I had the privilege of shopping at Costco the other day with my friend to pick up some food for a church event. I don’t have a membership there so I don’t really know what it’s like to use Costco as my primary grocery shopping outlet. Although I’ve been close on a few occasions to dish out $50 for annual membership fee, I have never actually gone through with the application. After this last visit, I remembered all of the reasons why I choose not to shop at Costco for my grocery needs.
- They only take American Express. Yes, they do take other debit cards, but in terms of credit, they don’t take any other credit cards. I don’t know why Costco chooses to run their business like this, but I don’t like it. During my last visit, we were on a cash budget but we went $5 over when checking out. I don’t have American Express and I don’t use debit cards and my friend forgot her debit card at home so we were cashless for the last $5. So instead of being able to use my Discover Card or Chase Mastercard, we had to remove one of the items we wanted to purchase. It was very annoying and we left with a sour taste, at least in my mouth.
- We also purchased drinks. Costco had bulk sodas, selling Coke products in 32-12oz cans for $9.29 and Pepsi products in 36-12oz cans for $9.69. If you do the math, Pepsi becomes more of a bargain on a per can basis at $0.27/can compared to $0.31/can for Coke. We opted for Pepsi. This is when Costco comes in handy because you ALWAYS know that you’ll be getting a good deal on a per unit basis. I like to shop at Safeway or Weis (smaller community orientated grocery store) and it seems like every time I go there, they have some special going on with sodas. It’s usually either Pepsi or Coke, but not both at the same time. I have no preference of either one so I usually buy the ones that are on sale. When they go on sale, it’s typically in the neighborhood of three 12-pack for $9.99. Other times, they have sales such as “Buy three, get 2 free”. So depending on the sale, cost per unit competes well with those at Costco. Here’s the difference though. We were FORCED to buy 36 pack of the SAME soda. If we had gone to Safeway or Weis, we could’ve bought 3 different sodas for roughly about the same price. So instead of having variety, our church members had no choice but to drink Diet Pepsi. Whether it’s made from scratch or store bought, I still wouldn’t shop at Costco.
- I would become a member of Costco if it was free and I would completely take advantage of the use of their cafeteria and enjoy a 1/4lb hotdog and soda for only $1.49. Although $50 isn’t that much (only $4+ per month), and you could probably get that back in savings plus more, I still feel that it’s inconvenient personally to go there on a weekly basis for my shopping needs. Why drive 15 minutes to drive to Costco when I can drive 2 minutes to Weis? Even if I were a member, I don’t think I would go enough times to save $4 every month.
These are my primary reasons for not shopping at Costco. Besides, my work provides me with free membership at BJ’s so I can always choose to go there for my bulk shopping needs.
Do You Love Costco?
What are your experiences shopping at Costco? Are you one of those people who LOVE Costco and can’t go anywhere else?
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I *love* Costco. We definitely save more than the membership fee each year, and as Executive members, if we don’t save more than the difference between that and the gold membership they’ll reimburse us the difference. It hasn’t happened yet, and we get 1% back at the end of the year.
Routinely cheaper than the grocery store, I buy milk for $4.29 for two gallons. With two small kids, you can bet we go through a lot of milk, and with regular grocery store price of $3.50 or more per gallon, it’s a big savings. Frozen vegetables, Garden burgers, cheese, eggs, spinach, fresh fruit, and the like are all regularly cheaper than the grocery store as well.
My husband and I have both had tires replaced at Costco within the past year. Both times we called around for prices and Costco blew them out of the water. Gas is also regularly $.10 cheaper per gallon than anything else in the area, and with as frequently as my husband fills his truck for his service business, it adds up to well over $50 for the membership in gas alone.
I’ve also found good prices on kids pajamas and jackets, toys, and books. And then there are the samples; you can have a full lunch just wandering around! My husband bought a TV, same model as Best Buy but $100 cheaper.
We go in knowing that they don’t take credit cards as part of their business model so it doesn’t bother me. I bring cash or debit, knowing that everything I take home is paid for and I don’t have a bill coming for it. (I don’t use credit for anything, though, so this may be a selling point for me where it isn’t for others.)
I figure that you know going into a bulk warehouse store, you know that you’re not going to get small mix-and-match quantities. You might get a better deal on some things by combining store and coupon deals at the grocery store, but the consistently reasonable prices means that I don’t complain that I get a lot of one thing.
One warehouse membership is enough, but I don’t think you can fault Costco for you getting a free membership to BJ’s. We don’t get a free membership anywhere, and no other bulk stores are in our area, so Costco gets our business.
Also, welcome to Yakezie!
Saved Quarter,
Thanks for the comment! I think if you have a family, then going to Costco would make sense. But for me, who is still unmarried, sometimes it just doesn’t pay to buy in bulk. I rather spend $3.50 for one gallon of milk then spend $4.29 for two gallons since I won’t be able to finish it. Thus I would be saving $0.79 buy not buying in bulk. But for you, it definitely makes sense. Perhaps, i’ll become a Costco shopper once I get married and have kids
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