Hi,

I joined costco last year after they were mentioned here a lot. I've
had a letter saying my card expires next month but I'm not sure
whether to renew it. I don't think I've done much shopping there. With
Christmas on it's way, I had a look at the spirits but they are all
about £15/litre, much the same as the supermarkets. I've also bought
nappies for my nephew but again, there is not much difference in the
tesco price. Perhaps these are just bad examples?

When I bought my tv, it was cheaper elsewhere than costco.

OTOH all their other stuff seems to be in bulk quantities and I don't
have the room to store 200 toilet rolls in one go or buy 20 kilos of
coffee. Perhaps I should build a bigger shed

What do folk here think of costco. Bringing back to diy, is it only
the tools that you go there for?

Or does it depend on your location? Are some stores bigger and thus
stock more items than others?

TIA

On 26/10/2010 15:27, Fred wrote:
Hi,

I joined costco last year after they were mentioned here a lot. I've
had a letter saying my card expires next month but I'm not sure
whether to renew it. I don't think I've done much shopping there. With
Christmas on it's way, I had a look at the spirits but they are all
about £15/litre, much the same as the supermarkets. I've also bought
nappies for my nephew but again, there is not much difference in the
tesco price. Perhaps these are just bad examples?

When I bought my tv, it was cheaper elsewhere than costco.

OTOH all their other stuff seems to be in bulk quantities and I don't
have the room to store 200 toilet rolls in one go or buy 20 kilos of
coffee. Perhaps I should build a bigger shed

What do folk here think of costco. Bringing back to diy, is it only
the tools that you go there for?

Or does it depend on your location? Are some stores bigger and thus
stock more items than others?

TIA

I didn't renew a long time ago. OK if you have a large family or are
happy buying in bulk and storing for a long time.
Things tend to be cheap in bulk but expensive single items can often be
found cheaper with a bit of research.

On Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:27:03 +0100, Fred wrote:

OTOH all their other stuff seems to be in bulk quantities and I don't
have the room to store 200 toilet rolls in one go or buy 20 kilos of
coffee. Perhaps I should build a bigger shed

It's the bulk or larger quantity buys that I go for:

Loo rolls (12 x 4 pks) £1.33/pack
Extra Virgin Olive oil (5l) £3.38/l
Full fat coca cola (30 cans) 23p/can
Pasta (6 X 500g pks) £1.60/kg
Sun Maid Raisens (2 x 1kg pks) £2.28/kg
Rice (10kg bag) £1.40/kg
Chopped Tomatoes (12 x 440g tins) 29p/tin
Washing Powder (7.2kg box) £1.68/kg
Screenwash Conc. (5l) £0.94/l
1st Class NVI Stamps (60) £0.37 ea
Soy Sauce (1.9l) £2.45/l
Veg Cubes (6 pks) £0.83/pk
Ketchup (2 x 1.35kg) £1.81/kg

There probably isn't a great difference in the prices compared to the
likes of Tesco (our normal supermarket). The quality of CostCo's
goods is above average, they don't sell cheap, crappy, no-name or odd
branded stuff. Ketchup is Heinz, Soy sauce Kikoman etc.

Now go about every two months and combine it with the weekly shop,
going to Tesco, Hexham instead of Carlisle. Only adds about 50 miles
instead of the hundred odd that a special trip would be. Hexham or
Carlisle are about the same distance from here and that trip would be
made anyway. Probably just about break even taking into account the
membership fee and extra miles. If it was closer I might pay more
attention to the fresh produce which is supposed to be good.

Or does it depend on your location? Are some stores bigger and thus
stock more items than others?

No, of the CostCo's I've been in they are all pretty much identical,
right down to the layout and on which shelf a given item is on. The
tyre bay may shift about a bit but not the inside

--
Cheers
Dave.

"Fred" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I joined costco last year after they were mentioned here a lot. I've
had a letter saying my card expires next month but I'm not sure
whether to renew it. I don't think I've done much shopping there. With
Christmas on it's way, I had a look at the spirits but they are all
about £15/litre, much the same as the supermarkets. I've also bought
nappies for my nephew but again, there is not much difference in the
tesco price. Perhaps these are just bad examples?

When I bought my tv, it was cheaper elsewhere than costco.

OTOH all their other stuff seems to be in bulk quantities and I don't
have the room to store 200 toilet rolls in one go or buy 20 kilos of
coffee. Perhaps I should build a bigger shed

What do folk here think of costco. Bringing back to diy, is it only
the tools that you go there for?

Or does it depend on your location? Are some stores bigger and thus
stock more items than others?

Think you have answered your own question Fred.
How many times have you used it in the last year?
Has it saved you the cost of the membership over the last year or allowed
you to by goods you wouldn't be able to buy elsewhere?
I did have a card but never renewed. My parents have a card and added me as
an additional card holder for £15 (I think) otherwise I probably wouldn't
bother.

On Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:27:03 +0100, Fred
wrote:


What do folk here think of costco. Bringing back to diy, is it only
the tools that you go there for?

Unfortunately not, SWMBO insists on going as well. We certainly save
much more than the membership mainly buying meat (which is of a far
higher standard than supermarket offerings), fish and other foods.
Large goods such as TV's are usually as cheap as anywhere else but
have the advantage of a 3 yr warranty from Costco which they honour
quite happily. Their normal returns system for faulty goods is
excellent - take it back and they refund your money without quibble.
Overall costs are at worst broadly comparable with other places, at
best considerably better, however the quality of all their goods, and
particularly their own brand stuff is uniformly excellent. You also
get some American goods which are not easily available elsewhere such
as a variety of sauces including an excellent piquant sauce, corn
chips and chocolate cookie mix. Currently they are doing the rather
useful Contour Avenger gloves at about £12 for 10 which is about half
the price others sell them for.

On Tue, 26 Oct 2010 16:55:48 +0100, Peter Parry wrote:

On Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:27:03 +0100, Fred
wrote:


What do folk here think of costco. Bringing back to diy, is it only the
tools that you go there for?

Unfortunately not, SWMBO insists on going as well. We certainly save
much more than the membership mainly buying meat (which is of a far
higher standard than supermarket offerings), fish and other foods. Large
goods such as TV's are usually as cheap as anywhere else but have the
advantage of a 3 yr warranty from Costco which they honour quite
happily. Their normal returns system for faulty goods is excellent -
take it back and they refund your money without quibble. Overall costs
are at worst broadly comparable with other places, at best considerably
better, however the quality of all their goods, and particularly their
own brand stuff is uniformly excellent. You also get some American
goods which are not easily available elsewhere such as a variety of
sauces including an excellent piquant sauce, corn chips and chocolate
cookie mix. Currently they are doing the rather useful Contour Avenger
gloves at about £12 for 10 which is about half the price others sell
them for.

I'd agree with all of that. First thing we bought was steel shelving for
storing the bulk dry goods. Meat, as you say, is excellent, as are
cleaning materials, and quite a lot of prepacked food such as coffee.
Other stuff varies but I keep a careful analysis of relative prices.

In fact, my wife is there this afternoon...it's nearly 50 miles away so
she's taken my car (S-Max) and a son...will expect a very packed car.

Usually I go but I had surgery on my hand two days ago and "can't lift
anything"...!


--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

On 26 Oct, 16:44, "Dave Liquorice"
wrote:
It's the bulk or larger quantity buys that I go for:

Same here. We're fortunate in having the space to store the vast
quantities of stuff (in the interests of accuracy I've just checked -
we've got 152 loo rolls 'in stock' at the moment!).

Now go about every two months and combine it with the weekly shop,

Again, we do the exactly the same. I've never calculated whether the
savings compensate for the subscription plus extra mileage, but there
are intangible factors - we treat a visit to Costco as quite an
'event', especially at this time of year when they've got the
Christmas stuff out!

Richard.
http://www.rtrussell.co.uk/

On Tue, 26 Oct 2010 09:24:27 -0700 (PDT) Richard Russell wrote :
Again, we do the exactly the same. I've never calculated whether
the savings compensate for the subscription plus extra mileage,
but there are intangible factors - we treat a visit to Costco as
quite an 'event', especially at this time of year when they've got
the Christmas stuff out!

Australia's first - currently, only - Costco is less than a mile from
here and I joined mainly to sample the experience. I've bought very
little there since the prices don't seem to be compellingly cheaper
than my supermarket. It might be different if I were shopping for a
whole family instead of just myself.

When I was a child, one annual 'event' was the pre Christmas trip to
the Houndsditch Warehouse in London, which was really much the same -
members only (card free IIRC) and bulk quantities. In the days of
resale price maintenance it did provide real savings.

--
Tony Bryer, Greentram: 'Software to build on' Melbourne, Australia
www.superbeam.co.uk www.eurobeam.co.uk www.greentram.com

In article ,
Fred writes:
Hi,

I joined costco last year after they were mentioned here a lot. I've
had a letter saying my card expires next month but I'm not sure
whether to renew it. I don't think I've done much shopping there. With
Christmas on it's way, I had a look at the spirits but they are all
about £15/litre, much the same as the supermarkets. I've also bought
nappies for my nephew but again, there is not much difference in the
tesco price. Perhaps these are just bad examples?

They were vastly cheaper when I was buying boxloads a few years ago
for my niece and nephew.

When I bought my tv, it was cheaper elsewhere than costco.

Again, they were £100 cheaper on my TV than anyone else, _and_
included a long waranty which was otherwise only offered by John Lewis
(for much more money).

OTOH all their other stuff seems to be in bulk quantities and I don't
have the room to store 200 toilet rolls in one go or buy 20 kilos of
coffee. Perhaps I should build a bigger shed

Well, a major part of using such outlets is bulk-buying, so if you
can't, you are missing out. However, if your local supermarket has
a BOGOF running, that is likely to be cheaper.

They do also do some things which I don't know where else to get.
As someone else said, their meat is vastly better than supermarkets,
and most butchers. The meat and fish is always consistantly good.
Their own label Toscano extra virgin olive oil is the best I've
found, but they only have it for about one month in the year, I
presume when it's pressed. Their Feit 23W CFLs are the cheapest
genuine 100W equivalents I've found anywhere, and seem to be high
quality (long life without significant dimming). A particular vice
of mine, Pepsi-Max, is much cheaper there than elsewhere. The birds
seem to like their large sacks of birdfood too.

What do folk here think of costco. Bringing back to diy, is it only
the tools that you go there for?

I've never bought tools there. I did consider the set of
wrecking bars as a birthday present for the 5 year old nephew ;-)

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

In message , Peter Parry
writes
On Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:27:03 +0100, Fred
wrote:


What do folk here think of costco. Bringing back to diy, is it only
the tools that you go there for?

Unfortunately not, SWMBO insists on going as well. We certainly save
much more than the membership mainly buying meat (which is of a far
higher standard than supermarket offerings),

Completely agree. We use the branch at Westhill (Aberdeen) for the
usual bulk goods, meat etc., because of the higher quality. Where we
have really saved is with large, one off items such as bikes for our
son, netbook etc. However, for the ordinary shopping, there is not much
point unless you have space to store bulk packs.

--
Graeme