CostCo - Cut down my washing bill! (Costco)

Member Name: mum2boys82

Product:	Costco
Date:	31/07/08 (1612 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some great bulk buy deals

Disadvantages: You have to bulk buy, not everyone can be a member

When my husband said he wanted to get a membership to CostCo I had to get him to tell me what that was exactly. See, I had heard of Macro (who hasn't?) but not of CostCo, so hubby explained that like Macro it catered for small businesses and individuals who wanted to buy bulk.
CostCo first started in Seattle in 1983, and since then have opened many other cash and carry membership warehouses in the united states, and also in many parts on the UK.


How do you get Membership?
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There are certain criteria for getting a membership. If you own a small business you need to provide your business details and proof of who you are. Trade membership costs £20 + VAT per year with up to an additional 6 cards available for your staff at £12 + VAT per year, per card.
You can get individual membership, however on the website www.costco.co.uk they do not have details of who qualifies, I know that a valid NHS number will get you membership, and there are probably other companies that they do this for. I also cannot find details on individual membership fees but from what I can remember it is about £5 more than a trade membership.

On the CostCo website they have contact numbers and are happy to take calls from people interested in getting a membership, so if you think you might be able to make use of a membership there is no harm in calling them and seeing if you fit into their individual member criteria.
My hubby is an NHS employee so no problems for us getting a membership card, in fact you get two cards per membership so he has one and so do I. You can get 2 guests into the store on your card but guests may not purchase goods, you have to purchase any items your guest may want.

Opening times
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The shop is open to trade all day but individual members may only visit at certain times:
Mon - Friday
10am - 8.30pm (trade)
12pm- 8.30pm (individual)

Sat
9.30am - 6pm (trade and individual)
Sunday
11am - 5pm (trade and individual)

And one thing to note before you get to the til is that credit cards are not accepted. Company cheques, cash and debit cards are permitted.
What do they sell?
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To start with, everything in bulk. Unlike Macro who now seem to sell quite a lot of individual products, at CostCo you can only buy in bulk. Either cases of things or large industrial sizes of things. Also they only sell brand name items.

They sell washing powder (which is so much cheaper than in the shops), tinned goods, frozen goods, cakes, fruit, veg, meat, books (although you can often find these cheaper elsewhere), clothes, shoes, garden furniture, sweets, chocolate bars, crisps, wine, beer, office furniture and a range of electrical goods. I am sure I have missed lots of other things they sell, if you can think of something it is probably for sale in CostCo.
Is the shop jam packed with stuff then?
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Although they do stock a good range of things the shop is not over packed with things. As all items are in bulk the trolleys they use are huge too, and you never have a problem getting these around the store.

Another great thing about the lay out of the store is that they leave plenty of room for stands giving away tasters of products. There were no less than 10 different things being given to customers to try before you buy the last time we visited, and by the time we had tried one of everything we were left feeling quite full.
Do they have a Cafe?
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The Cafe is amazing. The prices are ridiculously cheap with a refillable soft drink costing around 90p, a slice of pizza costing around £2.50 and you can also takeaway an 18 inch pizza for £7.95, where else will you find these prices?

Don't you have to be great at maths to add on the VAT?
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If like me you find adding on 17.5% a difficult task you can rest easy. CostCo have the price before VAT and then with VAT added underneath on most products. On washing powders they have broken this down to how much each wash costs, and on some multi-pack products you are informed how much individual products cost. I bought a huge jar of Jelly Belly jelly beans and they provided information on how much 100g cost with and without VAT.
What are the staff like?
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There are usually quite a few staff around the shop doing jobs so if you need any help there will be someone at hand. Failing this you can walk to the entrance/exit where the customer service desk is situated and they are usually more than happy to help.

If there is more than one person in front of you at the till they will usually open up another till so it is unlikely that you will ever see big queues in the shop.
Overall
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This is a great bulk buy place. Although you have to pay for membership you can easily get this money back within a few months of buying any essentials that you get through quickly. As I have 2 small boys we get through so much washing powder it's almost obscene, so in washing powder alone I have made my membership fee back.

However, if you don't need huge amounts of any one item, and you don't need/want branded items then I would suggest sticking to good old Asda or Tesco!

Summary: Great if you get through loads of washing powder, chocolate bars or tinned goods!