Costco Capitalism | Hacker News Reader

Costco Capitalism

bryanlehrer.com

80 pointsPaulHoule40 comments

Not only do they negotiate better prices from manufacturers and suppliers, they sometimes negotiate for better products from manufacturers. It's the opposite of Amazon, where the item breaks the first time you use it, or its planned obsolescence is measured in days.

For me the product listings of the junk products are so offputting that I never buy them. For products from reputable manufacturers I look to other retailers first because Best Buy, Adorama and other retailers usually get me packages in 1-2 days whereas slow Amazon gets me packages in a slow 5 days.

Checking out on AMZN means rejecting a “free month of Prime” offer multiple times now, which is one more reason to avoid AMZN. They offer 1000 benefits of a prime but don’t say a single word about shipping now because they probably know I canceled my Prime because of slow shipping.

Where I live, their Prime Shipping is excellent, but that would be the only reason I would get Prime. I don't want the other Prime features and will not pay $15/month for just shipping benefits.

Checking out on AMZN means rejecting a “free month of Prime” offer multiple times now

Accept it once, then immediately cancel the autorenewal.

You won't be offered another trial for quite some time; once you are, lather, rinse, repeat.

Back when they carried Hot Pockets, I was convinced that the Hot Pockets they sold contained more pepperoni than the Hot Pockets from Target which contained more pepperoni than the Hot Pockets from Walmart. Unfortunately I never got around to measuring and proving it before Costco stopped carrying Hot Pockets.

Was this recent? My Costco still had Hot Pockets as of last month

Mine hasn't carried it in a couple of years. Maybe they weren't as popular at my store. Next time I'm there, I'll ask them to look in the computer to see which stores carry it.

You can ask them to look in a computer to find out which stores have an item?

That's not too unusual. The other day I was looking for a particular shoe at the Shoe Dept. at my mall, they didn't have it. They were short staffed and the clerk was somebody who usually worked at a store an hour and a half away and she looked to see if they had it at the store in her town where she usually worked because if it was she could bring one to me the next day.

As it was they didn't have it and we just ordered it from their online store.

Auto parts stores do the same thing. If you use Best Buy's web site they will tell you what is in stock at your local store and any other store, and they can pick it off the shelf for you and you can get it at the service desk.

I don't believe Costco always does this, but they have occasionally for me in the past year or so. I believe I've also been told that they can't do it.

It is probably dependent on what type of product you are asking about.

But you don't necessarily need to go to a store. Just call their customer service number and ask them. It has worked for me ;)

They appear to be the anti-Walmart. They want good but sustainable pricing from their vendors for high quality products and want to pay their employees a competitive livable wage.

This seems similar to Temu, where they exert significant pressure on suppliers and offer customers extremely low prices. Suppliers remain tied to Temu due to its large customer base, often sacrificing margin for volume.

From what I've heard, Apple also exerts tremendous pressure on its suppliers and boasts some of the highest margins in the industry. In return for their association with Apple, suppliers gain reputation.

That sounds like Walmart, but not Costco. Costco does have tough buyers who negotiate prices, but they really truly have higher quality standards. This was what I saw being on the other side for a company that sold fruit to both Walmart and Costco. Lower grade fruit was spec'd and sold to Walmart and higher grade fruit was spec'd and sold to Costco.

I think in both cases the supplier would get significant lower margin as a result of providing higher quality goods. Supplier cave to the market power of Walmart and Costco. And Walmart and Costco choose to whether they provide lower prices or better qualities. And they maintain this market power exactly by giving more of the surplus to the customers. In the apple case, the brand and eco-system alone can provide that market power, e.g. people love apple products, thus they can pocket the surplus while still maintaining the position.

For fruit, the price negotiation always tries to drive down the price, but there are something like 10 big buyers of fruit in USA alone, so Coscto and Walmart don't have a monopoly and the fruit sellers go elsewhere when the buyers turn the screws too hard. If Walmart ever becomes the only grocer in the USA, then yes, the farmers are toast. Otherwise, I know of one big fruit grower in my town with a Mediterranean yacht and another that drove in to the office with his Ferrari, inspected fields all day, being flown in the company helicopter, then showed up the next day in his other Ferrari. Huge grower, but then regulation and compliance is killing small growers in USA. Soon you won't be able to farm unless you can have a lawyer on staff.

And better packaging as well (more environmentally friendly).

I recall a comment on here a few weeks ago about how HP printers sold there didn't need you to register them, and never required ink to be installed to use the scanner. Of course this came with a totally different model number.

God, I wish costco existed in my country. The closest thing we have requires you to show them invoices to prove you're a trading business.

Trader Joe's appears to have the same mentality (but slightly different scale/demographic). Low variety of SKUs, but decent quality and price.

I don't know if shopping at Costco or TJs "feels like winning", but shopping at Walmart/Kroger joints definitely feels like losing. The latter are a minefield of fake sales & arcane pricing, strategically overpriced crap, and simply too much variety (choice paralysis). Usually amid a depressing environment (poorly treated workers). If I want endless variety, I simply shop online.

Kroger bought the Roundys brand grocery stores in my area (Pick n Save, Copps, MetroMarket). I feel like a loser just walking into the place. Cut out ~70% of the locally made (Wisconsin) products, jacked up the prices, which were already on the high side b/c it’s a convenience grocery store, not a big list grocery store, and destroyed employee morale.

They did the exact same to Fred Meyers in the Pacific Northwest.

Trader joes ironically is the US branch of aldi nord. (Aldi süd owns aldi US)

If you like TJ, aldi ought to be pretty similar.

They existed beforehand, and aldi nord bought them out. They didn't change much about how the company operated though. They might have streamlined it a little, maybe.

I remember seeing trader joes branded cans the last couple of times I was in an aldi nord, as well as the cigarettes they're known for. (I live in an aldi süd country)

They did change. It was very progressive at first but TJ is now very different:

For example, they rotate in new products very often now (and cancel old standbys) - even lots of experimental products (kinda have to with the volume of new products). Lots of these new products are snacks or sweets kinds of things. Many of the new products obviously will not stay on the shelf for the long term.

For another, at my regional stores they have also stopped offering two kinds of ripe kiwis (by the 1, by the 5-6 / plain, organic). There is now one kind and it's not ripe. The "not ripe" was the end of me buying kiwis at TJ. Shockingly, my local Safeway has started carrying ripe kiwis.

For me, they have become more like safeway in how less usable they are.

Trader Joe's is pretty good. They have good nut selections and the 1 pound chocolate bars are very tempting.

No mention of their return policy? IMO this is a huge part of the attraction of Costco - if you're not satisfied with a product for any reason, you can return it, full stop. They've had to rein in some of the more generous practices due to egregious abuses by customers (ie returning a TV after 2 years) but in general, buying things at Costco is a no-risk activity for a much longer time than any other mainstream retailer.

I almost always buy my electronics from Costco. They often tack on an extra year of warranty at no additional cost. They also make sure the vendor offers good support if the warranty is needed. My only complaint is their website sucks balls. The search is atrocious and it is hard to navigate. I would gladly give them more of the retail dollars I spend on Amazon but they make it so hard for me to do so.

Their website is pretty crap. But. You haven't seen anything until you use their mobile app.

It is definitely one of the worst thing I've seen. I mean Subaru's Starlink was way worse, but IDC it's a car and I don't need the crappy app to use it. Costco's I want to be able to use, but can't.

Previously using their credit card also gave double the warranty. Citi ( I assume it was them and not Costco) cancelled this. Still, sometimes yes the warranty is better but not as stellar as it recently once was.

Also buying and returning appliances on Costco is worlds better than say HD or BB. Easy returns for 90 days, haul away, basic install all included.

Great products, by shopping there is a nightmare. Wade through clogged aisles of people abandoning carts in the middle of others way. Wait to checkout or do the labor for them, but with scrutinized ID verification. Squeeze past the hot dog people to wait again to get a highlighter on your receipt. Ah, finally, back to the parking lot of new drivers.

Hey, I am one of those hot dog people. And the soft serve ice cream is some of the best.

What I like about costco is the policy, I feel safe shopping there because I know that I can return whenever am I not satisfied.

Some of their items even has extended warranty!

Costco should be an example of a good store.

Sheng Wang about buying clothes in Costco:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3xGkJDqUfw

They also sell gold bars now!

https://www.costco.com/1-oz-gold-bar-pamp-suisse-lady-fortun...

/squeals in capitalism

They won't even show me the price. Before I logged in, I could see the gold bar. As soon as I logged in, it changed to "Product Not Available!"

I saw it available for purchase a few days ago. It was $1995 or $1945 IIRC.

Can you return them if the price of gold goes down?

They'd probably be happy to refund the current gold price. :D

No, the product page clearly says they cannot be returned or exchanged.

(But you can return most things to Costco)

The article goes off into the weeds at the end, but it's always fun to see someone using Costco as a positive example.

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