what is your opinion of costco lately (Phoenix: to buy, organic)

[KarmaPhx]

I am addicted to those $4 tubs of salsa, you get a ton for the money, and it's great for a variety of foods like eggs, not too thick, but not too watered down.

[asufan]

Originally Posted by azriverfan.

I will say this though, depending on where you live, the stores can be better or worse. I like the Peoria Costco better than the Sams Club on 83rd and Union Hills. In general, I felt like the Costcos were superior to the Sam Clubs in the North and Northwest Valley. In the Southeast Valley where I live, the Sams Clubs are by far better in my experience.

Either way, for $40 extra dollars a year, you can have a membership to both and it pays for itself. You will always have access to an additional cheap gas station if a Costco or Sams Club is nearby. Each store carries products the other one lacks and has deals on products the other one lacks.

I refuse to buy produce at these wholesale clubs. They look great in the package but you don't know how long they've been there and in my experience they tend to go bad pretty quickly. The same goes for their dairy.

I buy my produce at Sprouts (ideally) and Frys. I buy chicken breasts at Fresh and Easy (best chicken in the valley). I buy beef(steaks) at Albertsons, or AJ's (expensive but good). I buy ground beef at Trader Joes. I buy fish and seafood at Sams Club (it's not fresh but it's good). For fresh seafood, Whole Foods is great. I buy deli meat at Frys. For dairy, Frys works great! The best tasting milk in my opinion is the Shamrock Farms Organic...it's local and good!

Wow, that's a lot of driving around for different grocery items.

We shop at Fry's for general grocery items, Sprouts for fresh fruit and vegetables and sometimes things like shrimp. Costco is used for diapers, formula (when we needed it), TP, kleenex, razors, etc. We go to Costco maybe once every 6-8 weeks for these items. Or, should I say, my wife goes shopping, while I stay home and take a man break and wait for the food to come to me.

[ronss]

Originally Posted by Autumn07

Oh my gosh- I never knew they raised the prices on things- when they are in the coupon book- that's crazy! Sneaky tactic! No point of the coupon then.

that was funny, at least i got a good laugh out of it.....what gets me at costco, is that the free shirmp lady has none, and is cooking some,, and you have 50 people hanging around her like she is giving free money out.

my membership was due in april, did not renew it yet, but still go there for the same old hot dogs...god, i wish they would change the menu in the snack bar....probably will renew it soon, definitly will not be the no-service sams club.....you can see walmart written alll over that place

[jimj]

Originally Posted by KatrynS

Costco is often used as a model in business school. Unlike your local chains or Walmarts that lure you in with cheap prices on a few items and then more than make up for it by charging more for others, Costco has a simple model -- no more than 15% profit markup on ANY item!!!

I like that. SURE, sometimes you will find a better deal on produce or elecronics on sale somewhere else, and I don't buy everything there, but I do feel GOOD knowing that they are never out to gouge me. That's in stark contrast to Walmart/Sam's 5-yr business plan which goes into an area with low prices, destroys the local competition, then raises prices steadily.

Plus, yes, I feel GOOD knowing that they treat their employees well. They pay well, they provide health insurance, and they made the commitment to keep jobs for employees who got deployed. Compare the average employee calibre and attitude at Sam's and Costco.

I've been a member since my mom took me to the "scary wharf part of Seattle" as a kid.

We've been Costco members for about 22 years, when we first started they were two different companies, Price Club and Costco. We belonged to Price Club and then they merged into Price-Costco. One was union and one was not. That lasted a year or two and then they merged under the Costco name.
Costco is like any other store in some respects, some items are priced better and some not, like anywhere else you have to watch what you buy and mind the loss leader sales at the chain stores.
If you buy wine there is no cheaper place to buy it and their cleaning supplies are almost always less expensive.
My only gripe with them is they changed the policy on access. They used to open 2 hours early for buisness and elite members and had coffee and pastry at the door during that time.
I think that's one thing they should bring back since you pay more for those memberships there should be some extra bennies for it.

As for Sams, we've been to 3 or 4 different ones and walked up to membership and asked if we could go look around to see if we wanted to join. The answer was always a rude "no, we don't allow that". I asked if we could get/buy a day pass to check out the place and again received a rather rude "No". We didn't want to buy anything right then, just wanted to see if there was enough difference to warrant a membership but I guess that's too much to ask of a wal-mart knock off.

[KarmaPhx]

My fiancee has been playing the "grocery game" and using a ton of coupons, we usually go to Frys and Albertsons, we will spend around $20-$30, but get around $100 worth of groceries. I don't know how she does it, but almost everything we buy is either free or less than $1.

[Howard Roark]

I have a membership to Costco. When I'm in L.A. though I avoid it like the plague. The one nearest me in the LA area has poor parking - poor design. Once inside, sometimes shoppers with carts back up at the food sample areas and then the carts trying to get around them from both directions get four carts deep - gridlock! I hate that one! I've seen this during lunchtime when I figured people would be working!

I seldom shop there. So when I get the box of marinated wild Alaskan Salmon, it costs me over $70 (including membership renewal).

Occasionally I buy clothes there Last time I shopped there was a month ago and I got my money's worth - great deals.

For the most part, it makes sense shopping at your nearest grocery store instead of fighting traffic and crowds. You save gas and time and the food items probably don't make much of a difference.

[smokemaster]

Originally Posted by jimj

We've been Costco members for about 22 years, when we first started they were two different companies, Price Club and Costco. We belonged to Price Club and then they merged into Price-Costco. One was union and one was not. That lasted a year or two and then they merged under the Costco name.
Costco is like any other store in some respects, some items are priced better and some not, like anywhere else you have to watch what you buy and mind the loss leader sales at the chain stores.
If you buy wine there is no cheaper place to buy it and their cleaning supplies are almost always less expensive.
My only gripe with them is they changed the policy on access. They used to open 2 hours early for buisness and elite members and had coffee and pastry at the door during that time.
I think that's one thing they should bring back since you pay more for those memberships there should be some extra bennies for it.

As for Sams, we've been to 3 or 4 different ones and walked up to membership and asked if we could go look around to see if we wanted to join. The answer was always a rude "no, we don't allow that". I asked if we could get/buy a day pass to check out the place and again received a rather rude "No". We didn't want to buy anything right then, just wanted to see if there was enough difference to warrant a membership but I guess that's too much to ask of a wal-mart knock off.

Trader Joe's for wine.

[artvandelay]

Originally Posted by asufan

Wow, that's a lot of driving around for different grocery items.

We shop at Fry's for general grocery items, Sprouts for fresh fruit and vegetables and sometimes things like shrimp. Costco is used for diapers, formula (when we needed it), TP, kleenex, razors, etc. We go to Costco maybe once every 6-8 weeks for these items. Or, should I say, my wife goes shopping, while I stay home and take a man break and wait for the food to come to me.

We saved a TON by buying the Kirkland brand formula and baby wipes. I didn't like the Kirkland diapers though.

[asufan]

Originally Posted by artvandelay

We saved a TON by buying the Kirkland brand formula and baby wipes. I didn't like the Kirkland diapers though.

I don't know what brand diapers we get, but it's not Kirkland. It's just cheaper to buy them from Costco in bulk, but we don't get the store brand.

[azriverfan.]

Originally Posted by asufan

Wow, that's a lot of driving around for different grocery items.

We shop at Fry's for general grocery items, Sprouts for fresh fruit and vegetables and sometimes things like shrimp. Costco is used for diapers, formula (when we needed it), TP, kleenex, razors, etc. We go to Costco maybe once every 6-8 weeks for these items. Or, should I say, my wife goes shopping, while I stay home and take a man break and wait for the food to come to me.

I shop at Frys but I was providing the best grocery stores for each item in my opinion but I don't actually go to each of these stores every week. Frys does the job. Well, I do go to Fresh and Easy because its close to me and they have great chicken.