How Costco Became A Massive "Members Only" Retailer

[NurseJackie]

Costco makes billions doing what in retail might once have been thought unthinkable: charge people to shop there. The company draws most of its income from membership fees, and has a nearly 90 percent membership renewal rate. It charges very low prices on goods, rotates its inventory, and pays employees better than the retail average. But how long can it last?

[jimfields33]

1. I feel for those that don't have the start up money to join

Why should the poor be unable to get good deals because they don’t have 60 bucks lying around.

[Phoenix61]

2. Sam's Club is the same thing. Not practical for

a single person household but I can see how it would work for a large family.

[frazzled]

3. We're just a two-family household

But we’ve shopped at Costco for years. We only go once every two to three months, however, and our shopping list is limited. We don’t, for example, buy produce, because the quantities are too large and would go bad before we could use them up (only exception I can think of was once buying a huge carton of fresh blueberries for a ridiculously good price, and made a heaping large blueberry pie). And my one time buying a large jar of olives convinced me that this kind of purchase was not logical: had to throw more than half away after several months. Who can eat that many olives?

But we can stock up on paper goods (TP, paper towels), aluminum foil and plastic wrap, dishwasher detergent, etc. Saves us multiple trips and money on our regular grocery shopping. We also always stock up with a case of Pellegrino water, several 2 1/2 pound bags of coffee beans, and a few bottles of wine. Then there are always some good surprise treats, especially around the holidays. And we occasionally get a package of steaks or lamb chops that we can wrap individually and freeze. The quality of their meats is very high.

And then there is an occasionally great clothing item (my husband has been living during the pandemic in the Addidas track suit he picked up there for relative peanuts). And good gas prices. Plus, they’ll put air in your tires at the auto shop.

All in all, it’s well worth the $60. They have one-stop shopping for high quality products and services. And they’re good to their employees.

[Phoenix61]

4. I've heard they are great but they haven't made

it this far east. It’s extra nice they are good to their peeps.

[CurtEastPoint]

7. Where are you?

[Phoenix61]

11. Florida panhandle. nt

[CurtEastPoint]

12. Yep, looks like Tallahassee is the closest.

[Phoenix61]

13. Dang! I didn't know there was one there.

One of my best friends lives there so I’m there about once a month.

[CurtEastPoint]

5. LOL: I get PTs, TP, coffee, San Pellegrino (or other) and that's about it! Oh, and gas.

[frazzled]

9. C'mmona my house!

[kimbutgar]

6. I became an executive member where I get a rebate from what I spend and usually pay zero to $20

For the yearly renewal with the rebate check they send me.

[NurseJackie]

8. Same here! Our "executive" membership paid for itself in the annual rebate check...

... for several years in a row. One year, our refund was lower and not enough to cover the ENTIRE cost of the membership fee, but the remaining $30 or so was STILL cheaper than a regular membership.

[SeattleVet]

10. Been members for many years, after we switched from Sam's Club.

We are a two-person household, and usually go every 2-3 weeks to stock up. We do get fresh fruit and vegetables, but only what we know we can consume before it starts going bad. Usually get a 3-lb carton of grapes, bananas, bag of oranges, bag of Mandarin oranges, asparagus, brussels sprouts, green peppers, along with meat and fish to be portioned, vacuum-packed, and frozen.

We do a lot of our shopping at the Costco Business Center rather than the regular consumer store. There are only 16 or 17 of these around the country, and they carry the 'primal' cuts of meat (the big pieces that restaurants and meat shops cut the steaks and chops off of, or ribs with the brisket bone still attached), and several items that never show up in the 'normal' Costcos...beef cheek meat, 'special trim' (a super-tough but extremely flavorful cut that restaurants use to make things like shredded beef for tacos), and they even have whole frozen lamb and goat that you need to butcher yourself, or pay a local shop to cut and package. Worth it to chck and see if one of these stores is within your range.

Last Wednesday I smoked a 'commodity' rack of ribs - there were 2 full racks in the package, and it was close to 15 lbs. I have a whole slab of skin-on pork belly in the freezer to make some Chinese roast pork with crispy skin.

We buy our rice (brown and jasmine) in 25-lb bags, along with a lot of the usual paper products. With the cashback on their card we wind up making back a lot more each year than we spend on the membership.

[NurseJackie]

14. We do the same as you. However...

We do get fresh fruit and vegetables, but only what we know we can consume before it starts going bad.

We do the same as you. However... I have a pretty good idea of what the produce prices are at my local grocery store (a small regional chain) and there are times when the Costco price (even factoring-in spoilage of 1/3rd or 1/2) ends up being better than the grocery store.

This is true for Costco strawberries, asparagus, celery, bagged lettuce, etc. The first half is what we'd have paid elsewhere... everything else is a bonus.

[NurseJackie]

15. We'll get the costco steaks, chicken, pork, salmon...

... and vacuum pack the bulk items and deep freeze them. Have you tried the Kirkland tubes of frozen hamburger? One pound each, five tubes to a package... and much less expensive than grocery store lean ground beef.

[SeattleVet]

16. Yes, we get ground beef, then split it and vacuum pack.

But the tube we get (at the Business Center) is a single 5-lb tube. We also portion out the steaks, pork, fish, etc., vacuum pack, and freeze.

Of course, we do have to shop at one of the local the consumer Costcos every so often to get the things that the business centers don't carry - like the rotisserie chickens! We usually get 4 meals out of one of those. Business Center also doesn't have the clothing or electronics, jewelry, etc.

If I'm running the smoker I'll get a brisket - they carry the whole ones. The last one I did was a little over 15 lbs.

[NurseJackie]

17. Yes! The chickens... and wing platters... and ribs!!