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Comment by ineedasername | Hacker News Reader

I stopped going to Costco when I realized 1) I couldn't get a parking space without 10 minutes of driving around looking and waiting for someone to pull out. 2) I couldn't pay for my items without waiting on line for 10 to 15 minutes and 3) Most items are a little bit to a lot cheaper at normal supermarkets if you wait for a sale and stock up.

Costco has some unique frozen foods I like, and good prices on some fresh meat, but #3 above meant it was rarely worth going for more than 2 or 3 items, and #1 & #2 above meant it would always be a much bigger hassle than 5 minutes at the normal grocery store.

Although I fully recognize that the above times are probably highly dependent on the setup & how busy my local Costco stores are. If I could get in and out of Costco as quickly as the grocery store (I drive by both on my commute home) I'd still have a Costco membership.

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The article talks about one of the main reasons I kept going to Costco even when I realized it wasn't necessarily cheaper than the major grocery stores: quality.

I don't want to have to think about which brand at the regular grocery is best, I can just go to Costco, get Kirkland, and it will be the same price as name brands at the regular grocery but the quality is practically guaranteed to be superior.

(Trader Joe's works on a very similar principle)

Not quite the same price: it costs $60 per year. Given the quality is 1% better for kirkland, and apparently only along a single metric, the value proposition isn't quite so simple. Especially if you live in the vicinity the 3 Costco stores like I do where there's a significant amount of "friction" in the transaction. If not for that friction I'd say the fee is worth it for the items that are consistently cheaper. But I value a 15-20 hours a year of my life higher than money saved. Certainly not for a quality difference I absolutely never noticed before being informed of it by this article.

You can buy from Costco from the Costco online store. Same-day shipping items are processed using Instacart, so it is more expensive. However, Costco does have a 2-day shopping section, and everything else that cannot be shipped in 2 days is a separate section. In addition, Costco is upfront about the fact that some of items might be cheaper in their physical store. However, I got myself a Costco membership, bought from them exclusively online and I’ve been very happy with my results. I don’t have a car, so my available options are what you would expect. I’m also happy that I can move away from Amazon for more of my regular / staple purchases.

You don't need a Costco membership to buy using instacart.

In our area, the Costco stores are unique in having their entrance in the corner of the store. That means there are twice as many parking spots that are close to the entrance. I've always wondered why that model wasn't copied by other stores.

Costco is unique in that they require you to show a card for entry. Department stores commonly have more than one entrance on different sides of the building. Not every store models itself after a department store layout, though. I'll admit every time I enter a Costco from one corner, it does feel a little strange and crowded. But it's a smart idea, yes, given the constraints Costco has.

The Costco I go to (Sunnyvale) does this too. Although I usually park further away anyways, as the spots near the entrance are usually full.

The real value of a Costco membership is in the ancillary non-grocery stuff, like cheap glasses and contacts, discounts off high-end electronics, money back on plane tickets and rental cars, etc.

Three of the big ones are car/home owners insurance and mortgages. I purchased my last two houses going through Costco's mortgage portal and saved huge on fees and had a much lower interest rate without having to purchase points. It's rather astonishing the number of perks to paying for the executive membership.

Yeah the PS4 and XBox gift cards tend to justify the membership cost on their own for me, so everything else feels like a bonus, and I don't feel bad about wasting money buying something somewhere else even if it's a bit more expensive since the Costco membership is already paid for.

Huh. I think we get 10-15% off iTunes cards sometimes, but not Xbox. I would say the bifurcation into Gamepass vs Xbox Gold may reduce the value of any discount, though.

It's been quite a while since I last used the deal since I've not been in the store. I think the last time I used it was something like $80 for $100 in playstation store gift cards, but I think I'm more used to the 10% off as the general rule for their gift cards.

ETA: I just checked online and they're only 10% off (both Xbox and PS).

Don't forget the discount fuel!

Yeah, my local Costco is so much more pleasant of a gas station I despise getting gas anywhere else.

It's the opposite for me, when I had a membership. However, per my original comment, my local stores may not be typical. I live in an extremely population dense area. I also live in an area where gas is about the cheapest in the nation already, so Costco is only about $0.10 cheaper per gallon, sometimes less, and it's so backed up that you wait 20 minutes to get to the pump. Again, if there wasn't this level of "friction" to each trip, I'd have no problem shopping there for items that are cheaper and more local supermarket for everything else.

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