Costco
 

Pure ignorance on my part, but not having lived in the UK for a while, I didn't realise till I looked it up today that there are 23 Costco stores in the UK.

Apparently they are opening a number of stores in France this year too.

I have found that more and more I tend to shop in Costco, as the quality of its butchery, bacon and cheese products and also variety are a hell of a lot better at a decent price, than lots of the other stores nearby. Being a small family, I haven't really been accustomed to buying a bumper box of Nutri Grain bars for my kids lunchbox, but cost and ease are quickly changing my, possibly entrenched, habits, although I do still like smaller and more specialised retailers, like the farmers market and Asian and organic stores for odds and bits.

Those of you who might have visited the UK stores, are they pretty similar to the Canadian ones? It's just in France I liked L'Idl, but went into one in the UK and found it to be an entirely different animal and not at all the same.

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I love Costco. :thumbsup: Not only are the prices great but because of the high turnover of stock...the food is always fresh. The return policy is second to non...no questions asked. I have a Costco AMEX card...which means I have a 3 year guarantee on all electronics at no extra cost. The AMEX card also gives me an annual cash bonus...which I cashed yesterday.

I have shopped at Costco in the US/Canada/UK. All the stores I have been into have been pretty similar in layout and products.

When I first moved to the US it took me a while to bring myself into paying a membership fee to shop somewhere. Now I'm hooked.

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Yes, the stores are similar.
And they have beer and wine.
UK ones have better football stuff and no ice hockey, now there's a surprise.

Your card is valid internationally so you can go into any Costco. I went to ON ones before UK ones.
No wine or beer in Ontario.

I too use the American express card here. Only way to shop!!

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Most of the stores here in New Jersey are not allowed to sell alcohol...that probably applies to many other US states.

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Almost identical........even the placement of the products within the store..... a lot more choice of alcohol products in the UK ones (of course)

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You can also buy from Costco online and get stuff delivered.

http://www.costco.ca/

:)

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Oh wowie, I'm so glad that I'm not in this fan club on my own! Costco, were an unknown to me prior to arrival here. My next door neighbour gave me a minor sneer, the other day, and said "Oh, we don't have a Costco card'! I think my son would say she 'dissed' me!

My thoughts on my shopping habits came about as I was 'polled' yet again about my shopping preferences by some market research company, that didn't want to flog me anything, last night. I've answered questions on health, home economy and politics in the last few months. It seems to be something to do with the Government, and they tell me that my responses represent 1,000 Canadian nationals, which is a terrifying thought:confused: I'm never sure on more than an hourly basis that my thoughts are representative of me.

Costco with alcohol sounds a winning combination :amen: we DO have wine kits here though!

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and no HST on them as they are classified as food :thumbup:

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I bought a memory foam mattress from Costco.ca. Slept in it once and didn't like it...so I called them and they arranged to have it collected FOC from our condo in Toronto. I asked they guy what happened to items like that....are they donated etc...he said they were destroyed.

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I hate Costco with a passion, its a miserable experience. There's no windows for a start and there’s so much stuff there, piled so high you need a ladder to get some of the stuff. And there’s all those gluttonous people with smug looks on their faces filling with those massive shopping carts with five-year supplies of paper towels or artificial sweetener to stuff in their excessively large houses. Then the worst bit is the check out, No proper lines, snarling people pushing carts into each other giving people evils. Then there’s that little bloke by the door that makes you wait while he pretends to count all your stuff in your cart to make sure you haven’t knicked any of it. The whole things a nightmare. I wonder if they've got a Costco in Sudan?

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We go there for our Sunday lunch tasting all the food samples multiple times.

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Hi all,

How much does it cost to join Costco in Canada (if that is the correct terminology)? We had a card over here in the UK, but let it expire as we didn't use it that much. I think it cost £50 if memory serves me right!

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$55 for normal membership........ but be warned ...if you buy it you will be mithered every time you go to upgrade to an executive membership.......:)

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Ta very much :)

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We have exec membership...get a nice refund cheque each year. Last time my membership was up for renewal I received a letter saying it was free and that they appreciated my custom.


I bloody love Costco I do. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Re: Costco
 

We have exec. membership and the AMEX membership card, rebates pay for extra stuff and membership fee, so it costs nothing to belong.

Not everything is good (most is though) and not everything is cheaper, but if you know what you are buying and don't get tempted to impulse purchase, it is a good place to shop.

Bulk buy when on discount and savings can be 20 - 30%, well worth bulk buying everyday supplies that don't go off. Took a while to get used to buying 192 toilet rolls at a time!

Returns policy and service is exceptional.

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I dont mind Costco but not really useful for single folks so I hardly ever go and only go when someone I know with a membership is going, never joined myself.

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Went to Costco once and got scared off by the 5kg blocks of cheese ! Not keen on the whole bulk buying thing.

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A slice of onion and some buttered bread, perfect sandwich.

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On Costco bread roll and with a Costco onion maybe! Land of the giants! :D

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That's another thing, all those people dressed in strechy clothing snaffling up all the free samples or wolfing down those horrible cheap hotdogs that stink, its disgusting.

The only reason I go is to curtail HID from spending too much money and coming home with half zebra or a six gallon bucket of tube socks.

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I like the fact that their trolleys are super sized so that you can fit two pesky kids in the seats at the same time. Coupled with timing the free samples perfectly, you can have a semi-enjoyable shopping experience with two small children tagging along...

...as long as you keep them in the trolley and the queue isn't too crazy that is!

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I like a nice trip round there as I usually bump into someone I know, such is thecstate of my social life.

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What kind of things do they offer as free samples?

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Chav food.

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Dear Lord, you don't want to be in the Costco in Markham when a free food booth opens, it's like being on the gangplank for an Air China flight. You're trampled by a stampede of yittering midgets.

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I think I get the picture. I can't understand timing one's shopping around some dodgy in-store food samples. Surely a sitdown food court or McDonalds would be preferable to that.

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:rofl:

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Now the Urban Fare does a promotion near Christmas where they have some really nice treats to sample plus wine. Makes a nice stop on the way home from work.

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So you're not against the freebie food, simply biased on quality and (ahem) fellow patrons.

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You can imply what you want, but there is a difference between eating canapés and drinking wine in a nice shop and stuffing your face with chav bits in a dirty and cold warehouse.

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Oh yes - Bosa is fantastic for samples at Chrimbo ! Plus daughter now has job there whilst doing Uni - discount :)

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Thats good to know. :thumbup:

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Can't say that I disagree.

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Used to be like that in Waitrose at Swiss Cottage. They had to vary the times of the markdowns to save t,he spotty youths who worked there from being trampled .

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+1

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Agree with pretty much all of that plus the fact that for some reason here people seem to shop Costco in groups of bloody 10 - Turn do go down an aisle and you have a wall of people all with carts and kids heading towards you looking for the next freebie like a bunch of savages .

Saying that there is still stuff I like in there so i tend to pick a Monday morning at opening time , grab my tenderloin and chicken breasts and piss off pretty sharpish before the hoardes get in :thumbup:

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CostCo is pretty awesome, got a membership about a month ago. It is weird having to pay to shop somewhere, the idea itself seems kind of silly, but the membership has paid for itself already in terms of cost savings. There are some things to watch out for, the "Born 3" eggs, despite the name, are not free run/range, and a lot of CostCo's products are processed foods so you have to shop smart not to eat a bunch of chemicals. However I love their Garden Burgers and their frozen produce is very good too. The popular brands of almost every product is available there in bulk at a discount, including obscure stuff like active contact lens solution.

We now always get gas at the CostCo in Bellingham, WA which last time saved me $20 compared to Canadian gas prices. Also got a 24 pack of Corona beer bottles for $24 at the U.S. one, can't really complain about a dollar a beer!

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Its a sad indictment that the best quality and cheapest price of supermarket type meat is at a warehouse. They do have a rather nice tray of fresh chicken wings that have some sort of spicy rub on them. They're good if you're ever in the unfortunate situation where you have to have some cradles come round to watch a sporting event.

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Free run is also different to free range.