Costco

[sgtiger]

I'm a member at the executive level which has a higher membership fee but I get 2% back from most of my purchases at the end of the year. I end up getting all of my membership fee back with a little extra, so it pays for itself.

I get my glasses and contacts through them which is a huge savings over other places. My titanium frames alone would have been 3x the price anywhere else. Prescription medication seem to be less but our family doesn't get prescribed medication much so I can't be sure on that.

There are certain nonperishable items that I purchase in bulk. And I sometimes purchase snacks and frozen veggies that we go though quickly.

There isn't a huge savings on electronics. In fact sometimes they cost more at Costco, but their guarantee and customer service makes up for it. I find their electronics people are way more knowledgeable about their products than the specialty store people. If you're lucky, sometimes the company rep is there to answer questions on their products.

The other thing that is a factor for me is that it's a sort of a local company for us, and they carry a lot of items that are produced in Washington and Oregon. In fact their house brand is named after the town that they are based in and I used to live about 15 miles from there when I lived in Washington. I don't know if I'd buy from them so readily if I lived out of the area and everything they carried was from somewhere else.

[GLC1968]

We shop there fairly frequently. The best one in the area is across the street from where I work, so it's very convenient. When we lived in NC, it was a haul to get there, so we hardly ever went. The lines for their gas are always quite long but they move fairly quickly (I get it as cheap out in the country, but if you live in town, it's a deal).

We originally joined to get a great price on a carpet steam cleaner and we still use that thing!

Now, we mostly purchase bulk items (we have plenty of storage space) when we go. I did recently get a tip from a very knowlegeable friend that we should investigate Costco for flooring since we are in the market. Haven't compared prices just yet, though.

I like Costco. It's a pleasant place to shop (even when it's busy, they do a good job of keeping it sane), they carry the brands I like (in most things) and the prices are reasonable.

[Irulan]

Costco is how I fed my teenage boys without going broke. You do have to know your prices and just keep that in the back of your head. The in house brands for food are terrific quality.

I don't do much produce there, but I do get: fresh pastas, coffee beans, 6-8 packs of various canned good, specialty items like real paremsean cheese and sundried tomatoes, meats which I portion up and freeze, boxes of luna bars... I also get a lot supplements. The eye care at our local costco is excellent.

They had the best price on a CR Best Buy rated lawnmower that we wanted.

Note on flooring- this is one item I would be very careful about. We've done about 3000 ft-sq of hardwood laminate, and my professional installer friend who gave us tip warned us off of it, it's not that great.