I know we'll use it, but how will it all fit in the car?? (Costco)

Member Name: cazm17

Product:	Costco
Date:	26/03/02 (18428 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap products, Good quality own brands, Will save you a fortune over time

Disadvantages: Bulk buying takes up a lot of space at home, Car parking can be tricky, Not for the faint of heart or muscle!

"You should write an opinion about Costco", stated my better half.

"Why on earth should I do that, when a dozen or so people have already beaten me to it?" I enquired.

"Because you're clever. And you're nice. And you know everything there is to know about Costco" came the reply. OK, so not what I was expecting, and certainly not what I'd own up to in public, but I have spent my fair share of time and hard-earned cash in the place, so I thought "why not". So here I am.

I'll try not to bore you to tears with too many details, but with Costco it's not necessarily just finding your nearest branch and popping along. It is a members-only club which you have to apply for membership and pay for the privilege. This is one of the things that allows them to have competitive prices. And by competitive I mean REALLY competitive, on most things anyway, but we'll come to that later…

WHAT IS COSTCO?
Well, they are a wholesale club that sells a variety of merchandise, from food and drink, clothing and household supplies, up to brown and white goods. It admits that it is a no-frills organisation. Don't expect the fancy displays and layouts of conventional stores. They are all warehouse-based and stuff is piled on palettes. Something else that keeps the costs down.

WHERE ARE THESE STORES LOCATED?
Currently they are situated at West Thurrock (Lakeside, my local store), Watford, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Haydock, Gateshead, Aberdeen and Derby. They are opening some new stores soon, including one in Reading.

Oh, and that's just in this country. They are also in 6 other countries, including the US. If you go on holiday and there's a Costco nearby (there's one in Florida for example), take your card and you can walk in and buy the same as any other member. Fantastic if you're going self-catering!

DO I HAVE T
O BE A MEMBER?
To visit the store, no, although you do have to be accompanied by someone who is a member. To buy something you either have to be a member yourself, or get the person who is a member to buy it on your behalf. Make sure you have plenty of cash, though, recently my better half and I took his mum along to get a 'few bits'. Two trolleys and £350 later…

Really it is better for you to have your own membership, then you don't have to rely on anyone else to go and get your stuff or take you along.

WHO CAN BE A MEMBER?
There are two categories of membership – Trade and Individual membership. The annual membership fee for Trade is £20+VAT for the primary cardholder (including a spouse card). The first six additional cards are £12+VAT each and additional cards are £20+VAT. The annual fee for Individuals is £25+VAT (also including a spouse card). According to their website, you can join as an Individual if you are a current or retired employee from "Banking/finance, Civil Servant, Education, Fire/rescue, Local Government, Medical/Health Service, Police Force or the Post Office". Plus, if you are a qualified optician, dentist, pharmacist or Solicitor/barrister, magistrate or advocate. I seem to recall a notice saying that they also accepted press card holders, but do check that out before going to sign up (I'll try and check next time I go for you!).

You do have to take along ID to join – see the website for details of the required documents, but as you can see quite a lot of people are eligible! The joining process is easy, although be warned they do take your photo that goes on your membership card, so don't do as I do and go on a 'scruffy' day! You will notice the reference to 'annual' fees. These are renewable, although if you don't want to renew you don't have to. One big advantage here is that because it's a standard fee (ie you don't get discou
nts in subsequent years) you don't have to renew immediately. I let my membership lapse for about 6 months a couple of years ago, because at that time I wasn't in a position to go to the store. I just rejoined when I was ready to take advantage of the savings!

There is one main difference between Trade and Individual membership, that is the opening times. Trade members can shop in the store earlier in the day Monday to Friday than Individual members (check the website for actual opening hours). At the time of writing, Trade members can get in at 10am while everyone else has to wait until midday. Weekends are open to all.

In foreign countries, some stores advertise coupons locally that you can buy a sample membership for a day. For example, the Florida store lets you pay $5 to look round the store, although it's easier if you take your membership card with you.

WHAT SHOULD I LOOK FOR?
Well, like all discount warehouses you should still weigh up the prices against those you can get elsewhere. They are not always the cheapest, particularly if you shop online you may find you can get some of their books and DVDs cheaper elsewhere.

Electrical goods – they do a wide range of brown and white goods, although you won't find the wide choice of, say, Currys. On the whole their electrical pricing will be very competitive and will come with the usual guarantees. However, you do have to be able to get it home yourself – they don't offer any delivery service at all. This is what has put me off buying large items from there. The boot in my Clio is only so-big after all!

Computer Software / Hardware – Not always the most competitive prices, although they did do some bargains on MCSE books a few months ago.

Garden equipment/furniture (seasonal) – Some of their stuff for the garden can be very cheap. For example, planters, garden furniture, barbecues etc you can pay the same price as
in a local garden centre or less, but for a higher quality product. The shelves are absolutely full of gas barbecues right now!

Household knick-knacks – everything from batteries, lamps, rugs up to shelving, ladders, bookcases, kitchen appliances. This section covers lots of areas, but there isn't always a great variety within types of item. Duracell batteries are a steal, particularly if you use a lot of them in household gadgets.

Cleaning / catering stuff – some of the best and worst value to be had here. I use their own-brand Clout washing powder which works out about £15 a tub, but the last one lasted nearly a year. Granted I don't have kids, and although I have sensitive skin was able to use this biological powder no problem. It's made for the US market (like a lot of the Costco products) so is really concentrated – you need hardly any of it to get your wash clean. Also picked up CIF mousse the other day for about £1 a can. Their bin bags are a bargain too, you get 100 (125 if they are on offer) for about a fiver, and they are very strong.

Clothing – They do a good range of mostly designer ranges, generally at prices lower than the high street. Again, there isn't always a great choice of styles, and you may find a cheaper alternative in the high street. They do some nice luxury items, such as cashmere cardigans, although I tend to stick with their jeans, underwear, socks, that sort of thing.

Toiletries – Some of the bulk buys in shampoo, vitamins, tampons (sorry about that boys, but they really are a lot cheaper than Boots!) can give you a fantastic saving, but shop around those two for one offers in Boots on things like toothpaste. They do a good range of premier beauty products too, at less than the high-street prices.

Food – where do I start? They do a wide range of fresh meat from their in-store butcher. Minced steak (£2.99 a kilo) and chicken (£5.99 a kilo bon
e and skinless) are good value, as are the salmon fillets. All the meat can be split up and frozen. Some of the supermarket BOGOF offers can compete with their prices, but when Tesco hasn't got the offers, you can always rely on Costco. Other good value items are their pizzas if you can fit them in your oven (mine is too small – these are BIG pizzas!). They do good value dips, ie salsa, garlic & onion and taramasalata, ranging from £1.45 upwards for a large tub. Excellent value, particularly if you are catering for a few people. Other things worth mentioning are their tortilla chips, 3 large bags for £2.99, coffee – we got Douwe Egberts at approximately half the retail price. Their baked goods section is excellent value too, as most of it can be frozen. Their half baguettes work out very cheap and only take 10 minutes to cook from frozen. Fab.

Frozen food – I've separated this because their frozen food is another world entirely! Some of the items tend to be pricey, but you get good quality and large portions. Their steak pasties work out over £1 each but are tremendous value – if you have kids they'll probably be able to share one between them! Chips are good value, and we're just discovering their wonderful smoked ribs, profiteroles and Pizzas (not all together, you understand!).

Drink – a whole range of soft and alcoholic drinks are to be had. 8 2-litre bottles of Pepsi can usually be had for just under £6 plus VAT, and trays of 24 cans of drink work out about £5 plus vat depending on the brand. If you're after specific brands of alcohol you can save a lot of money here. They also do a wide range of boxed and vintage wines to choose from.

Tobacco – despite my many sins I do not smoke, so can't comment too much on this. I have heard reports that their prices are very good.

Opticians – they have an in-store opticians, which I really keep meaning to try out and just
never have the time, so I can't comment too highly. Their eye tests are £9.99 and they also do contact lenses from £9.99 a month. They have a wide range of designer frames, and I suspect they work out cheaper than most high-street opticians. Their contact lens saline is highly recommended!

Tyres – I had a flat recently. After struggling to put the spare on (or rather, thanks to the better half who put in the effort!) I was astonished to hear the prices that people were quoting for a matching tyre. The highest was over £60! Fortunately it was a Michelin tyre I needed, and that's the only brand Costco do. If they haven't got your tyre in they will order it in for you, and hold it for 14 days (which they did for me). They don't just do a straightforward replacement, though. They replace the most worn tyre on the whole car, and then ensure the tyres are rotated and balanced correctly, always ensuring the new tyres are on the back of the car. And for my little tyre that whole service came to just over £36. OK, so they left two hubcaps off – I think the saving of over £35 more than compensated for that!

Restaurant – they have an instore restaurant, which serves their most popular hotdogs, pizzas, baked potatoes that sort of thing. One thing I was impressed with is that their prices are really cheap – they are not out to make a massive profit on them. On the downside, 9 times out of 10 you can forget there being any room in there. A typical Saturday will see people queuing out of the restaurant! We just buy the stuff and cook it at home – much simpler!

Photo lab – they have an onsite photo lab, which offers a number of quality and cheap developing services. I use a digital camera mostly so don't have to use it, but I've had good reports of their service.

ON THE DOWNSIDE…
Well, I've just about covered most things that are good about Costco. What about the bad things
?

Car parking – The car park get very busy, but then they have large generous spaces and people trying to get in B&Q next door often overspill into the Costco car park.

Watch your spending! When you join as a member you can pay by cheque or switch or cash. They don't take credit cards at all because of the costs. I don't know about switch but on a cheque you can spend up to £300 over a 10-day period. I wasn't aware of the period limit until I spoke to customer services (who, incidentally, are very good!). If you spend more than that, you will need to pay the remainder in cash. And it's easily done, particularly if you're buying for a business. Or you've taken someone else with you (remember the member is the one that has to pay!).

Don't forget the VAT! After a while you'll get in the habit of remembering what does and does not incur VAT. Prices are listed minus VAT on the shelves. Most foodstuffs are exempt, but the receipt will show clearly what is liable for VAT, and which rate is applicable to that item.

Feel like a bodybuilder – Don’t forget you are buying in bulk, so things may be heavy. It's inadvisable to take a solo trip if you are pregnant, elderly, terminally lazy that sort of thing. I come under the terminally lazy category and always take the big, strong, better half to cope with the lifting side of things!

You can't just ring them – they don't answer queries by phone, to save yet more costs on tele-staff and the toll on their customer service staff. The only number I've ever found is for their tyre ordering service.

WHAT IF I'M NOT HAPPY?
Well, talking about Costco for the moment, rather than one's personal wellbeing, Costco offer what they call their double guarantee. On merchandise they offer a full refund, and they will refund your membership fee in full at any time if you are dissatisfied with being a member. Can
't say fairer that that, can you?

Phew… well I think that just about covers the topic. For now, at least. I have nowhere near covered all the products they sell – this opinion would turn into a book if I did that. If you wish to know more, please send a cheque to me to cover the printing costs, and I'll be happy to oblige!

If you want specifics on membership, forms of ID, or addresses for your local store, see their official website at http://www.costco.co.uk

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