What is making Costco so expensive?

[Anonymous]

I quit Costco and now shop at Aldi and Mom's market, sometimes Safeway. Much cheaper bulk, non-perishables at Aldi.

[Anonymous]

For us, Costco is very affordable because we are able to buy huge quantities of food and we don’t waste any of it. If we did, we’d switch to something like Lidl.

[Anonymous]

Like breakfast cereal, I do not buy pistachios anymore. Although I can afford to pay their price, I refuse to do so.

I also do not eat out at restaurants requiring a tip, and rarely eat out at all because almost $20 for a burger, fries, and a drink is not what I want to pay. Also, burgers have shrunk almost to the size of large biscuits so I am done eating out unless I have to.

[Anonymous]

Most prices have gone up OP, in all stores. At least Costco pays their staff living wages.

There are whole categories of food and groceries I just didn't buy anymore.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure I get this thread. Costco makes its money on the membership fees and sells most items at a very low gross margin particularly compared to WalMart or Target. That's not to say that every single thing is cheaper at Costco or that you cannot find a lower quality alternative elsewhere that will meet your needs but generally Costco delivers value.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure I get this thread. Costco makes its money on the membership fees and sells most items at a very low gross margin particularly compared to WalMart or Target. That's not to say that every single thing is cheaper at Costco or that you cannot find a lower quality alternative elsewhere that will meet your needs but generally Costco delivers value.

Costco is a publicly traded company beholden to a Board of Directors and major shareholders. Costco, therefore, must squeeze out every dime it can, so if they have to charge $50 for a bag of pistachios and up the membership fee to $200 they will do so because the shareholders demand it to be so.

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like breakfast cereal, I do not buy pistachios anymore. Although I can afford to pay their price, I refuse to do so.

I also do not eat out at restaurants requiring a tip, and rarely eat out at all because almost $20 for a burger, fries, and a drink is not what I want to pay. Also, burgers have shrunk almost to the size of large biscuits so I am done eating out unless I have to.

I’ve stopped eating entirely because it’s too expensive to eat out, and I hate cooking.

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure I get this thread. Costco makes its money on the membership fees and sells most items at a very low gross margin particularly compared to WalMart or Target. That's not to say that every single thing is cheaper at Costco or that you cannot find a lower quality alternative elsewhere that will meet your needs but generally Costco delivers value.

Costco is a publicly traded company beholden to a Board of Directors and major shareholders. Costco, therefore, must squeeze out every dime it can, so if they have to charge $50 for a bag of pistachios and up the membership fee to $200 they will do so because the shareholders demand it to be so.

And if people stop buying membership because they think $200 is too much, they will lower the fee because the shareholders will demand it be so.

[Anonymous]

I've always thought of pistachios as expensive and only for an occasional treat; same with almonds and cashews. I think the giant bags of nuts and giant sizes of things like jars of marinated artichoke hearts at Costco have made us think these are everyday purchases. They used to be luxury items. Maybe it's time to rethink what we think of as everyday purchases? I'm doing this now. My parents woukd have never bought these on a regular basis. Same with soft drinks, wine and alcohol, avocados, muffins and all the other stuff that is now part of people's daily fare.

[Anonymous]

Food prices have gone up everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The key is to buy the right quantities there and have a shopping list - don’t deviate from it.
Costco is still better than all named stores for the long lasting items: juices, organic frozen fish, coffee, olive oil, toilet paper, laundry detergent etc.

The packages of pistachio are huge relative TJ

I buy only organic and organic at Costco is same quality as WF and still cheaper

Agree with this. You have to be disciplined to buy at Costco, know your prices and know what you want. I have Costco very close by our house. I compared prices with Walmart, Safeway, Whole Foods and Aldi ( stores that I also go to). I only buy at Costco what I need ( for example: like Kerrygold butter, hemp seeds, coffee, toilet paper, italian/french sparkling water, frozen organic fruits, avocados, kerrygold cheese). We eat healthy, cook at home, don't go to the restaurants. I don't buy everything in Costco, but their membership is so worth it to us. Everything is more expensive everywhere anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've always thought of pistachios as expensive and only for an occasional treat; same with almonds and cashews. I think the giant bags of nuts and giant sizes of things like jars of marinated artichoke hearts at Costco have made us think these are everyday purchases. They used to be luxury items. Maybe it's time to rethink what we think of as everyday purchases? I'm doing this now. My parents woukd have never bought these on a regular basis. Same with soft drinks, wine and alcohol, avocados, muffins and all the other stuff that is now part of people's daily fare.

I think this is true. Stuff like pistachios, raspberries, cherries were maybe one a year splurges in the 70s. Coffee was cheap chock full of nuts or sanka. Eve. Stuff like boneless chicken was a luxury — my mom made me debone the chicken because buying boneless was too expensive. We’ve gotten really soiled due to free trade and low wage immigrant labor. That’s coming to an end, at least for now. Plus climate change has a real effect — crops like chocolate were totally devastated last year so everyone noticed their Halloween assortments were heavier on the skittles. I think we’ll need to be much more flexible about our shopping going forward and figure out what’s still worth the price being charged.

[Anonymous]

Stop buying snacks and junk food. You don’t need nuts either.