Uh, ,what? Is Walmart now safer than Costco?!
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To add fuel, within 30 minutes of calling in an order to Costco yesterday, I got an email asking about a suspicious charge. It was an invalid charge at a Kroger, 200 miles away, for $150. I canāt prove it was directly related to the Costco purchase, but the only other use in the last week was funding a CD last week.
Thatās interesting. If itās a Kroger than that usually means a physical card, isnāt it? I do know that Kroger do delivery now thoughā¦
Now that you mention it, I had to check. Since we no longer have access to a Kroger, I checked their website. Lo and behold, it appears that you can buy gift cards online, and get 4x fuel points. Progress, or something masquerading as progress, marches on.
I canāt take crowds so havenāt been to a Costco in years. They did just build another one close but I go to BJās. As mentioned earlier in this thread, 3% cash back (to be used as a credit at the store). There is hardly ever a line as they have self serving kiosks. I know what I want and get the same things. Things are rarely moved. Gas is pretty cheap but the local Wawa (theyāve invaded Florida) is about the same price sometimes. I do get it .10 cheaper with the BJās card instead of getting .05 back on the Penfed card at Wawa but itās good enough. I eat a lot of bison which is definitely cheaper than anywhere else. I donāt care how cheap Walmart is I wonāt enter that place. Itās a national embarrassment.
I will say I was in the trucking business for a while. Costco is known for having the highest quality control requirements. Bjās fruit isnāt as good but the blueberries are cheap (I eat them everyday) and some other things. Other than that I have Publix which isnāt bad but I feel my Bjās membership is definitely worth it. Itās only July and I already have redeemed more in cash back than the cost of the membership. Again also I know what I want and I very rarely deviate and buy things I donāt need. Worth it to me as itās close too.
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Costco opens in China. Theyāre waiting 3 hours just to get into the parking lot. We should consider ourselves lucky! Costco cuts short China debut after shoppers swamp store
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That is weird to me. With the Chicomās one child policy, they do not have large families. If they buy for their extended family, how are they going to share the gigantic bottles of katchup or mayo or the other jumbo Costco packages?
I suppose if they have their in-laws living with them they could make it work. But the press release said Costco was targeting the middle class, who probably do not have to share apartments??
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Sooner or later, the Chinese will figure out Costco membership is not worth it. Did you see the pictures? Itās a bunch of people pushing around giant, empty carts! Imagine the traffic and futility. Oh waitā¦
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Yep, no one will go there anymore because itās too crowded.
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They actually have different size products in other Costco markets. For example, rather than the standard 2 gallon milk containers, in Taiwan they have 2.5 L containers for sale. The coffee containers are the same (3 pounds, which is my most purchased item since I run the office coffee club) but things are tailored.
So, milk is sold in metric units but coffee isnāt? WTH is going on over there??
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I find the BJās produce horrible. I only buy milk gallons and fat free creamer there. Plus alum foil and a few other things. I joined for the 90 day free coupon and they extended it for another year for 25.00. But with crappy produceā¦its a waste. I know this is a costco discā¦but none near me ā¦soā¦Iceberg lettuce is cheap but had to return 2 headsā¦ rotten inside that you can not seeā¦5 lb bag of delicious applesā¦1/2 rotten. microwave pot bagā¦went bad after 4 daysā¦mold. returned it. I steer clear of produce dept. Blueberries are higher then Shoprite. Gallon of fat free milk is 2.03 at BJā¦ Stores and Walmart are 2.88. upstate NY.
Never go to Costco on a weekend! A week day is essential.
There are some items that I only buy at Costco. Bacon, cheese (they have the best assortment anywhere), broiled chickens, toilet tissue, & they have the best sour dough bread in town (but you have to buy 2 loves in a pak). I usually only cross town to go to Costco once a month or so.
I probably wouldnāt even bother except my son gave me a free card through his business.
At our location, they also do French sticks well. We usually only go once a quarter, and I pick up a dozen loaves. They freeze very well.
We eat whole wheat bread and here in Silicon Valley, CA our goto place is Safeway. Their store brand is excellent quality and lower price than other places including Costco.
Plus you only have to buy one loaf so it does not go stale.
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They say confession is good for the soul so here goes. Que Jimmy Swaggart crying face video.
So I read about the Groupon rebate for Costco membership offer.
https://www.groupon.com/deals/costco-membership-2019
It was an epic battle between my sane, green eyeshade, financial side and my insane, bargain hunting, blood lust. Unfortunately the second side won.
As always with moral failings, I can rationalize it. They give you a $25.00 gift card and also some coupons. I checked and the coupons are for stuff that I actually buy. If you count them all it comes up to about nothing paid for the membership.
An additional factor is that I convinced my family to drop their memberships so I donāt have a way to buy gift cards anymore. As I mentioned up thread, we buy with gift cards and our hobby is shopping.
We do like their TP and sardines when they are on sale. Their rotisserie chicken is OK when we go there but it is so salty that it probably is not healthy but what the hey.
So thatās my story and Iām sticking to it.
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Stopped by Costco in Iceland earlier this month. (US membership is accepted).
299 ISK (~$2.50) hot dog combo hard to beat, especially with Iceland food prices. (Gas station burger is ~2000 ISK, $15+).
Costco food court there also has Gelato in a waffle cone instead of soft serve, I think for 799 ISK. (Probably 6-8oz of gelato).
Not much bulk food makes sense for vacation, but picked up a couple packages snacks at the beginning of the trip, then just stopped at the food court again before leaving a week later.
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Cue
This is the way to do it. Iām currently rocking a better-than-free Samās Club membership through Groupon. Since I effectively didnāt pay anything for it I donāt feel obligated to use it. Itās great for the occasional deal while I have it but I wonāt feel like Iām missing anything when it expires.
LOL, welcome to the grammar nazis. I am usually one and my only excuse is that I used Windows Speech recognition to dictate the post. This reminds me of the saying that there is no drive more fundamental than the urge to edit someone elseās copy.
Also my thinking. Unfortunately my state of CA is hostile to Walmart (not unionized you know) so we are lucky to have a Walmart store nearby but the nearest Samās Club is hundreds of miles away.
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āQueā means āwhatā in Spanish. It has nothing to do with grammar.
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