Thinking to join Costco now, it's close to 1hr drive for us but hopefully worth the trips (including fuel refill).
What things do you usually buy in bulk/stock from Costco and how much is it? I see some folks get kitchen paper towels, frozen berries etc.
Thanks for sharing the info.
It's good when you are having an event for the party size food. I go there for petrol, eggs, chicken & baby products, & clothes (yes clothes) but lately most of them are a hit or miss.
When you are done spending $500 for groceries and questioning your life choices, the $2 snag & cola / pizza slices ease that guilty feeling somewhat.
I think by going to Aldi (Colesworths only when on half price/discounted) you could save more. I used one of brothers membership to shop at Costco ringwood last month and then compared with my usual receipts from Aldi and Colesworths. I saved just over $23 at Aldi and $26 at Colesworths (shopped mostly half priced and reduced / discounted items) compared to Costco
Mix n match worked great for me- Aldi <—> Colesworths (I keep track of latest catalogs and then plan my grocery trip)
So do people think Coles/Woolworths are price gouging or everyone is price gouging? I imagine that $26 price difference from Colesworth is the number of locations, layout, and lack of bulk buying.
I can see you're in Sydney. If your local is Auburn, I strongly recommend against signing up. I don't think I've been more disgusted than at that particular Costco. The stress of parking + being squashed by swarms of people made me hate it. Casula however was a more pleasurable experience. Ditto to the above, not really worth it unless you've got storage and you have a minimum of 4-5 older kids / adults
we dont go anymore because of that reason, casula is way too far and we are never out that way
Only time we go is when we are seeing family in newcastle and even that is a bit out of the way. Geographically one somewhere around northern beaches is due but they probably dont want to pay the land prices or maybe the wages
Agreed. Witnessing a fight every single time in the carpark and then having to deal with the crowd of bottom feeders made it an entirely unpleasant experience.
No, just buy Coles/Woolworths when on special, that's cheaper and sales are frequent.
I used to live in Texas, and now I live in QLD also close to Costco, which is about a 30-minute drive away. It's hardly worth it for us, as we don't use petrol (we're EV owners). We prefer using the Everyday loyalty card, and shopping at Woolies is far more cost-effective for us. With three 10% discounts (thanks to our Everyday XTRA, insurance and Woolworths mobile prepaid plan), it's a better deal overall.
Pastries, Petrol, Prescription glasses and contacts, hearing aids, tyres, batteries, chooks and food platters = Yes
Everything else, yeah nah, cheaper at Aldi or Colesworth on special.
Plus at Aldi\Colesworth, you don't need to deal with Grab Hags when collecting roast chooks.
No
I live five minutes away and it's not worth it
No.
I have been a member since it opened in Sydney, I usually use it for bulk items, also for milk and eggs, but considering the rising prices of everything, there are a lot of items you can buy off Amazon on a subscription basis, which turns out cheaper and saves storage at home. It does pay itself off with the fuel cost, but sometimes 7-11 comes out cheaper. The new executive membership has some extra perks which pay for the membership as well. It all depends on your household usage and what you like to drink and eat.
I think you need to understand what the prices are at the other supermarkets first, from there you will understand whether it's worth it for your household.
If you buy home brand items, you'll find it's not cheaper at Costco.
We've been going for about 18 months now and have worked out exactly what is cheaper for us for our monthly shops.
I like their croissants 12/24, TP 48pk, baking flour 5/15kg and their pizza is OK but not comparable to home made wood fire
Their fuel is OK but a local to mums place is in the honey moon period and is consistently cheaper
It isn't a concrete yes or no answer, it depends on the amount of pantry/freezer/fridge/storage space, your diet, overall usage and the amount of people in your home. There will be more savings for some and less, if at all, for others.
Fabric softener, almonds, toilet cleaner, dishwasher tablets, eggs, deodarant(if on special) and most food platters and packs are generally cheaper all in bulk. There are random specials too which can offer additioanl savings, such as on stationery.
Try and buddy up with a family member and share the membership to make it a little more viable. The Costco experience is a lot more palatable if you visit off peak.
Honeslty, after going there multiple times. It's pretty much a "bargain warehouse" where you get the privilege of paying RRP for bulk items.
How good.
Maybe if you have a family of 6+, otherwise there's no cost benefit.
No. But it's worth to have one then cancel it later to get fully membership cost refund.
It's quite far from my place. I only drop by when driving pass it.
The petrol is not that cheap & the queue is ridiculous.
Get one of the food court pizzas those suckers are HUGE
we buy the UHT long life milk I think it's $17 a case
There are things that alright value, but it depends highly on what kind of family you have. Like the way I see a lot of families buy things, they buy like a tub of peanut butter every 1-2 weeks because they have like 4-5 kids that are growing. Then stuff like eggs, and a lot of bread.
I honestly can't see how the toilet paper and hand towel situation is any better now, the price use to be good value but it's gone up a bit, I don't see it that great.
Meats etc there's always a good deal, but I can't say it is the best. I would argue that every category still has like one or two things that's a steal.
Like the bakery, everyone always buys the 2 boxes of muffins for $9-$11 (I forgot the price), but they are massive muffins, and I heard people just freeze them then defrost for their kids to eat. Then in the hot food, everyone buys a massive roast chicken, which is a pretty good value, but I can't get over the pink coloured meat (because it's cooked in brine).
Some frozen food is alright priced.
But honest to god, every time I go, my kids will be like, I want X chips. I look at the box and think yeah 40 packets, right you guys will be over these by the 10th packet, so it's better to just go to woolworths or coles and wait for a sale to buy a sane amount. Unless I'm like the other customers I see where they have a massive family and also cousins where they share their purchases.
Overall, if you are 1 hour away, you won't get any benefit with petrol fill up, because you'll drive there and fill up, then drive back and lose a lot of it.
So it's really dependent on your family situation, if you got a lot of kids, and other family close by you can share things with, then some bulk buys are good.
1 hour away is probably not worthwhile making the effort just to go and shop there, but if it's along the way on a regular route, then that's not a biggie.
Used to work there and the membership was free. The longer I worked there…the more I felt the value was worthwhile - got sucked in. Looking to start a paid membership when the time comes for another big shop but share with with family.
As others have said, it really is a quality/convenience thing for us at a reasonable/cheaper price.
Fish is very fresh and actually scaled properly so you're not constantly spitting out scales (barramundi) vs fish markets. Also doesn't have that earthy taste that some fish have (maybe sonce they're farmed?). Pippis that are actually "desanded" or mussels that have been pre prepped/debearded takes hassle away.
Eggs are in bulk but extremely fresh. You can tell when you crack them vs Colesworth eggs. They are cheap and noticed the best before is consistently about 5 + weeks ahead so you have some time to go through them. We also do the float test after that to see if any are off if we don't use it by the bb time but they usually last a while after too. Only issue is sometimes they're just waiting on stock so it might not be available when you do need it.
Things that I haven't found in other places like keto bread that actually has a soft texture and tastes pretty decent which made our diet much more bearable.
Meat quality is also just tastier. Maybe it's because it's less watered down? But flavour is just there - lamb, beef, pork. Chicken is cheaper generally for breasts. And the chicken wings are mostly wings (2/3 - 3/4 vs drumsticks) , no wingtips. Beef bulgolgi. Divide and freeze.
We do still buy the KS toilet paper since we prefer it over the other brands but I wouldn't say it was super cheap.
Japanese rice vs Asian grocers generally cheaper.
Croissants are tasty - divided and frozen. Air fried for a few min from frozen brings out the texture comparable to fresh bakery but I wouldn't say it's better than any viennoissories but is a lot cheaper. Good for a nice quick breakfast. Choc croissants are super tasty. Muffins are cheap but they're more pound cakes in Muffin shape so not really my thing.
Not a fan of the KS frozen berries, personally tastes strange to me but it is relatively cheap. Other branded frozen stuff is generally the similar price as colesworth unless it's on special.
Cheese options are also quite good but I'd say aldi cheeses are pretty up there without the bulk buy factor so I buy it from there unless there's a good deal.
Fuel. It's not just the price but the quality of the fuel you get as well. You might actually get more kms with better quality fuel and your engine might just be in a better state long term.
Clothes can be pretty cheap compared but styles offered can be a bit meh.
Snacks are pretty good. Can buy them in smaller quantities/gms elsewhere but they do tend to be cheaper with fruit chips (addictive), potato chips, etc.
Homewares like tupperware, white goods can be pretty cheap on sale as well.
Have no need for them but I know the hearing aids are 100% worth it with the service and tech that you get. Already would be worth more than the membership if that's in the cards.
KS Bin bags are strong and last us more than a year with a box, never broken on us once.
Not a fan of the roast chicken cuz of the brine factor in the way it's prepared (can still look pinkish near the bone) but others like it.
Alcohol generally cheaper.
Refunds policy is pretty good.
I do still check the prices to see if it's significantly cheaper elsewhere, though. But Costco online is always dearer than in store as it includes delivery in the pricing. I think it might be to also incentivise people to go in person and shop.
That's my 2c.
Can always just try it like others have said and refund the membership if it isn't worthwhile for you, they're pretty easy about it but you don't want to get flagged for constantly refunding your membership, though if you do actually want to continue it.
if you have multiple WW or Coles account, you are far better off using those offers.
I did a calculation that on average, we save around 28% off our bills by using discounted gift card + store offers and we don't even need to drive 40mins.
Make this into a poll op
I'm 5 minutes away and can't drag myself into store, i know i won't buy anything because deals are rare or the size too large. Occasionally go in for the novelty. Only there for petrol.
It's not about shopping in bulk, but a combination of things available in one shop.
Some of the products are unique, some of the "premium" items are not available at supermarkets, or require multiple trips to specialty shops.
$65/year works out to $5.40/month, which you can easily save in one shop even if you go once a month.
IMO costco is not that good value. I remember going and spending lik $200-$300 on a grocery trip when my normal shop was like $100+.
It's a fad. The fanboys and heavy consumers/spenders will sing it's praises. But hey, we are an American state.Support them when you can.
For us as a couple, we still use Costco for the following:
- American products (which you will not find in most supermarkets)
- Eggs (2-3 dozens)
- 3L milk
- Bottled water
- Frozen food
- Calvin Klein undies
- Corned beef
- 10kg rice
- Lollies/Chocolates for gifts (birthday/holiday gift bags)
- Global membership (I can't wait to visit Costco Japan next year!)
I've been a member since 2013.
Their A2 milk is actually 3.5L. Not sure about the other brand they have it there.
If you don’t account for fuel, but if you just eat the hotdog and drink everyday for breakfast lunch and dinner then it will be a good deal if you buy nothing else
yes i forgot about the $1.50 for a hotdog & drink how can you go wrong
i'm bummed they stopped making the pretzels
Wow some horror stories for Costco shoppers over East.
Meanwhile, the Costco is a 15min drive from where I live here WA, off the freeway.
Membership is a no-brainer, always plenty of parking, $1.99 hotdog and drink and cheap fuel.
Shopping for me has been hit and miss – I only ever buy the things you can’t find at Woolies/Coles, and those things are not always in stock when I visit.
I do like their selection of electronics as well, not appliances/TVs, just small things around the house like solar lights, etc.
non-perishables
Ask a friend to buy you a $100 CostCo gift card, you can use that to buy stuff and experience it first hand. The amount of stuff you buy can be any amount. You can pay the balance via cash/card
Chocolates are cheap.. You can get the American ones for cheap.
Honestly only go to Costco if you know exactly what you want. Its really easy to spend 100's at costco cos you did too much window shopping. Crowds are a pain, lines to the cashier can be ridiculously long.
Having said that, I live near a costco so its always been convenient for me. You are right though, the toilet paper is worth getting. I find the rolls are bigger than quilton and are of relatively equal quality. A lot of the frozen foods are good. Getting giant bags of snacks is also quite nice. But this is sort of what i mean, really know what you want to get, that'll stop you from over spending.
costco only good for their fuel rates and it is only good to be member if you living next to it… but grocery are cheaper in coles,woolworths and aldi .. most time.
as owner of 2 cats, the orange colored bag of krikland cat food made it break even for us already, factor in any saving from anything else will make it worth it.
the ingredient list looks alright (salmon meal and ocean fish meal as the top 2 ingredient) and it's about $5 per KG. (it's salmon meal not salmon but oh well can't beat $5/KG)
you'll barely see any cat food cost less than $10/kg with meat product as top ingredient even if it's "meal".
we can mix krikland with wet food and other dry food, which substantially reduce the cost of cat food.
Maybe have a read of this…
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/753629