My wife and I are serious "foodies" and we've found that just a few food items alone from Costco more than pay for our membership. Their vintage-dated Tuscan olive oil at about $12 a liter is far superior to anything you can buy at Whole Foods (aka Whole Paycheck) for 3x the price. Real Reggiano parmesan cheese under the Kirkland brand is an incredible value, and there are more and more good-value organic items, including excellent canned tomatoes, almond butter at a quarter the price of a natural grocery store, and organic chicken in most stores as well. Others have mentioned the wines, and they like all of the other Kirkland food items are very carefully sourced and represent outstanding value.
Kirkland Brand Products
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I had heard that rumor also - but it's not true. Distilled in a different town. To my taste - the Kirkland vodka in the tall bottle is BETTER than Grey Goose. (But I'm not a big fan of Grey Goose.) And the Kirkland Signature is a lot cheaper than Grey Goose. Not sure I could justify the price of GG.
The other Kirkland Vodka is American made with different grains. Definitely a taste difference between them. I find the American KS vodka to be similar to Skyy - my less expensive go-to vodka before I discovered the KS french vodka.
travelover
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I like the Kirkland salmon patties, but today I was told that they have been discontinued and replaced by a boxed, seasoned version. I like to do my own seasoning.
travelover
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Yea, but they dropped the chocolate dipped, nut covered ice cream bars. I really loved those.Then there's the classic Kirkland 1/4lb all beef hot dog (w/fountain drink) for $1.50 if hunger strikes during yer shopping trip
Yea, but they dropped the chocolate dipped, nut covered ice cream bars. I really loved those.
I am greatfull
that they've dropped these. They were simply too tempting....The membership concept is a small hurdle, imo. Not dissimilar from other membership only services (AAA, food coop, Library, Athletic club, etc). You can usually "pay" for the cost with discounts.
Some other items that are awesome values
Vanilla extract
Butter (freezes well)
Eggs
pesto
batteries
Printer ink (both new and refills)
passport pics
Pecans and Walnuts (also freeze well)
Coincidentally I went to Costco this morning. After getting gasoline ($.20 per gallon cheaper) I picked up a few things, including their Kirkland vodka. I was expecting to see $1 or so savings vs Smirnoff, but at $4.50 less i couldn't resist and bought a bottle. For testing, of course.
brewer12345
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I discovered about 3 months ago that the premium variant of Kirkland dog food has essentially the same ingredients/nutrition as the high end stuff we were buying, and it was made by the same manufacturer. About 40% cheaper when bought at Costco.
Our vet recommended the Kirkland brand dog food. She uses it for her dogs. No corn or other hard to digest stuff.
Our dog is seriously healthy - and $35 every few months for food fits the LBYM lifestyle.
robnplunder
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Then there's the classic Kirkland 1/4lb all beef hot dog (w/fountain drink) for $1.50 if hunger strikes during yer shopping trip
Hot dog + food sampling at Costco, I can live on $150/month food budget
. I don't even need to grocery shop ever.
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Walt,
I suspect I save more than the cost of the membership on almost every trip I make. Plus I buy the executive membership for $100 and get 2% back on all of my purchases at the end of the year. So if I buy at least $5,000 over the course of the year I get my membership back. If I buy more (which I always do), I make money on the membership.
The extremely generous return policy is also worth far more than the membership cost, and I've used it many times when things break, sometimes years after I first purchased them.
I recommend you look past the stumbling block of paying for a membership and see what you're missing. The difference in prices are so substantial that I try to avoid all other stores unless it's absolutely impossible to find a comparable item at Costco.
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On another note, if you use a Keurig coffee machine, Costco is by far the best place to buy coffee. You can either buy the Rogers French Roast for .25/cup, or the Kirkland Pacific Bold for .38/cup. Most stores are still charging about .60/cup for K-cups. Amazon has pretty good prices, but still not as good as Costco.
And both of these varieties make excellent cups of coffee.
And both of these varieties make excellent cups of coffee.
Add in using the costco amex - and you get paid twice to shop there.
I get back close to $500 each year for my executive membership. And another $500 from amex.
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I actually don't use my Costco AMEX even though I have one. The rebate on my Costco AMEX is 1.5%. I've had the card for a long time, and I don't believe they offer that one any more. The current card has a tiered rebate structure, but Costco purchases only qualify for a 1% rebate last time I looked, and my Fidelity AMEX pays me 2%.
Since I can use the AMEX card at any store, I don't generally factor that in when evaluating prices at Costco. But it does lower the prices by an additional 2%, on top of the 2% Executive membership rebate.
I wish Costco had a better card for AMEX. That's one thing that I've never been all that excited about.
We tried Costco refills for our Canon printer. We could not tell a difference versus Canon, even for photos. Great value.
audreyh1
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Yes
What's really impressive is that they get several wineries to produce Kirkland label wines which are sourced all over the world. The Kirkland champagne is "real" champagne from a French producer and a pretty good deal and very nice champagne, although I prefer the Washington sparkling wines at half the price.
http://costcowineblog.com/ lets you know when they consider a Kirkland wine a superior value in its category.
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daylatedollarshort
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For ink refills we buy Sophia Global brand on Amazon for $2 a cartridge and then recycle them for $2 credit at one of the office supply stores. We use them on Canon printers. I replaced the downstairs printer to Canon as it was cheaper to buy a new printer than buy more expensive ink.
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calmloki
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While I'm a big believer in "all good things come from Costco", I had horrible luck with their cartridge refills for our HP printer (which I also loathed). SWMBO won't allow me to go all Office Space on the POS. On the good side, I now have two $5 each yard sale Brother 7820N laser printers. The Checker of laser printers.
The Costco sourced Canon refills we used, and were pleased with, were ordered online from Costco.com. I've heard the Costco in store refills are not as good but I have no experience with them.
With respect to Kirkland brand, at one stage of my career I worked for a consumer products megacorp selling to Costco. Some of the private label (i.e. Kirkland brand) products were identical to the national brand merchandised. These products were labeled "Kirkland" instead of the national brand in the production lines and shipped in Kirkland packaging. Other products were made to the national brand spec but modified for Costco/Kirkland to differentiate the offering from other stores. For example the Kirkland item might be a different color from the national brand or include a bonus accessory items inside the package. Finally, there were products made to Costco's specifications which differed from the national brand products. The Costco specifications were in some instances designed to deliver higher quality. In other instances the specification might be for lower quality ingredients or parts to hit a specific value price point. I might add, Costco also sourced some Kirkland brand products directly from factories without going through a national brand manufacturer.
While Kirkland brand products are generally high quality, and equal to or better than the national brand products, each product has its own specifications so the purchaser does need to examine or test each product to determine its utility.
We live in a period where the government's CPI is under reporting inflation. Raw material prices are increasing faster than the 2% inflation rate. Both retailers and manufacturers are responding by substituting raw materials, changing specifications, moving production to new factories and often new countries (i.e. shifting from China to Vietnam or Cambodia), changing package size (a 16 ounce can becomes a 14 ounce can), etc. All of these actions are being taken in an attempt to delay raising price per unit or package as long as possible. Unfortunately most of these actions have a negative impact on product quality.
The founder of Costco retired over a year ago. He was a hands on executive, highly involved in running the company at every level (store operations, product, etc). He was relentless about maintaining Costco standards. Since his departure, as a customer I've noticed subtle changes in both store operations and product quality. It may be his successors, faced with a margin squeeze with rising prices, are beginning to behave like traditional retailers and manufacturers -- cutting costs by reducing headcount and product quality. If so we consumers can expect to experience a decline in the customer and product experience that differentiated Costco from other retailers and allowed it to grow a strong consumer franchise. The longer checkout lines, dirtier floors in the store, and occasional stock outs I'm seeing in my local store are not a good sign. The decline in quality of the toilet paper is also a bad indicator.
Unfortunately businesses tend to change for the worse when visionary founders depart the company. Wal-Mart after Sam Walton's death lost its consumer intimacy as his successors rolled out monster stores and expanded internationally. Apple seems to be struggling with product vision and store operations post Steve Jobs. Starbucks struggled with the founder left until he was brought back to run the company again. Costco may be beginning to lose its way as professional management by the numbers and committee replaces a visionary founder who had a unique instinctive insight into the mind and behavior of the customer.
With respect to Kirkland brand, at one stage of my career I worked for a consumer products megacorp selling to Costco. Some of the private label (i.e. Kirkland brand) products were identical to the national brand merchandised. These products were labeled "Kirkland" instead of the national brand in the production lines and shipped in Kirkland packaging. Other products were made to the national brand spec but modified for Costco/Kirkland to differentiate the offering from other stores. For example the Kirkland item might be a different color from the national brand or include a bonus accessory items inside the package. Finally, there were products made to Costco's specifications which differed from the national brand products. The Costco specifications were in some instances designed to deliver higher quality. In other instances the specification might be for lower quality ingredients or parts to hit a specific value price point. I might add, Costco also sourced some Kirkland brand products directly from factories without going through a national brand manufacturer.
While Kirkland brand products are generally high quality, and equal to or better than the national brand products, each product has its own specifications so the purchaser does need to examine or test each product to determine its utility.
We live in a period where the government's CPI is under reporting inflation. Raw material prices are increasing faster than the 2% inflation rate. Both retailers and manufacturers are responding by substituting raw materials, changing specifications, moving production to new factories and often new countries (i.e. shifting from China to Vietnam or Cambodia), changing package size (a 16 ounce can becomes a 14 ounce can), etc. All of these actions are being taken in an attempt to delay raising price per unit or package as long as possible. Unfortunately most of these actions have a negative impact on product quality.
The founder of Costco retired over a year ago. He was a hands on executive, highly involved in running the company at every level (store operations, product, etc). He was relentless about maintaining Costco standards. Since his departure, as a customer I've noticed subtle changes in both store operations and product quality. It may be his successors, faced with a margin squeeze with rising prices, are beginning to behave like traditional retailers and manufacturers -- cutting costs by reducing headcount and product quality. If so we consumers can expect to experience a decline in the customer and product experience that differentiated Costco from other retailers and allowed it to grow a strong consumer franchise. The longer checkout lines, dirtier floors in the store, and occasional stock outs I'm seeing in my local store are not a good sign. The decline in quality of the toilet paper is also a bad indicator.
Unfortunately businesses tend to change for the worse when visionary founders depart the company. Wal-Mart after Sam Walton's death lost its consumer intimacy as his successors rolled out monster stores and expanded internationally. Apple seems to be struggling with product vision and store operations post Steve Jobs. Starbucks struggled with the founder left until he was brought back to run the company again. Costco may be beginning to lose its way as professional management by the numbers and committee replaces a visionary founder who had a unique instinctive insight into the mind and behavior of the customer.
This thread is becoming very convincing. We'll probably take another look, and I think we can get a guest pass or something to go through the store and see.
But we'll take the Honda Accord instead of the pickup truck to limit what we bring home.
RetireAge50
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Are you sure, might need a 60 inch screen and some deck umbrellas and a power washer and don't forget the TP.
Cheesehead
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VITAMINS: For a year I subscribed to consumerlabs.org and they scientifically test all vitamins and nutritional supplements and report if what is on the label is true. The Kirkland brand was very well rated.
LAMB CHOPS: Good as a butcher's, better than the grocery store.
MALBEC WINE: Excellent!
GASOLINE: I try to fill up there, about .05-.10¢ per gallon cheaper than the name brand places.
LAMB CHOPS: Good as a butcher's, better than the grocery store.
MALBEC WINE: Excellent!
GASOLINE: I try to fill up there, about .05-.10¢ per gallon cheaper than the name brand places.
golfnut
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Barbequed some baby back ribs from Costco this past Friday. They were fantastic.
ERD50
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Last Valentine's Day, I cooked up two of their racks of lamb (oddly small packaging for Costco, one was going to be on the small side for us).
They were out of this world. Just some salt, fresh rosemary & thyme, olive oil and a bit of pepper. Baked and then broiled to finish.
We also get the lamb chops regularly. So many good things there. I wish they would package their steaks in smaller sizes, seems they are 4-5 steaks to a pack, and that's $50 or so. Isn't a $25 package size more than enough for 'bulk packaging'? I'd rather not freeze them.
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