Haven't read the piece yet, but I definitely will - for a long time I would like to understand why people are so enamored with Costco. I recently joined because they have some good food that is hard or more expensive to find elsewhere, but that's about it. To me it's just a store. Outside of the US/Canada I've never seen people evangelize a store so much.
Costco is generally clean, Costco doesn't have the corporate reputation for extreme exploitation of their workers that Walmart does, Costco's store brand is actually decent, there appears to be no overt cost-cutting in store operations, and for me the big deal was that Costco was the only place around here that attempted to actually enforce mask mandates after you were inside the store. I saw one lady getting escorted out for taking her mask off and starting a fight when asked to put it back on; She screamed "I'LL NEVER SHOP HERE AGAIN!" and the employee escorting her out said matter-of-factly "Yes, that's what trespass means."
In short, they give the appearance of doing ask if the things a business should be doing in line with the intent of the law, as opposed to just doing the bare minimum to the letter of the law, and doing what you are supposed to do is so rare as to be considered exceptional.
That depends, are you the health inspector? But yeah, unless you live in an area where the average home is 400k+ and the average car is a Mercedes your local grocery stores will be "grimey". Not really dirty, but staffed by people who (rightfully) aren't paid enough to care. By comparison Costco is basically sterile.
You're saying that people who work in grocery stores don't care about their job performance, because their level of pay is guaranteed by workers in other industries being productive? That's a cynical thought.
By the way, where I'm from (EU), cleanliness is definitely the norm for grocery stores.
Come on. I’ve been to many, many small grocery stores in Western Europe.
Some had obviously old/dirty fixtures, signage, and floors, some had newer cleaner looking equipment. The average in Europe was much, much “dirtier” than Americans on average will put up with.
“Dirty” in this context means not-new-looking.
I’d much rather not pay for someone to replace things that are perfectly functional.
But many consumers (especially Americans) prefer extremely well lit, very new looking equipment.
So I think you may have this exactly wrong. Europe has much dirtier stores, because it doesn’t value cosmetic polish as much as health and cost savings.
US grocery stores in general seem no less clean than western European grocery stores from my limited experience. I don't know what the parent poster is talking about -- even Walmarts in the bad parts of town seldom seem conspicuously "dirty".
> I would like to understand why people are so enamored with Costco
The first thing someone told me when I got to the US was to go to Costco, pay the membership and get an AMEX charge card for Costco.
If you are someone with zero credit history and want to buy groceries without having cash on you all the time, then Costco is a big part of the "welcome to America" package.
What Costco lacks in variety, it made up in quality and quantity (no, that's not a choice). The food is good, most things are sold at cost, gas is cheaper, diapers are cheaper ... everything with a Kirkland label is middle-of-the-curve good.
So Costco runs become a regular thing. Before you know it, it is like church - go there, show your membership and eat the wafers.
Not quite a religion, but something you still proselytize.
Maybe yours does something different, or it's an AmEx branded debit card, or you're not in the US and they do something different abroad, but no Costco I've been to since the switch has accepted any credit card that isn't a Visa.
New Zealand is getting our first store in a couple of months and people are obsessed with it. Stories in the media nearly every week. Long queues for membership.
A lot of this is because the local Supermarket Duopoly avoids competing on price and makes great profits. People are looking forward to cutting their costs and also a flow-on as the supermarkets cut their prices a little to compete.
Similar to IKEA which is a year or so away. Easy to take for granted when you have it but the alternative is paying a lot more for similar to worse quality.
It would be fascinating to be part of that team at Costco or IKEA planning to open a new store in a new country. On top of the challenges you can think of, there must be aspects of running the business that you take for granted in your home country and don’t realize will be a challenge in the new country.
> On top of the challenges you can think of, there must be aspects of running the business that you take for granted in your home country and don’t realize will be a challenge in the new country.
New Zealand has an educated, English speaking workforce, uses the English common law and actually has rule of law. They know how to do this. IKEA has stores in Vietnam, where all of those are much less true. They’re not going to learn much about international expansion they don’t know already. This is very different from a Canadian company opening up in the US, or a French one in Belgium. IKEA, and I presume Costco know how to do this already.
You hire people from the new market who do know those quirks. Or, you can be like McDonald's and most fast food/QSR companies, and simply license your name to "master franchisees" in those markets.
I would guess that island conditions naturally lead to (at least tacit) price collusion, such that the entry of a multinational might not lead to prices going down. (In the US, the classic case is White vs. Packer, about gas prices in Martha's Vineyard.) IKEA prices vary a lot between countries. https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/latest/121925681/no...
> I would like to understand why people are so enamored with Costco
I’ve been going to Costco since it was Price Club in the 1980s. I can explain why people love it. There’s an aura of mystery to the shopping experience because of the philosophy behind the layout. They basically want you to shop around the whole store because nothing is ever in the same place and product longevity beyond basic consumer staples is unheard of. In other words, it is unlikely the special product you find one week will be there the next. This kind of unpredictability goes against the grain of the reliability built into the shopping experience, and it’s what I find so attractive about it. Not only will you be exposed to something new and different, but you’ll have to settle for an entirely different product than the one you planned on buying because of the surprise factor at work. Obviously, this consumer approach won’t work for everyone, especially those who stubbornly buy the same thing every week or month.
When I worked a summer at BJ's (a similar wholesale club) the manager informed me that this was by design. I was asking why we needed to move all the stuff, if we were discontinuing or something. He said nope, we just have to do this every now and then because it keeps people shopping longer. There may be an added "experience" element to it as well, but this was an eye opener to me as a teen.
For me, it’s a modern equivalent of the soviet stores. There is no 10 kinds of everything, but the ones available are guaranteed to be fairly good quality and at an affordable price.
Speaking more modern, it saves the mental effort of researching choices. Need something? Check Costco, buy if there, done.
Of course there are negatives associated with them, too.
> soviet stores. (...) but the ones available are guaranteed to be fairly good quality and at an affordable price
Must be different soviets that I lived in. The quality was often terrible (e.g. "chocolate" that did not contain cocoa at all, ugly clothes and shoes that would break down quickly, beer that tasted like piss etc.) and that is assuming the goods were in the store at all. Basic western goods, such as Levi jeans or can of Coca-Cola were celebrated as artifacts of an alien, infinitely more advanced civilization.
At least with chocolate, during communist times in Poland AFAIK if someone was packaged as "chocolate" it had to be chocolate - it was "chocolate-like product" that you had to be wary of which was closer to american "chocolate"[1]
[1] I jest, I jest, but what is legal to be in store-bought chocolate in USA, based on things I actually ended up getting while visiting, was literally one of the ways communist poland cut chocolate to make "chocolate-like product" :V
Yeah, Costco has OK selection and OK/good prices. The downside for groceries is the bulk sizing can be much more than you want to buy.
Their return policy is also very good. Obviously do not abuse this (or you are being a jerk). This means you can buy things without hesitation since you can easily return it should you run into an issue later.
> soviet stores. There is no 10 kinds of everything, but the ones available are guaranteed to be fairly good quality
According to people from the former soviet block I know, the reason they got so good at fixing stuff is because the first thing they did after buying an appliance from a store (after it became available eventually) was fixing it because nothing ever worked as expected. I guess "nothing" is an overstatement but I still wouldn't use the soviet union as an example for great product quality.
I feel like that was generally a property of everything everywhere though. I still remember sticking a fork into my VCR (probably made in USA?) or basically every car having something wrong with it.
Things have gotten more reliable across the board imo.
PriceSmart, (Costco's Latin American cousin), does something similar too.
They research/test the products before selling them so that they comply with their quality standards. So once products are on the shelves its likely that they are good.
This make buying decisions easier. Which is a much better shopping experience than having to read a dozen product reviews while shopping online.
> the ones available are guaranteed to be fairly good quality and at an affordable price
I bought into the hype and got a Costco membership a few years back. One of the first things I went looking for was whole bean coffee (Peet's xmas roast). The local Costco had a bunch of coffee from Starbucks and Peets (meh quality to start) but only the painfully dark roasts and all of it was ground. Pre-ground coffee in bulk has a pretty limited use case (and relatively short shelf life).
Fast forward to last week and I went looking for a new fridge at Costco dot com. They prominently featured LG (ugh) and Samsung refrigerators. While some LG models seem to review pretty well I've never seen anyone say anything positive about Samsung, their service, or the serviceability of their appliances. I'm in the middle of dealing with a defective LG fridge and that's about the nicest thing I can say about LG's warranty and customer support.
Costco may have a permissive return policy and decent customer support but I would never blindly buy something without doing a bit of research just because it's at Costco. Especially with a big ticket item like a fridge I'd rather use my Amex anyhow.
> I've never seen anyone say anything positive about Samsung, their service, or the serviceability of their appliances
I have all Samsung appliances at my home. They are the best appliances I have ever owned. I can't speak to their service because I have never had a single issue with any of them.
> I have all Samsung appliances at my home. They are the best appliances I have ever owned.
Congrats. I think you're in a minority. Our washing machine 'fabric softener' compartment started rusting less than a year after getting it. We had a long time and many back and forths trying to get them to acknowledge the problem. Their 'fix' initially was "don't use that". Finally - months later - they agreed to have someone come fix it, but it was going to be hundreds of dollars because we were "out of warranty". "But... we reported this to you with months left in the warranty period". "Well, tough luck" was basically the response.
My wife kept persisting - this dragged on for months - and eventually got some service rep to 'cover' this and a service guy came out. "Oh this is common - see this a lot with Samsungs in the last few years".
Relatedly, we had a dryer guy come out to fix the Samsung dryer. He indicated Samsung and LG were among the worst consumer-level brands for home appliances, based on their workload as service techs. But Samsung and LG have gigantic foot prints in the major retail outlets, so continue to get sold in to many households.
I've heard enough stories from friends and family about samsung fridges and washing machines dying shortly after their warranty and Samsung wanting crazy money to fix them. Also a friend who bought their top of the line "frame" TV and returned it within a week because the TV had stutter when watching live TV and there is an 800-pages long forum thread about it on their forums, with Samsung basically replying "we're aware of this issue and we aren't planning on fixing it".
On the other hand I have their phone(S21) and I'm very happy with it.
My experience is the big ticket items are all fine products at normal prices, but there's no reason to pick Costco for them. I suspect it's where they make a lot of their profit, considering their groceries are famously low margin. I buy groceries and gas exclusively there.
Here in UK the #1 reason to get them from Costco is that they give 5 years warranty on all electronics and home appliances, way beyond what the manufacturer offers. I'd happily buy a new TV or a fridge from them for that reason alone.
I strongly suspect it's the extra services that third parties sell through them. Like the vacation packages, air conditioning installation, etc. We almost got a Puronics filter through them, but stopped short when we found out that it was $9000 at Costco, but $6000 through an independent installer.
Costco.com is where to look for coffee and other foodstuffs. You may have to buy the coffee in 5 lb bags, but the selection is superior and the quality is generally very good.
Looks about the same to me. They have Peets Nespresso cups, K-cups, bags of ground coffee, and whole beans (conveniently filed under "ground coffee"). K-Cups are offered in hazelnut mocha (yikes), house, french roast, maj. dickason, and decaf maj. dickason. The ground beans are available in Colombian, Big Bang, Decaf Maj. Dickason (+ decaf), and Organic Alameda Morning.
Whole bean? Just Major Dicakson in various quantities.
You could make an argument that the disposable cups will have a decent shelf life. 10 ounce bags of grounds won't though – that's kind of the antithesis of quality right there.
Your store(s) must have better coffee selections than the ones I frequent. Ruta Maya, Mayorga, some Kirkland varieties and others are much better than what I can get locally and only available to me online.
Lidl, at least in most places, doesn't run bulk stores like Costco apparently is.
There are some bulk stores with memberships, some of them limited to B2B sales, some accepting normal people as customers - places like MAKRO and Selgross - but they obviously are mainly a warehouse supplier for shops and companies.
I don't know how Lidl is in terms of selection in other countries, but especially with smaller stores the joke is that "every week something new" which refers more to somewhat random selection, and they tend to have lesser known brands (which, while not necessarily a bad thing, isn't also a sign of quality, and sometimes you really like the specific brand). Personally when I shopped more at Lidl (had one opposite of office), I compared the selection to "what recently fell of the truck and will stay till it's all sold"
It is always interesting to read how different such brands are perceived in different countries. Over here in Germany, Lidl is considered "the better discount store" as compared to Aldi (especially Aldi Nord), and has made a push to more high-level products (which often are better than name-brand stuff that they also carry).
When I talk to British friends, the idea of shopping at a Lidl seems to be sacrilegious to them. Still, when I went into one somewhere in Yorkshire before the plague, it was pretty much what I expected.
We got a Lidl near us - one of the first when they were planning their US East Coast invasion. Apparently, they're scaling back new stores, and ours is one of a handful of 'large' footprint stores, and almost everything after that is (or will be) probably half the size.
We love Lidl mostly because of the price. Almost everything was/is around 20-30% less than the stores around it. Much of this is from 'store brand' items, but the price diff is lower even against other 'store brand' pricing.
When they opened, they had a wider variety of items, including a wide variety of daily baked breads. That got scaled back a lot, as apparently there's not enough support/demand in this area for fresh breads outside of 'white'.
There's a weird circle of grocery stores that have sprung up in my area. Within a 3 mile radius, there's Target, Walmart, Lidl, Aldi, Wegmans, Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Publix and Lowe's (2?). It seems excessive to me, but the area is growing, and they likely wouldn't have invested in this area without a strong expectation of not losing money.
There's still a Lidl stigma around here. Many folks I talk to think of it as some 'poor person' shop.
Hm. For me it is about choice. The sortiment is just limited. In Germany there is also the "Luxus-Lidl" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaufland but they are just so-so. Nothing special, in comparison to what else is available.
The US stigma is interesting, because Lidl stocks more high quality goods than many other stores. E.g. the jelly is from Germany, the chocolate is inexpensive yet fair trade.
I don’t know if I eat cheaper at Lidl but I eat better. The cheese and meat sections alone - I have probably twice as many charcuterie boards now that a Lidl moved in.
I suspect it's precisely because most of those 'better' items aren't 'name brand' items. "fair trade chocolate bars" - regardless of quality - may not sell to a population raised (for generations) on hershey bars.
IMO Aldi-Nord vs. Lidl aren't that different, though it also depends on the location of the store. For instance, a Lidl embedded in a larger station has a wider range of frozen and cooled foods, or more variety of the same stuff, say pizza, or yoghurt, but almost none, (or none at all?) of that ever changing non-food action stuff. While the standard layout, freestanding Lidl has less of that, or is almost always out of the stuff I prefer.
Aldi-Nord isn't that different, I'd say, at least not when free standing, in their standard layout. The only difference is the glaring white LED lighting they have. That is bRrRr!
Oh, and their electronic payment works fast.
Had to use that recently for the first time in my life because I thought I had more cash on me. Wave card, enter pin, ZAHLUNG ERFOLGT! Phew!
(Yah Yah, I caved in, I know...)
edit: Aldi-Nord has better spices, though not all the times.
Their Tandoori-mixture is very good, at least compared to the dozens of others I've tried. (In those small 80g aluminum cans) Ginger powder is also acceptable for me.
However, most of the times I just skip them, because I have 2 excellently managed Edekas available, and they have it all!
Plenty of good points made already - gas is cheap, products are good - but what keeps me a Costco shopper is the consistent and frequent stories about them being a genuinely good employer. Maybe because I've spent my career in retail IT, but I hear all the time about how good of a place Costco is to work. Staff turnover is low, wages are good, and they close for most holidays. I may not need 48 AA batteries often, but when I do, I'd rather buy them at Costco.
I was totally unaware of that. Thank you for pointing it out.
I assumed Costco had shitty employee treatment like other large chains. Its sad that this has become the default we have come to expect from stores and not even think about it.
I was a member for 2 years, although outside of the US.
The store is mostly US/UK/Australian imports of questionable quality, prices far higher than local goods (which is to be expected when shipped long distance for one specific chain), and questionable desirability (e.g. sauces not used much in local cuisine, of far lower quality than local brands, in containers far larger while also more expensive per gram). Products Americans would want from home are also almost non-existent. So it caters to nobody.
I think it had a lot of novelty at first since it's a very "American" thing and kind of a fun trip, but I'm not sure of the longterm viability. There's only so much you can do with a store that sells oversized budget-brand ketchup at luxury prices and stale jars of nuts.
Never visited while I was living in the US, but I doubt it could beat Winco. Bulk, low prices, often local, and no BS membership fees.
You are right that at the end of day it is just a store. I know many people who keep renewing Costco membership every year but goes like once or twice a year. I on the other end is in same category that author describes. Even for gallon of milk I'd prefer going Costco and if there is more than one item it is not even a question.
To me most basic thing would be great quality at that price level that I guess everyone else is also looking for. At deeper level by reducing choice it sets a familiar pattern of food I eat on daily/weekly/monthly basis. Or for clothes just like people wear brands and proud to announce it. For me it is I do not wear brands and similarly proud of the fact.
It you eat the food they offer you can definitely get it at a better price. Furthermore Costco demands a higher quality for certain products. I don’t have the source on that but read somewhere once that say the can of soup you get at a regular grocery store then compare it to Costco they have better ingredients things like higher protein for example. I also know things like protein powder were the same price but much larger at Costco. Meat is much better quality and cheaper. Their return policy is hassle free. Probably a lot more I could say about Costco.
I see a few stores have their evangelists, but TJ's are the most evangelical IME. Other places that seem to have their cults are Menard's and Buc-ees. I've never been to a Menards, living in the southern US, but I get the love for all the others.
The simplest answer to this is Kirkland Signature. It's a very genius idea that Amazon is starting to copy now with AmazonBasics, but Costco has been doing it for years.
TL;DR: If you buy something like Grey Goose vodka, it's going to be the same product as the Kirkland Signature version on the shelf next to it. It is often literally from the same factory. Costco AND Grey Goose make more money by being able to sell to multiple market segments.
Read that article. It's genius and one of the many reasons I love shop at Costco.
Store brands (private label brands owned by the retailer) have been around forever and are not a Costco innovation. Every US grocery store and most big box stores sell them.
