The bit afterwards about high-priced hearing aids that doesn’t mention Costco kind of undermined my trust in this author to explain the state of retail business.
You do lose some things. There are store-brand hearing aids that are equivalent to some popular brands but missing a few features, and you don’t get a 30-day trial period.
I tried buying through them but went with Kaiser since service is better and I had insurance that would pay the extra cost.