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.

I love Costco. 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.

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!!

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

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

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

http://www.costco.ca/

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 I'm never sure on more than an hourly basis that my thoughts are representative of me.

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

and no HST on them as they are classified as food

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.

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?

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

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!

$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.......

Ta very much

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.