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I'm sure it varies from area to area but here in the Seattle area I've found that as compared to the standard supermarkets (meaning Safeway, QFC, Fred Meyer), C
by skookum 7y ago
I'm sure it varies from area to area but here in the Seattle area I've found that as compared to the standard supermarkets (meaning Safeway, QFC, Fred Meyer), Costco sells prime grade beef at the same price as supermarkets sell choice grade and organic chicken at the same price as supermarkets sell conventional. But what really gives Costco's meat department the edge is that their meat looks so much better/fresher than the supermarkets.
It's a similar story for organic produce, eggs, and so on. Items like cheese, dried fruit and nuts are about half the price of comparable quality elsewhere. And then there's items like olive oil where Costco sells at a great price with the added bonus that you get actual olive oil and not some blend of unknown origin.
But if you live near enough to a Costco and own a car, the real killer-app is their gasoline. In my area, it is 50-60 cents a gallon cheaper than gas stations. From this alone my membership would more than pay for itself even if I never stepped inside the store.
- Scoundreller 7y ago> But if you live near enough to a Costco and own a car, the real killer-app is their gasoline. From this alone my membership Just clone the magstripe on a friend's Costco card for the gas ;) What I don't understand is why no gas station other than Costco has hoses that can reach around a vehicle.
- skookum 7y agoBut then I'd miss out on the 4% back from my Costco Visa for that gasoline. And even _just that 4%_ pays for the membership in my case. :D (My next-best card in terms of rebate on gas is 1.5%, so assuming an additional 2.5% from Costco, I need to buy $2400 in gas to have the full membership covered by just the gas rebate - not even counting the additional savings from the lower price of gas).
- evil-olive 7y ago> What I don't understand is why no gas station other than Costco has hoses that can reach around a vehicle. Regular gas stations rarely have a line of people waiting for a pump. Costco often does. Managing that queue becomes much easier if any car in line can take any open gas pump, without worrying about which side the tank door is on (or messing with the flow of traffic by trying to back into a spot).
- Scoundreller 7y ago> Regular gas stations rarely have a line of people waiting for a pump. I can understand the rareness part, but some gas stations are known for being discounters, but I still haven't seen them use it, despite their traffic jams.
- bnjms 7y agoHow do you write a magstripe card? I thought you needed an expensive writer to do that?
- FDSGSG 7y agohttps://www.amazon.com/DEFTUN-MSR605X-Compatibility-MSR605-MSR606/dp/B07D4CYW5Y/ https://www.amazon.com/DEFTUN-MSR605X-Compatibility-MSR605-M... I guess it's somewhat expensive if you're buying it for this purpose alone, I'm sure you could find a cheaper used one on ebay.
- bnjms 7y agoI'd say that's relatively cheap for a hobby, and much easier to find than I imagined. I thought they were $300-$600 since the last time I saw one it was fully mechanical, at a school, and as far as I could see it was the only one.
- mrb 7y agoSort of related: I recently found a way to clone Costco's digital membership card - http://blog.zorinaq.com/reverse-engineering-costco-digital-membership-card/ http://blog.zorinaq.com/reverse-engineering-costco-digital-m...
- Scoundreller 7y agoI guess that doesn’t work for gas though...
- mrb 7y agoNo, it only works for everything else: in-store checkout, returns, pharmacies... For the digital card to work for gas, Costco would have to install QR code scanners on gas pumps.
- sbalea 7y agoMaybe this is a New Jersey thing, but here you don't need to be a Costco member to buy gasoline at Costco stations. It's also not that good of a deal, at maybe 10-15 cents less than regular gas stations. Sometimes it's just not worth braving the gas queues just for $1.5 in savings.
- ineedasername 7y agoI guess it depends a lot on the products you need to buy from them. As for gasoline, I live in an area where it's about the cheapest in the country, so Costco's prices don't improve much on that, maybe $1.50 per fill-up. I don't drive enough for that to matter, but I suppose that alone could still cover the cost of membership each year.