I have been contemplating getting a business membership here for my home daycare. I would love some opinions about it. Are things actually cheaper or is it just the convenience of buying things in large quantities?
It is a little bit of both actually. Large quantities are cheaper anyway, so things kind of get mixed up as some things are really really cheap and others are more or less the same. Still I would advise you to do it, if you are sure you will use it
I probably would try to make the trip about 1x a month. The one nearest me is about 45 minutes away. I live in a rural area so everything is a drive for us and 45 minutes is not really a big deal. I might try it for a year and see how it goes. Thanks!
If you have a home daycare, then I imagine that buying things in bulk would be a great help to you, especially if you only have to do it once a month. My mother used to shop at Costco and the prices of everything were awesome. I live with just my husband, I don't have a whole lot of space for storing things, and the nearest Costco is a good fifteen or twenty minutes outside of the city and I don't drive... I don't think Costco is a good match for me anymore, haha.
I think Costco is expensive. I feel that you can buy cheaper by using coupons and matching them with the sales. I am not sure if you have an Aldis where you live but they have great prices on fruits and vegetables. Also, you can price match at Walmart and Target. This means if you get the circular ads out of the newspaper and see a low price for something, you can take the ad to Target and Walmart and they will match the price. This will save you gas so you are not running around everywhere. Obviously, you would want to stockpile so maybe look at buying multiple Sunday papers. This will give you extra coupons to work with. Hope this helps you!
I would definitely recommend that you sign-up and depending on how much you think you will spend there you may want to upgrade to the Executive membership which costs $110 ($55 additional from the basic) but the benefit to doing is that you get rewards points for shopping while the basic membership only gets you access. You also get early access with the executive 1 hour earlier than everybody else. Costco Gas is a GODSEND especially if you live in a State with expensive gas. When I lived in California the Costco Gas station had 5-10 ten minute lines of cars waiting to fill-up because their prices and overall gas quality are unbeatable! Eventually, if you spend enough with the Executive membership you can earn your upgrading fee back and if spend even more you entire membership price. Of course you don't have to put your rewards to towards your membership but most people that go with Executive membership package do. If you don't go Executive your savings from making bulk purchases will definitely cover the cost of member ship after you spend $700-800 just because Super-Markets are a major rip-off compared to Costki's, as I have nick-named it or Costcotopia!
I've been a member for a few years now and I've been very happy with them. They have crazy deals sometimes especially in the supplement department.
You will save money if you sign up for a membership, but if you don't go to Costco regularly it's wasting money. My friend has a membership and she goes there at least once a week to stock up on groceries. I did notice the people that work there hate when you ask them to get something down from the shelves. I don't know what that's all about, but it's a good store to shop at if you like buying in bulk. I shop at a normal grocery store because my appetite isn't that big. I would have a hard time finishing all of that food.
I am a big fan of Costco and highly recommend it. That said, and as mentioned above, it is not right for everyone. If you don't use it a lot, you obviously won't save a lot, and, depending on your shopping habits, you have to save a lot of money to justify the $55 or $110 membership fee. With that disclaimer out of the way, Costco presents a great value. I am sure that there are some things that are in there that are either "not a great deal" or possibly even a bad deal. However, overall, I trust the quality of Costco's offerings over most other "big box stores" and their return policy is unbeatable. I recently bought raspberries there (which are amazing by the way!) and must have gotten a bad batch. By the time we got home, there were several that had mold or some kind of rot on them and by the next morning, most of them were looking pretty rough. We only go to Costco twice a month and I didn't want to save rotten raspberries that long so we just threw them away. The next time we went back, I told customer service about my experience. I did not have the receipt or the package. They used my card to look up my purchase and put the full amount back on my credit card. A definite downside of Costco, but one that I only jokingly complain about, is that I can't seem to leave for less than $100! This is in part because you buy in bulk and although it costs more up front, it lasts longer. For instance, at the local grocery store I might buy 2 or 3 boxes of Mac-N-Cheese for the boys but at Costco the smallest option might be a case of 10 boxes. Mac-N-Cheese doesn't "go bad" so while I spend more up front for 10 boxes (vs. 3 boxes) those 10 boxes will last longer. The other reason I spend so much is that they have so many great deals that you walk by and it just seems foolish to NOT take advantage of an amazing deal. I rarely have buyers regret from those spontaneous purchases, and when I do Costco is consistently very good about returning a product. I have used "I didn't like it as much as I thought I would", "I didn't use it as much as I hoped I would", and other "not fully satisfied" reasons for returning it and they have always been apologetic and eager to return my money in those situations. I give Costco a 10 out of 10!
Some things are cheaper at Costco. Some things are better at Costco. Some things are cheaper AND better. Some things are better, but not cheaper. I find I just have to price compare and get the feel of my Costco to know what to regularly get there. At least at my Costco (I can't speak for others and I have no idea if the prices are across the board) here is what I *always* buy at Costco: Bagged salad (cheaper by a lot) Milk (cheaper) Fruit snacks (better and sometimes cheaper depending on sales) Hot dogs (not cheaper but sooo better) Eggs (cheaper) Bacon (cheaper and better) Pesto (cheaper/better) Veggies/fruits are sometimes cheaper, usually better, fresh or frozen Popcorn (cheaper/better) Nacho cheese (cheaper) Pretzels/chips (cheaper/better) I could probably go on a while. But I tend to only buy things I use a lot of. For example, I find that I do not need an industrial sized can of tomato sauce I definitely find that my membership has been well worth it, even though I choose not to buy things like diapers/wipes/toilet paper there.
