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Yes, the electronics/appliance selection, when one needs it, can be slightly lacking. Costco appears to reduce costs by often stocking exactly one option for a

Yes, the electronics/appliance selection, when one needs it, can be slightly lacking. Costco appears to reduce costs by often stocking exactly one option for a given thing. E.g., I'm in the market for a toaster as my old one died (a 2012 basic 2-slot model, $20 at Costco). My local Costco now seems to only have an upscale 4-slot model for $50. I'm considering my options and living a toaster-free life at the moment, but even two options would be nice. It's hard to beat the prices on bulk foods, though, which keeps me going back (and I like voting-with-dollars for well-run, customer-friendly stores). Perhaps it's just the bulk-commodities mindset from the food aisles leaking over into electronics that causes the above.

DubiousPusher 7y ago
This is true. In fact Costco frequently stocks models of electronics that are exclusively sold through them. For example, many TVs you buy there are slight variations of popular models that only Costco sells. They even have distinct model numbers that you'll have a hard time finding info about on Google. The manufacturer makes up costs by defeaturing the TVs. Frequently they reduce the number of ports or withhold smart TV features. This is actually great for me because I seldom want all the bells and whistles. I'd like as much money spent as possible to go to size and quality of the display.
- creato 7y ago
  If Costco is removing "smart" features from TVs, I might get a membership just to buy one TV there.
  - majewsky 7y ago
    Since the Smart TV shit started, I've moved to just buying large PC monitors and using them with my PC. (It helps that I'm a cable cutter. There's nothing interesting on TV that's not streaming somewhere.)
    - nitrogen 7y ago
      That sounds great. How large do computer monitors go?
      - imtringued 7y ago
        40" and more
        myrandomcomment 7y ago
        I do not understand this. Buy the TV as it is bigger and cheaper. Just do not configure the WiFi and do not plug the Ethernet in. I have 2 Samsung’s that are set at just out of the box with no internet.
        technofiend 7y ago
        Some smart TVs will find an open AP if you don't otherwise configure them for internet access, hence the swing to dumb TVs and monitors for people who want to guarantee no logging of their viewing habits.
        myrandomcomment 7y ago
        I have heard this before but yet to see anyone show proof of this. I used to have the Samsungs wired but I used DNS to block the tracking. Here is link to the info I used: https://gist.github.com/peteryates/b44b70d19ccd52f62d66cdd4bcef1e52 https://gist.github.com/peteryates/b44b70d19ccd52f62d66cdd4b... At some point I realized I did not even want to use the TV apps and did not care to maintain the PC with Kodi on it. I just switched to an AppleTV for everything and paid for MrMC (Kodi port for AppleTV that supports SMB/NFS mounting). So much simpler.
        technofiend 7y ago
        It took a second to dig out, but on a hunch I added "site:reddit.com" to my search criteria. https://www.reddit.com/r/security/comments/bpjky4/worried_about_your_smart_tv_listening_in_simply/ https://www.reddit.com/r/security/comments/bpjky4/worried_ab...
  - DubiousPusher 7y ago
    They were doing this more when Smart TV features were kind of an upsell. Now that they're standard they don't do this as much.
- Scoundreller 7y ago
  Often it's the same product, but sold with a different name/SKU. That's so the manufacturer doesn't upset other retailers that offer price-matching.
  - DubiousPusher 7y ago
    But often it's not. You can find threads on AV forums comparing Costco only models to their common models. Though maybe this has changed a bit as I haven't shopped for a TV for a few years.
- nucleardog 7y ago
  They don't always remove features. Really it's more about making the comparison between the products just fuzzy enough that the other retailers can't give the manufacturers a hard time for offering Costco a cheaper deal. And in some cases just trying not to devalue their brand elsewhere. Costco doesn't sell the same Dyson vacuum as everywhere else -- instead of a "Total" they sell an "Absolute" or some other equally confusing nonsense. The difference is they remove a single (non-motorized/cheap) attachment, and throw in two different ones and a couple other accoutrements. And sell it for $100 less. The part that's not included in their package can be purchased retail from Dyson for less than $100. Other retailers can't use this to put pressure on Dyson. Dyson doesn't look like they're overcharging everywhere else.
- tssva 7y ago
  My experience is that the Costco exclusive models of many electronic products are not feature reduced but are identical to the non Costco versions except bundled with accessories or services not included with the non Costco versions. For example Ring security systems and cameras sold at Costco usually include additional sensors or things such as additional Ring chimes plus a free year of service. Back in the day, I haven't bought one in years and can't speak to the current situation, printers sold at Costco almost always had unique model numbers because Costco insisted printer manufacturers include USB cables and full ink or toner cartridges instead of starter ones. So if HP sold a model 420 everywhere else they would sell a model 425 at Costco which included the cable and full ink cartridges but the printer itself was identical to the 420 sold elsewhere. A couple of years ago I bought an electronic keyboard for my daughter. It had a different model number than the keyboard normally has but the keyboard itself is the same feature wise as sold other places but it came bundled with a stand and a couple of other accessories which would have been extra elsewhere.
anon1m0us 7y ago
It might be your lucky day then, because this apparently amazing toaster was on HN the other day: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21164014 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21164014 You can get them on Ebay https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=sunbeam+radiant+control+toaster https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=sunbeam+radiant+control...
- cfallin 7y ago
  Wow -- the engineering cleverness is actually really incredible (using heat expansion of the nichrome wire to automatically lower the bread! fully mechanical closed-loop monitoring of bread surface temperature!). Tempting.
- takeda 7y ago
  Can it run NetBSD?
sjg007 7y ago
You can probably return the old toaster for a refund and apply the balance to the new toaster.

DubiousPusher 7y ago

This is true. In fact Costco frequently stocks models of electronics that are exclusively sold through them. For example, many TVs you buy there are slight variations of popular models that only Costco sells. They even have distinct model numbers that you'll have a hard time finding info about on Google. The manufacturer makes up costs by defeaturing the TVs. Frequently they reduce the number of ports or withhold smart TV features. This is actually great for me because I seldom want all the bells and whistles. I'd like as much money spent as possible to go to size and quality of the display.

creato 7y ago
If Costco is removing "smart" features from TVs, I might get a membership just to buy one TV there.
- majewsky 7y ago
  Since the Smart TV shit started, I've moved to just buying large PC monitors and using them with my PC. (It helps that I'm a cable cutter. There's nothing interesting on TV that's not streaming somewhere.)
  - nitrogen 7y ago
    That sounds great. How large do computer monitors go?
    - imtringued 7y ago
      40" and more
      - myrandomcomment 7y ago
        I do not understand this. Buy the TV as it is bigger and cheaper. Just do not configure the WiFi and do not plug the Ethernet in. I have 2 Samsung’s that are set at just out of the box with no internet.
        technofiend 7y ago
        Some smart TVs will find an open AP if you don't otherwise configure them for internet access, hence the swing to dumb TVs and monitors for people who want to guarantee no logging of their viewing habits.
        myrandomcomment 7y ago
        I have heard this before but yet to see anyone show proof of this. I used to have the Samsungs wired but I used DNS to block the tracking. Here is link to the info I used: https://gist.github.com/peteryates/b44b70d19ccd52f62d66cdd4bcef1e52 https://gist.github.com/peteryates/b44b70d19ccd52f62d66cdd4b... At some point I realized I did not even want to use the TV apps and did not care to maintain the PC with Kodi on it. I just switched to an AppleTV for everything and paid for MrMC (Kodi port for AppleTV that supports SMB/NFS mounting). So much simpler.
        technofiend 7y ago
        It took a second to dig out, but on a hunch I added "site:reddit.com" to my search criteria. https://www.reddit.com/r/security/comments/bpjky4/worried_about_your_smart_tv_listening_in_simply/ https://www.reddit.com/r/security/comments/bpjky4/worried_ab...
- DubiousPusher 7y ago
  They were doing this more when Smart TV features were kind of an upsell. Now that they're standard they don't do this as much.
Scoundreller 7y ago
Often it's the same product, but sold with a different name/SKU. That's so the manufacturer doesn't upset other retailers that offer price-matching.
- DubiousPusher 7y ago
  But often it's not. You can find threads on AV forums comparing Costco only models to their common models. Though maybe this has changed a bit as I haven't shopped for a TV for a few years.
nucleardog 7y ago
They don't always remove features. Really it's more about making the comparison between the products just fuzzy enough that the other retailers can't give the manufacturers a hard time for offering Costco a cheaper deal. And in some cases just trying not to devalue their brand elsewhere. Costco doesn't sell the same Dyson vacuum as everywhere else -- instead of a "Total" they sell an "Absolute" or some other equally confusing nonsense. The difference is they remove a single (non-motorized/cheap) attachment, and throw in two different ones and a couple other accoutrements. And sell it for $100 less. The part that's not included in their package can be purchased retail from Dyson for less than $100. Other retailers can't use this to put pressure on Dyson. Dyson doesn't look like they're overcharging everywhere else.
tssva 7y ago
My experience is that the Costco exclusive models of many electronic products are not feature reduced but are identical to the non Costco versions except bundled with accessories or services not included with the non Costco versions. For example Ring security systems and cameras sold at Costco usually include additional sensors or things such as additional Ring chimes plus a free year of service. Back in the day, I haven't bought one in years and can't speak to the current situation, printers sold at Costco almost always had unique model numbers because Costco insisted printer manufacturers include USB cables and full ink or toner cartridges instead of starter ones. So if HP sold a model 420 everywhere else they would sell a model 425 at Costco which included the cable and full ink cartridges but the printer itself was identical to the 420 sold elsewhere. A couple of years ago I bought an electronic keyboard for my daughter. It had a different model number than the keyboard normally has but the keyboard itself is the same feature wise as sold other places but it came bundled with a stand and a couple of other accessories which would have been extra elsewhere.

anon1m0us 7y ago

It might be your lucky day then, because this apparently amazing toaster was on HN the other day: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21164014 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21164014 You can get them on Ebay https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=sunbeam+radiant+control+toaster https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=sunbeam+radiant+control...

cfallin 7y ago
Wow -- the engineering cleverness is actually really incredible (using heat expansion of the nichrome wire to automatically lower the bread! fully mechanical closed-loop monitoring of bread surface temperature!). Tempting.
takeda 7y ago
Can it run NetBSD?

sjg007 7y ago

You can probably return the old toaster for a refund and apply the balance to the new toaster.