Speaking more modern, it saves the mental effort of researching choices. Need something? Check Costco, buy if there, done.
Of course there are negatives associated with them, too.
Must be different soviets that I lived in. The quality was often terrible (e.g. "chocolate" that did not contain cocoa at all, ugly clothes and shoes that would break down quickly, beer that tasted like piss etc.) and that is assuming the goods were in the store at all. Basic western goods, such as Levi jeans or can of Coca-Cola were celebrated as artifacts of an alien, infinitely more advanced civilization.
[1] I jest, I jest, but what is legal to be in store-bought chocolate in USA, based on things I actually ended up getting while visiting, was literally one of the ways communist poland cut chocolate to make "chocolate-like product" :V
Their return policy is also very good. Obviously do not abuse this (or you are being a jerk). This means you can buy things without hesitation since you can easily return it should you run into an issue later.
According to people from the former soviet block I know, the reason they got so good at fixing stuff is because the first thing they did after buying an appliance from a store (after it became available eventually) was fixing it because nothing ever worked as expected. I guess "nothing" is an overstatement but I still wouldn't use the soviet union as an example for great product quality.
Things have gotten more reliable across the board imo.
They research/test the products before selling them so that they comply with their quality standards. So once products are on the shelves its likely that they are good.
This make buying decisions easier. Which is a much better shopping experience than having to read a dozen product reviews while shopping online.
I bought into the hype and got a Costco membership a few years back. One of the first things I went looking for was whole bean coffee (Peet's xmas roast). The local Costco had a bunch of coffee from Starbucks and Peets (meh quality to start) but only the painfully dark roasts and all of it was ground. Pre-ground coffee in bulk has a pretty limited use case (and relatively short shelf life).
Fast forward to last week and I went looking for a new fridge at Costco dot com. They prominently featured LG (ugh) and Samsung refrigerators. While some LG models seem to review pretty well I've never seen anyone say anything positive about Samsung, their service, or the serviceability of their appliances. I'm in the middle of dealing with a defective LG fridge and that's about the nicest thing I can say about LG's warranty and customer support.
Costco may have a permissive return policy and decent customer support but I would never blindly buy something without doing a bit of research just because it's at Costco. Especially with a big ticket item like a fridge I'd rather use my Amex anyhow.
I have all Samsung appliances at my home. They are the best appliances I have ever owned. I can't speak to their service because I have never had a single issue with any of them.
Congrats. I think you're in a minority. Our washing machine 'fabric softener' compartment started rusting less than a year after getting it. We had a long time and many back and forths trying to get them to acknowledge the problem. Their 'fix' initially was "don't use that". Finally - months later - they agreed to have someone come fix it, but it was going to be hundreds of dollars because we were "out of warranty". "But... we reported this to you with months left in the warranty period". "Well, tough luck" was basically the response.
My wife kept persisting - this dragged on for months - and eventually got some service rep to 'cover' this and a service guy came out. "Oh this is common - see this a lot with Samsungs in the last few years".
Relatedly, we had a dryer guy come out to fix the Samsung dryer. He indicated Samsung and LG were among the worst consumer-level brands for home appliances, based on their workload as service techs. But Samsung and LG have gigantic foot prints in the major retail outlets, so continue to get sold in to many households.
On the other hand I have their phone(S21) and I'm very happy with it.
Sales almost equal merchandise cost plus selling expenses. Membership fees add $984 million on top of that.
For the hotel and travel stuff, they get a commission like other travel agents/channels.
Whole bean? Just Major Dicakson in various quantities.
You could make an argument that the disposable cups will have a decent shelf life. 10 ounce bags of grounds won't though – that's kind of the antithesis of quality right there.
I've never had problems with Samsung appliances. Can't say the same for (supposedly high-quality) Bauknecht or Miele.
> but the ones available are guaranteed to be fairly good quality
Yeah, right... Nope.
There are some bulk stores with memberships, some of them limited to B2B sales, some accepting normal people as customers - places like MAKRO and Selgross - but they obviously are mainly a warehouse supplier for shops and companies.
I don't know how Lidl is in terms of selection in other countries, but especially with smaller stores the joke is that "every week something new" which refers more to somewhat random selection, and they tend to have lesser known brands (which, while not necessarily a bad thing, isn't also a sign of quality, and sometimes you really like the specific brand). Personally when I shopped more at Lidl (had one opposite of office), I compared the selection to "what recently fell of the truck and will stay till it's all sold"
When I talk to British friends, the idea of shopping at a Lidl seems to be sacrilegious to them. Still, when I went into one somewhere in Yorkshire before the plague, it was pretty much what I expected.
We love Lidl mostly because of the price. Almost everything was/is around 20-30% less than the stores around it. Much of this is from 'store brand' items, but the price diff is lower even against other 'store brand' pricing.
When they opened, they had a wider variety of items, including a wide variety of daily baked breads. That got scaled back a lot, as apparently there's not enough support/demand in this area for fresh breads outside of 'white'.
There's a weird circle of grocery stores that have sprung up in my area. Within a 3 mile radius, there's Target, Walmart, Lidl, Aldi, Wegmans, Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Publix and Lowe's (2?). It seems excessive to me, but the area is growing, and they likely wouldn't have invested in this area without a strong expectation of not losing money.
There's still a Lidl stigma around here. Many folks I talk to think of it as some 'poor person' shop.
I don’t know if I eat cheaper at Lidl but I eat better. The cheese and meat sections alone - I have probably twice as many charcuterie boards now that a Lidl moved in.
Aldi-Nord isn't that different, I'd say, at least not when free standing, in their standard layout. The only difference is the glaring white LED lighting they have. That is bRrRr!
Oh, and their electronic payment works fast. Had to use that recently for the first time in my life because I thought I had more cash on me. Wave card, enter pin, ZAHLUNG ERFOLGT! Phew!
(Yah Yah, I caved in, I know...)
edit: Aldi-Nord has better spices, though not all the times. Their Tandoori-mixture is very good, at least compared to the dozens of others I've tried. (In those small 80g aluminum cans) Ginger powder is also acceptable for me.
However, most of the times I just skip them, because I have 2 excellently managed Edekas available, and they have it all!