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Comment by projektfu | Hacker News Reader

I disagree here. Costco is now often trading on its reputation for getting you a bulk discount, but when you compare them to Aldi, or even to a larger supermarket, you're often getting things in large quantity for the same price or more than you'd pay in small quantity. This is especially true for things like cheese. Meanwhile, you're giving up the opportunity to get a superior product. In the cheese example, Costco stocks Belgioioso mozzarella, which to me is about store-brand quality. Popular because it doesn't taste like cheese. For a decent price, you can buy much better mozzarella which has some flavor. And you don't have to buy 3 lbs at a time.

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Costco is seldom cheapest, but you can be confident that it will at least be competitive and they only sell quality products.

If you enjoy shopping around and comparing pricing, it's not the best option. But if you just want to buy a product and know you won't be ripped off, you can shop there and never have to think about it. That allows people who don't enjoy shopping to save a lot of time and mental energy.

> Costco is seldom cheapest, but you can be confident that it will at least be competitive and they only sell quality products.

I've run into plenty of counterexamples to the last claim.

Same here, on occasion, but I've found they typically make you whole when you get a dud.

Good example:

I bought two collapsible milk crates. They loaded all my groceries into them in the store.

When I got home and lifted the first crate out of the car, it had too much weight inside, the bottom fell out and two bottles of wine shattered.

I told them the story when returning the crate two weeks later, they waved me off when I said I had a pic, told me it wasn’t necessary, and refunded the wine without being prompted.

Trying to get wine refunded with most other retailer would probably require talking to a manager and making a scene.

Which is where their return policy comes in. I've used it extensively

I was doing price comparison just yesterday and was pretty disappointed in what I found for Costco prices. I thought they were better.

Kerrygold butter is cheaper at Walmart.

Organic chicken stock is cheaper at Whole Foods.

Organic diced tomatoes at Costco however are very well priced.

I shop at Costco despite the prices, because I like their ethos of treating employees well and business model that makes me feel like they wouldn’t cut unnecessary corners on product quality.

Since this is an item I get regularly - it’s $9 for a 4-pack of Kerrygold butter at the Mountain View Costco ($2.25/ 8oz bar). Same 8oz butter is almost double at Safeway or Whole Foods. The local Walmart is $2.83 per bar.

I have rarely found Costco items more expensive than other local stores, at least for my regular items.

I discount Trader Joe’s since they don’t carry branded items other than wine and beer.

That's weird, it's $11.49 in NH for the same thing at Costco. :(

And 2.50/bar at Walmart here

(What I actually buy now is the French cultured butter from trader Joe's though, which is v good)

Second on TJs butter. For quality to value ratio of most foods, TJs blows Costso out of the water imo, and you don't have to buy cheese in 3 lb blocks.

I discount Trader Joe’s since they don’t carry branded items other than wine and beer.

They carry a variety of branded items including Kerrygold, Tilamook, Rouge et Noir (Bay Area cheese maker), those kringles, Spindrift, Columbus (lunchmeat), those organic herbs, and Tom's of Maine (hygiene). There's probably a few more.

It's funny that you mention Rouge et Noir; I think they've been re-branded to "Marin French Cheese". I miss the old name.

That is depressingly cheap Kerrygold. I live in ireland (the home of Kerrygold), and it cost me 3.75 euro to get one of those packs today :(

On the bright side, the no-name brand butter is almost as good here, so it's not a total wash.

> Organic chicken stock is cheaper at Whole Foods.

If you buy Better than Bouillon at Costco, you can get a pound of the stuff for about $6, which is double the quantity that you find at most other grocery stores.

I stopped buying liquid stock after I found that stuff, because it's so much cheaper.

And so much easier to store! I've also given up on liquid - you cannot taste the difference.

That stuff is way too salty though with a pretty thin flavor profile. You can at least find liquid stocks with no sodium so you can add a lot of flavor and then salt to taste. Even their reduced sodium version is too salty. Liquid no sodium stocks still aren’t awesome either but I think it’s better overall than the Better than Boulion options.

Yes, but to get those things, I'd have to make three stops, or I can make one stop and pay marginally more.

So given a choice of shopping at Costco who pays the highest wages and benefits vs. Walmart who has the lowest wages and benefits, I will pay that small extra for the butter.

I've been getting a lot of stuff at Home Depot and Lowe's recently, and finding that they each have different products for everything, and which one is obviously better/cheaper varies on an extremely granular level - not just a manufacturer or product type, but an individual product. It's gotten really frustrating that every time I want three or four things I have to go to both or I will regret my choices.

I believe this is a general phenomenon and I read years ago about someone studying it in grocery stores. I'm not sure to what extent it is emergent vs. rationally thought out, but direct competitors tend to evolve to give you just enough good options to get you in the store, and as many bad deals as you are likely to go with just because you are in the store. Being uniformly better is not necessary to compete and therefore suboptimal.

It depends on the Costcos, Walmarts, and Whole Foods in your area.

In LA, Costco isn't always the cheapest on a per-unit basis, but they're always the cheapest on a per weight/per ounce basis.

For example, Kerrygold butter is $5 at the Ralphs, and the same size container is $8 at the nearest Whole Foods. It's $16 at Costco...but for 4x the amount of butter, making it cheaper than both Ralphs and Whole Foods if you can actually use all that butter. (There are no nearby Walmarts, and neither of the local Targets or Food4Less' sell Kerrygold.)

The problem with costco is bulk buying. I feel like someone should start a buyers club or something online.

That mostly feels like a myth to me?

It’s not that bulk. Chips come in bigger bags - use a clip. Bread comes two loaves, freeze one. It’s very rare I see something but it’s an unusable quantity for a family of four.

Now that said, when I lived in a tiny apartment getting 36 rolls of toilet paper at once was annoying, but I made it work.

I mean, you get like 16 packs of chicken.. 3 boxes of cereal, a crate of pears, 3 things of hummus... yes you can make it work but still it’s a lot.

There are the buckets of soy sauce that seem targeted to the “restaurant supply” sector.

If you don't run a restaurant there are also just bottles of soy sauce.

Put chips in the freezer. It pumps the water vapor out.

Are single and childless people a myth to you? A lot of people are part of households that have substantially fewer than four members.

Also, frozen bread is an indignity that no one should have to suffer. Unless you are very very poor just pay the extra dollar and eat fresh bread.

The trick is letting it warm up to room temperature slowly to let the moisture it lost from freezing return. I mostly just toast my bread and I honestly can't tell a difference between thawed and fresh bread.

Most things are OK to buy in bulk from Costco or elsewhere: flour, rice and other grains (quinoa, lentils), oil, cheese, toilet paper and paper towels, potatoes and onions, frozen veggies and other frozen foods, coffee beans, tea, yeast and other baking ingredients. Eggs are good for at least 2 weeks after their sell-by date and even without that, it's easy to get through 2 dozen eggs in 3 weeks. Dry pet food, treats, and regular pet medication (e.g. heartworm, flea protection) don't expire before they are used and far cheaper than elsewhere. Beer is good for months, wine and liquor for years.

Large families (4+ people) can easily get through Costco sized bread, milk, cereal, snacks, fruit, meat and veggies before it goes bad.

For a single or 2 person household, pretty much the only things from Costco that it doesn't make sense to buy are fresh produce, meat, and seafood, and bread.

I got a vacuum sealer and happily buy steaks and freeze a few.

Costco often as Prime beef that's ~$18/Lb. Whole Foods for USDA Prime is often $30+.

Like another person pointed out, a vacuum sealer and a freezer are your best friend with Costco meat. For a family of 5 it makes buying quality meat a bargain. 1 or 2 days in the fridge to thaw and you can’t even tell it was frozen, especially with steaks.

I think I go through 3 eggs every 2 dozen weeks.

I agree. Which items are cheaper than competitors are really hit and miss. Some of Costco's have higher quality, though. I think that Aldi sells singles cheap by stocking cases with 1-3 stockers keeping the whole store up proves Costco could've done that. They should try doing it Aldi-like with higher-quality brands.

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