5 ms·

> On the flip side, they have been more expensive on quite a lot of things that the normal grocery store carries. Example? On a per unit/per weight basis, for

> On the flip side, they have been more expensive on quite a lot of things that the normal grocery store carries. Example? On a per unit/per weight basis, for equivalent quality, I have never once observed this.

baldeagle 7y ago
Fresh produce / veggies.
kenhwang 7y ago
I've only noticed it on produce. Fruit and vegetables can be a bit cheaper at the normal grocery store. I assume it's because Costco usually sells those items packaged while the grocery store typically does not. Real example since I just did groceries so I still remember all the prices and still have my receipt from my last Costco run last week. Asparagus is $0.99/lb at the grocery store bundled with a rubber band; Costco had it for $3.68/lb but it came in a nicely sealed plastic bag with nutritional facts. $0.99 per bell pepper at the grocery store, pick from a pile; $9.59/6-pack (effectively $1.59/per) at Costco, also in a plastic bag with two of each color selected for you.
- KarlKemp 7y ago
  Packaged fruits and vegetables are usually cheaper than pick-from-pile. Because it somewhat limits your choice. Peppers are a good example: nobody buys green peppers if they can avoid it. That’s why they sell sets with red/yellow/green. (I hope “peppers” is the right word here. I have been somewhat confused by America’s use of pepper/pepperoni/paprika)
  - DoreenMichele 7y ago
    Peppers looks like the right word. Pepperoni is a type of sausage typically used as a pizza topping. Paprika is usually sold in the US as a spice, not as the fruit/vegetable.
  - kenhwang 7y ago
    Funny thing is my grocery store doesn't even stock green bell peppers anymore, probably for that reason. Makes the value even more biased towards the grocery store since it's cheaper per pepper and you don't get stuck with the undesirable green ones.
moftz 7y ago
This isn't the case 100% but I'll buy some sort of snack at Costco that sounds good (because I went to the store hungry). I'll come home and try it and either I don't like it at all or I like it enough to finish most of it but not all because I get sick of it after awhile. I technically saved money buying it in bulk but I probably wasted more on what I didn't eat. I try not to buy things at Costco that I haven't already tried before in significant quantities. I've been burned too many times by the free samples that taste great but then I get sick of eating it over the course of the month or more. I try to limit Costco trips to only staples and essentials, things I use all the time and enjoy and only buy new things or things I don't want to eat for months on end at the normal grocery store. I also stay away from things at Costco that are hard to preserve, things like giant bags of chips where once you open it, it's going to go stale just as fast as a small bag of chips.
jcrawfordor 7y ago
This is often very noticeable because Costco primarily carries name brands. For example, purchasing the large cases of soda at Costco is cheaper than buying the same brand at a grocer, but appreciably more expensive than buying the grocer's store brand. Costco hasn't built their reputation necessarily on being the cheapest, but also on carrying quality brands, so they are often not the cheapest if you compare across brands. This is particularly clear for products like soda where it's not that certain that the name brand is actually any better.
- philwelch 7y ago
  On the other hand, there's the Costco store brand, "Kirkland Signature". On the other, other hand, Kirkland Signature is a fairly premium store brand, if that makes any sense--there are some products where I trust Kirkland Signature as much if not more than many name brands, similarly to Trader Joe's. Also, > This is particularly clear for products like soda where it's not that certain that the name brand is actually any better. This hasn't been true in my experience. A lot of soda drinkers have very strong preferences not just between brand to brand (Coke vs. Pepsi) but even within the same brand (Mexican vs. US Coke). About the only time I'd buy any store brand soda would be if (a) I was serving it to people and didn't particularly care how much they enjoyed it or (b) if I was buying it for some non-drinking purpose.
  - jcrawfordor 7y ago
    Definitely the products are different - I say that because there are a lot of people, at least in my experience, who prefer an off-brand. RC is somewhat famous for being a discount soda with a strong following. Given the number of people who have a strong preference between name-brands Coca Cola and Pepsi, if they squared those against the few dozen off-brands would there be another they preferred? In another market space Coca Cola and Pepsi are now the underdog fighting back against National Beverage, a discount manufacturer which managed to sweep the market with their La Croix brand. At the same time their Shasta brand still runs fifty cents a can at the right vending machine and in my opinion isn't that bad. Coca-Cola tends to be better regarded than Pepsi due to their history, while Pepsi more often wins blind comparisons. This consumer preference is famously reversed in the soviet bloc. At the same time Coca Cola's Mr. Pibb is decidedly "off-brand" compared to the smaller Dr Pepper-Snapple group. So I think it's hard to say that there's a clear quality hierarchy with sodas. Rather, they drive strong consumer preference and two brands happen to be the best known and most widely distributed. This is more or less true of a lot of other products as well where there isn't a clear objective measure of quality, it just seems especially noticeable with sodas.
rootusrootus 7y ago
Staple items. Dishwashing liquid. Peanut butter. Even things that I thought only Costco carried, like those dinosaur chicken nuggets (hey, what can I say, I have young kids...). Brand name foods, not "equivalent" items. All cheaper on a per-unit basis at Fred Meyer. And Fred Meyer is most assuredly not the cheapest source of groceries. Once I started paying attention, I was startled how many things we buy at Costco are actually cheaper at the grocery store.

baldeagle 7y ago

Fresh produce / veggies.

kenhwang 7y ago

I've only noticed it on produce. Fruit and vegetables can be a bit cheaper at the normal grocery store. I assume it's because Costco usually sells those items packaged while the grocery store typically does not. Real example since I just did groceries so I still remember all the prices and still have my receipt from my last Costco run last week. Asparagus is $0.99/lb at the grocery store bundled with a rubber band; Costco had it for $3.68/lb but it came in a nicely sealed plastic bag with nutritional facts. $0.99 per bell pepper at the grocery store, pick from a pile; $9.59/6-pack (effectively $1.59/per) at Costco, also in a plastic bag with two of each color selected for you.

KarlKemp 7y ago
Packaged fruits and vegetables are usually cheaper than pick-from-pile. Because it somewhat limits your choice. Peppers are a good example: nobody buys green peppers if they can avoid it. That’s why they sell sets with red/yellow/green. (I hope “peppers” is the right word here. I have been somewhat confused by America’s use of pepper/pepperoni/paprika)
- DoreenMichele 7y ago
  Peppers looks like the right word. Pepperoni is a type of sausage typically used as a pizza topping. Paprika is usually sold in the US as a spice, not as the fruit/vegetable.
- kenhwang 7y ago
  Funny thing is my grocery store doesn't even stock green bell peppers anymore, probably for that reason. Makes the value even more biased towards the grocery store since it's cheaper per pepper and you don't get stuck with the undesirable green ones.

moftz 7y ago

This isn't the case 100% but I'll buy some sort of snack at Costco that sounds good (because I went to the store hungry). I'll come home and try it and either I don't like it at all or I like it enough to finish most of it but not all because I get sick of it after awhile. I technically saved money buying it in bulk but I probably wasted more on what I didn't eat. I try not to buy things at Costco that I haven't already tried before in significant quantities. I've been burned too many times by the free samples that taste great but then I get sick of eating it over the course of the month or more. I try to limit Costco trips to only staples and essentials, things I use all the time and enjoy and only buy new things or things I don't want to eat for months on end at the normal grocery store. I also stay away from things at Costco that are hard to preserve, things like giant bags of chips where once you open it, it's going to go stale just as fast as a small bag of chips.

jcrawfordor 7y ago

This is often very noticeable because Costco primarily carries name brands. For example, purchasing the large cases of soda at Costco is cheaper than buying the same brand at a grocer, but appreciably more expensive than buying the grocer's store brand. Costco hasn't built their reputation necessarily on being the cheapest, but also on carrying quality brands, so they are often not the cheapest if you compare across brands. This is particularly clear for products like soda where it's not that certain that the name brand is actually any better.

philwelch 7y ago
On the other hand, there's the Costco store brand, "Kirkland Signature". On the other, other hand, Kirkland Signature is a fairly premium store brand, if that makes any sense--there are some products where I trust Kirkland Signature as much if not more than many name brands, similarly to Trader Joe's. Also, > This is particularly clear for products like soda where it's not that certain that the name brand is actually any better. This hasn't been true in my experience. A lot of soda drinkers have very strong preferences not just between brand to brand (Coke vs. Pepsi) but even within the same brand (Mexican vs. US Coke). About the only time I'd buy any store brand soda would be if (a) I was serving it to people and didn't particularly care how much they enjoyed it or (b) if I was buying it for some non-drinking purpose.
- jcrawfordor 7y ago
  Definitely the products are different - I say that because there are a lot of people, at least in my experience, who prefer an off-brand. RC is somewhat famous for being a discount soda with a strong following. Given the number of people who have a strong preference between name-brands Coca Cola and Pepsi, if they squared those against the few dozen off-brands would there be another they preferred? In another market space Coca Cola and Pepsi are now the underdog fighting back against National Beverage, a discount manufacturer which managed to sweep the market with their La Croix brand. At the same time their Shasta brand still runs fifty cents a can at the right vending machine and in my opinion isn't that bad. Coca-Cola tends to be better regarded than Pepsi due to their history, while Pepsi more often wins blind comparisons. This consumer preference is famously reversed in the soviet bloc. At the same time Coca Cola's Mr. Pibb is decidedly "off-brand" compared to the smaller Dr Pepper-Snapple group. So I think it's hard to say that there's a clear quality hierarchy with sodas. Rather, they drive strong consumer preference and two brands happen to be the best known and most widely distributed. This is more or less true of a lot of other products as well where there isn't a clear objective measure of quality, it just seems especially noticeable with sodas.

rootusrootus 7y ago

Staple items. Dishwashing liquid. Peanut butter. Even things that I thought only Costco carried, like those dinosaur chicken nuggets (hey, what can I say, I have young kids...). Brand name foods, not "equivalent" items. All cheaper on a per-unit basis at Fred Meyer. And Fred Meyer is most assuredly not the cheapest source of groceries. Once I started paying attention, I was startled how many things we buy at Costco are actually cheaper at the grocery store.