Costco has better quality meat than the grocery stores -- although I don't find their prime grade meats to be significantly better than the choice cuts. The vegetables and fruits are high quality too, but I live with enough people to make it worthwhile.

I live across the street from a grocery store. Over the last 30 years, I've seen it transformed from a slightly upscale supermarket to a glorified mini-market. After every remodeling or floor space expansion, the selection and service would get a little worse. Now that Albertsons bought all of the supermarkets in the area they've significantly cut the quality in the last bastions of why I would shop there at all -- produce and bakery. They do have a large enough alcohol section that I get to see shoplifters running out of the store all the time.

So now I'm driving ten miles to Costco to get quality ingredients when I live across the street from a supermarket. The clerks read their script, "Did you find everything you need?" and I respond, "Well, I didn't find X and Y." Their response: "Oh." And people wonder why they're all losing ground to big box stores.

In retail you can compete on service, selection, and/or prices. Fry's Electronics chose the last two, but were undercut on both by Amazon. Local supermarkets seem to have yielded on all three to Costco which is freaking crazy.