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Comment by ortusdux | Hacker News Reader

The alcohol restriction is at the state level, so some stores do require a membership.

Namely : Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Texas, & Vermont have laws that ban requiring memberships for the purchase of alcohol.

IIRC, Costco's lobbiests played a large role in Washington's privatization of liquor sales, and the final law did not include such a restriction.

For those interested, the break even on a 2% cash back membership is at the $2k/year.

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I think the break even point for the upgrade is actually $3k/year, not $2k/year?

The standard Gold Star Membership costs $60/year, and the Gold Star Executive Membership costs $120/year [0]. This is an additional $60/year (ignoring sales tax, etc.).

In order to break even, you need to earn at least $60 using the 2% cash back from the Executive Membership in order to cover the upgrade. This works out to ($60/year) / 0.02 = $3k/year.

[0] https://customerservice.costco.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/8...

The standard $60 a year membership can pay for itself fairly quick just in gasoline price savings (often 20c or more better than other local stations) if you happen to frequently drive along a freeway that has a Costco on your route.

Can easily be a $8 per tank difference.

Definitely true now. Under Trump, Costco was only beating by 1-5 cents, sometimes. Now, they can be half a dollar cheaper easily.

You also save money compared to shopping elsewhere which is really the major contributor to it being worth it.

Do you? None of the stuff we buy from Costco is cheaper compared with other local grocery stores. I mean, ignoring the hot dogs and rotisserie chicken, obviously.

Fun fact, if you get the upgraded membership and don't spend enough to make up the difference from the regular membership, they will refund you the difference if you ask.

So technically it doesn't make any sense to not get the premium membership as long as you're willing to float them the difference for a year.

> as long as you're willing to float them the difference for a year

...and remember to ask for a refund.

Where is this stated in their rules or whatever? Something I can reference if I need to try this and the person pushes back.

Can confirm this. I was given this information the first time I signed up and have been getting the difference every year when I go to renew

Never seen it written down. They just told me once at customer service when I went to cash my rebate check and they noticed it was smaller than the membership price difference.

They’re more than happy to tell me about this, so I’m sure if you ask they will be happy to share with you. They’ll even refund the whole membership

I can confirm that this is true.

Unless something has changed recently, if you don’t make enough in cash back to cover the difference between the regular membership and the executive one, you can go by customer service and they’ll comp you the difference.

I think the 2% thing is a customer incentive thing, and not intended to be a profit center. And that doesn’t work as well if people feel like they’re gambling on whether they will make enough purchases to justify it, if they feel like losers in the end.

Just buying gasoline at Costco is more than enough to pay back the membership fee in California. It’s about 50¢/gallon cheaper than other fuel in the same city.

In Minnesota it is about $0.20 cheaper than the discount gas places.

I'd definately pay $2.60 more to avoid the crazy people jamming Costco's parking lots trying to get that 20 cents off. I've narrowly avoided many people going anywhere they could at ramming speed while I was visiting a neighboring business.

I now avoid their neighboring businesses on every weekend as I value my life and car to avoid that whole scene.

> I'd definately pay $2.60 more to avoid the crazy people jamming Costco's parking lots trying to get that 20 cents off.

It might have something to do with the age of their pumps. My Costco just put in new pumps and the long lines go really fast. I don’t know for sure what changed, but more people are tapping to pay now (or using the Costco keychain chip) and the pumps flow twice as fast than before. It has really made a noticeable difference. Before, I would spend 5-10 minutes in the line as well as pumping, and now it’s less than five minutes total when it’s busy.

Costco gas is also Top Tier branded, and I trust Costco to maintain their equipment and tanks and source better quality gas than other independently owned stations.

This is the primary reason I use Costco gas. I’ve had nothing but problems with bad gas from other companies in my area.

I used to think this. The Costco in Redwood City is a good deal compared to most stations, but the cheap station on Woodside Rd. (< 2 miles away) is basically the same price. It also never has long lines, which I often find at Costco.

I used to think it was false, and that the price drop wouldn’t pay for the extra distance to Costco, but times have changed since the invasion of Ukraine. It’s probably location dependent. I’m in Ventura County.

Good to know! I'm sure it varies by location, and it's also possible the quality that I'm getting at the no-name station is not as good.

In Texas the Costcos have a liquor store that does not require a membership. But so far as I can tell, the alcohol sold in the Costco-proper likely does require a membership. Perhaps the presence of the liquor store satisfies the legal requirement.

In Texas, liquor (spirits) sales and non-spirits sales are different classes of licenses with different rules. Costco in Texas does NOT sell any spirits/liquor inside of the membership area, only beer, wine, and premixed cocktails (e.g. margarita in a bottle, which is made with agave wine not tequila anyway). The attached non-member liquor store is the only part which sells spirits, and as required by Texas law is open to the public without a membership.

Related to this, Texas also has "blue laws" which ended in 1985 other than the parts covering automotive dealers and liquor stores. So in Texas, liquor stores cannot be open on Sundays (nor can car lots). This is another reason Costco may be incentivized to not sell liquor within the member-only part of the store separately from the other requirements from TABC, because they are open on Sundays.

We have similar liquor/beer/wine laws in Georgia. Recently they did away with no sales on Sunday and some local “mimosa” brunch laws that allow restaurants to sell alcohol before 12:30. Good forbid someone drinking watching sports before church gets out.

Anyway, grocery stores will turn off the beer cooler lights on Sunday morning and put a note with the time they will be able to sell it.

Most liquor stores are actually opposed to repealing Sunday sale blue laws. They still sell the same volume, but have to stay open an extra day.

It's annoying, but I deal with it because my local liquor store only has two employees, and the wife is behind the register 12 hours a day 6 days a week. Sunday is the only time she gets off.

It's also worth knowing that you don't have to spend the "Cashback" voucher in the store, you can go to customer services and they'll give you actual cash instead! I just learned this after being a member for 14 years...

They don’t do this anymore. It used to be the case. Last year, I tried and I was asked to use it at the checkout station to buy stuff.

Georgia lets you buy liquor without a membership but it’s a separate store within a store that has its own entrance. Corporations and families are also limited to owning 2 liquor stores in the state so only 2 Costcos sell liquor.

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