costco without the hassle
of the cash cards. My daughter goes to Costco often with the Costco cash
cards. The city she goes to college in has no Target, no Walmart, and no
Home Depot or Loews, but the Costco is very close to campus. Living
on-campus there's not much need for Costco, but once you move off campus
into a house with a lot of roommates, it becomes very useful.

Just the annual savings on gasoline offset the membership. Presently, in
my area, Costco is about 30¢/gallon less than other places. For example,
in Santa Clara, Costco is $2.48 while the next cheapest, Arco, is $2.69.
But at Costco you get a 3%-4% rebate on your Costco Amex card. We'll see
if the new Costco Visa card is as generous with gasoline rebates. In
Northern California, both Arco and Costco gasoline come from the Shell
refinery in Martinez, and it's "Top Tier" gasoline. Arco has the
contract to supply Costco, but Arco has no refinery in Northern
California and has an agreement with Shell to supply both Arco and
Costco. In southern California, Shell gets its fuel from the Arco refinery.