Costco - is it worth going?

[rosered]

We go about once a month. We buy the basic stuff - loo roll, soap powder , bin liners. The fruit and veg is really good and reasonably priced. You can get some 'american' products that I don't see anywhere else. They often have good deals on trainers, shoes and sandals and some good offer on clothes. Books are usually priced at the same sort of price as Amazon. The bakery products are all very good - the fruit scones are good and the cookies are really nice. I love to get the box of 24 mini croissants/pain au chocolat. I just freeze what we don't need immediately.

DH loves the boys toys aisle!

They have things like wrapping paper, cards, decorations, garden equipment. Just about everything you can think of.

Wouldn't be without our membership - give it a years trial and then decide if it is for you.

[Hedingham]

We’ve been members since they first opened in Thurrock (we’re only a five minute drive away) and visit frequently and now exclusively use their fuel since they’ve added a petrol station so save a bit on that too. We do love a ‘gourmet’ lunch there on occasion - such a bargain 😂
If it wasn’t so close, we probably wouldn’t justify renewing year after year but it is and we do 😜

[Guest]

My mil got a membership and added my dh to it so we don’t actually pay for that but all we use it for is skippy peanut butter and cat litter. There food products are very good but as we are both now on diet plans we don’t actually buy any tasty food products. I have found we can usually buy stuff at Asda for the same/cheaper price. It wouldn’t be worth it if we paid for the membership and we are only 5 mins away from the Watford branch.

[Blue nose]

We had membership last year and went the one time to collect the card. We never went again.

Personally I didn't think it was any cheaper than Asda/Aldi where I usually shop. Yes the cakes and bakery are nice but as a family of 4 we don't need large quantities of food and don't have storage space to use as a bulk shop.

Ours didn't accept credit cards either whilst not really an issue it would have been good to know before putting £200 quid of junk in my trolley 😂

We didn't renew and personally wasn't worth it. We're about 20-30 minutes away.

I don't have time or space either in my life or home to bulk buy for such small savings.

[Miss_Tangled]

I can say that just being able to buy Cheescake Factory cheesecake is enough for me...oh and their tyres are good

[snowbelle]

We have two within about an hour of us Bristol & Cardiff
Bristol has a petrol station and is cheap to fill up our greedy Citroen
We buy cling film , black bags, dishwasher tabs , meat , foil , mushrooms which slice and freeze , Diet Coke cans ( the box not the trays) dishcloths, washing powder , cheese and milk we have two freezers which I fill with milk , and I batch cook
Vitamins are also a good price
For a first timer I was make a list and compare to you regular supermarket eg: how much is beef mince per kg
I used to use our local butcher even though he was open during Covid and queues out the door he got greedy and was adding up to £10 on his meat packs.
We have lots of storage space for non perishables , I think they have also changed the policy to accept debit cards please check though as we use Amex

[BucksBugsy]

A couple of words of advice

1( remember some prices don't include VAT so may appear to be more of a bargain than they really are

2) it is so easy to go in for "just one thing" and come out with a trolley load which costs north of £250!

[P&S]

We live a 10 minute car journey to Costco and we go every couple of months for toilet roll, kitchen roll, porridge, teabags, lint rollers and a box of ales

This works out well for us and we get our tyres done there whilst we shop and we are lucky to have a Costco petrol station which we use all the time (pre covid and wfh).

For us it's definitely worth it and we share the membership with our daughter

I don't buy anything I don't need but sometimes there are fab offers on some stuff and the books are good value.

[DonnaD]

I wouldn't be paying for a membership if I lived an hour away TBH unless you have a large family and alot of storage space for bulk buying.

[paw]

We have been members since it opened in Liverpool many years ago, although I now prefer Haydock, both about a 30 minute drive. As a family we find it well worth the membership, even though we live in different parts of the country.

We go regularly and buy lots of stuff in bulk, even though there are only two of us. I bought a Food Saver there a few years ago so split bulk packs and vacuum pack then freeze them myself. Dry goods and non perishables live in the spare bedroom where there is a large cupboard. During the lockdown the only thing I hadn’t bought the month before was my years supply of toilet paper!

During lockdown they started doing grocery deliveries which I found a blessing as I couldn’t get a slot for love nor money. Since lockdown ended we have bought a portable air conditioner for my son, on offer and hundreds of pounds cheaper than the same model elsewhere, shoes, clothes, towels, antibac gel and wipes, soap powder, meat, shoes and clothes for the grandchildren.

The one thing I do though is have my phone out and compare prices as even bulk is not always cheaper.

We put our DD on our membership. DS didn’t want to be put on as he wouldn’t use it! He just gets us to order things online for him as he can’t be bothered going over the Dartford Crossing to his nearest store. All adds up for our cash back at the end of the year.