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One more really really really great thing about Costco: Their hearing aid department, audiologists, selection and prices. Unbeatable - and a SIX MONTH return policy. Compared to the 30 days offered by nearly everyone else. . .
Oh yeah, if (like me) you cannot buy prescription glasses online, Costco has a banging selection at reasonable prices.
I'll second this.
My Costco wants to tweak mine once a year. They test my hearing and adjust the aids. No charge.
We can't do Zenni, so Costco is good for glasses, too.
My Costco wants to tweak mine once a year. They test my hearing and adjust the aids. No charge.
We can't do Zenni, so Costco is good for glasses, too.
Do you two (Crone and JK) get good services at the optical department at Costco?
Last year was my first time getting prescription glasses. I went to my local location, and picked out a pair of super-cute frames at a very good price. The problems have come in when I picked them up and the other 2 times I have tried to get them adjusted to fit my face better. At least at my particular Costco location, they are just terrible at it. I've had to go to other optical stores to get a free adjustment (and felt a bit guilty about it so I bought some lens cleaner kits )
For Costco (and probably Sam’s Club and every other club warehouse), the best deals are on dry goods and the most basic foods as possible which to me is things like instant coffee ground meats, milk, butter, baby formula, and other similar goods. Kirkland brand products are usually high quality and compare very well to name brand products at a much better value.
Fruits are vegetables and usually quite expensive. We have some vegetable plants that help supplement vegetables and spices for us, but otherwise we buy a lot of our perishable fruits and vegetables at our local Kroger.
We go to Costco every two weeks or so and spend in the $50-100 range. We fill up at the gas station and buy stuff as we need it.
Note: when comparing the unit price between two exact products, Costco, in my experience, is 90% of the times cheaper. For something like motor oil, they usually only have the expensive Shell or Mobil brands. My husband likes it because it’s higher quality, but the Walmart brand (MotorTech?) will be cheaper. The same Shell brand oil between the two stores will be cheaper at Costco.
Sam's Club has the best price I can find on good quality ground beef, it's usually available in 6 one pound packages which makes it real easy to store, I also buy detergent there because Percil is hard to find but for most other stuff we shop at Costco. Produce I usually buy at our local Winco because it's close to our house and they have a decent selection.
I buy all our groceries at our Super Walmart or a regular one a few miles up the road. They have by far, the freshest and the best prices. The produce department is huge and well stocked including organics and locally grown.
Employees are very friendly and never have more than 1-2 people in front of me in line, usually I walk right to an empty checkout line. We also get our eyeglass prescriptions filled at the optical department, very fair prices.
I like Target groceries too but we don't have one close by. Sam's is a couple blocks away but there's only two of us and like Costco, we just don't need those huge quantities. I like the bigger selection at Walmart.
We have a Costco membership for our business, but have only gone to the local store a couple of times and prices were higher than Walmart and they didn't carry many of the items we buy regularly.
Don't believe the nonsense about Walmart not paying employees. That's propaganda spread by unions.
I've had a question about the restaurat supply store. The one I use just changed their name. They were Cash and Carry and just changed to Smart Food Warehouse. But there have to be restaurant supply stores all over the country.
Packages tend to be large. Beef is in 15-20 pound chunks. Cheese is in 5 pound packages. Canned goods are in gallons.
But not always. They have fresh rice noodles in 5 pound bsgs, but also sell dried rice noodles in a one pound package.
I buy frozen seafood in 5 pound boxes, but the pieces are individually frozen, so very easy to repackage.
I buy the 20 pound chunk of steak, but steaks also come frozen, portioned and seasoned, ready to go on the grill. Those are in a 5 pound box. I buy 40 pounds of chicken that comes in four bags ( 10 pounds per bag) all frozen together, but there is also a 5 pound box of individual portions.
They are open to the public. The one I use will not take checks unless they are business checks from a registered business. They accept cash and credit cards.
Last edited by oregonwoodsmoke; 12-07-2018 at 08:27 PM..
In my area Walmart is the price leader and closets to home so they are my go to place. Neighborhood market is less than half a mile and I can find things and get in and out at 6am when they open. A super Walmart is open 24/7 so if I'm up before 6 I go there knowing their prices are very good. Costco is 2 miles away ( two others are 5 and 7 Mile's away) but they open late and crowds are the issue and parking. I go to Sam's Club for most things. Two are 4 miles from me and another the largest in DFW is 6 miles. I'm s plus member and can get in at 7am and get done by 730. Love their self checkout shystem with remote hand held scanner. Buy my gas at Sam's too. All three are nice new stores.
We buy a lot of prepared food. We have more favorites at Sam's than any including the 2 mile away super target store. I have trader Joe's and whole foods a mile away but rarely use them whole is expensive and TJ's is just limited in what they have. Fresh market is a mile away and opens at 6 so I use them for quiche and muffins. We have a central market next to one if the Sam's and we buy prepared food there as well as specialty items. It's an awesome store but not cheap. We have an eatzi' s a mile away with fresh chief prepared meals daily like central market. We are blessed with lots of close choices.
We find Sam's clubs member mark products to be great. Their ice cream is the best as are their pies.
Aldi, kroger, Tom thumb are options within 2 nioes but I rarely use them other than tres leches cakes from Kroger
I always buy radishes at Walmart. One pound for $1.28 and they are always fresh and crispy. I have tried buying at Kroger, Publix, Ingles. Theirs are priced higher and taste different.
I try to do as much of my shopping at Costco as reasonably possible. I actually don't do a whole lot of grocery shopping at Target because the one by my house is just your run of the mill target with a pretty limited grocery selection and the Super Target is literally right next to the Costco, making another trip superfluous. That said, most of the Target brand foods and like are actually pretty good. Sam's Club is also right by the Costco and Costco is the far superior of the two.
I don't like WalMart at all, and really only go there for very simple stuff or when it is late at night.
Thanks for your post! Do you think it is worth to have membership to both Costco & Sam's?
Do you two (Crone and JK) get good services at the optical department at Costco?
Last year was my first time getting prescription glasses. I went to my local location, and picked out a pair of super-cute frames at a very good price. The problems have come in when I picked them up and the other 2 times I have tried to get them adjusted to fit my face better. At least at my particular Costco location, they are just terrible at it. I've had to go to other optical stores to get a free adjustment (and felt a bit guilty about it so I bought some lens cleaner kits )
I went with a friend to Costco to look at the optical department last year. I could not find a frame that I really liked. The prices were actually higher than Visionworks with the AARP discount (50%).
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Thanks!
