Costco - Products, Prices and Deals

Cruiser Elite · Jan 28, 2016

Fuel price at Costco Moorabbin yesterday:

I had a very quick wander around - Baileys took my eye:

johnsluk · Jan 28, 2016

Cruiser Elite said:
Fuel price at Costco Moorabbin yesterday:

View attachment 63820

Interesting, not as cheap as I thought it would be, its about that most places at the moment. Paid 98c yesterday.

Cruiser Elite said:
I had a very quick wander around - Baileys took my eye:

View attachment 63821

Wow thats cheap, its $36 for the same size at Dan Murphys and they are usually the cheapest. Guess Im going to CostCo on the weekend.

Renato1 · Jan 28, 2016

After years of hearing my brother rave about Costco, I joined it at Moorabbin yesterday and wandered around the store. To my mind it seems like a super-Aldi. I can see why one would be delighted with it if one had a big family with three children, but am not sure that it is as good value for a well-established family of two - for example, the hamburger rolls were good value, but they came in a pack of 16. The lamb tray at $7 a kg looked like exceptional value too, but at around 10kg, we'd have to freeze it and eat it all year.

That said, at the end of last year I spent ages trying to find a Sony Wifi Blu Ray player to turn one of our standard TVs into a smart TV (to access Netflix, Youtube, SBS On Demand etc). I finally found a used demo one at Good Guys, nobody else had them. So I was astounded to see that Costco had dozens of them available for sale yesterday.

I was severely tempted to buy one of those huge blackforest cheese cakes - but again, it was just too big for two people.

Anyhow, I'll keep the membership for a year and see if it is worth it for us.
Regards,
Renato

blackcat20 · Jan 28, 2016

Renato1 said:
After years of hearing my brother rave about Costco, I joined it at Moorabbin yesterday and wandered around the store. To my mind it seems like a super-Aldi. I can see why one would be delighted with it if one had a big family with three children, but am not sure that it is as good value for a well-established family of two - for example, the hamburger rolls were good value, but they came in a pack of 16. The lamb tray at $7 a kg looked like exceptional value too, but at around 10kg, we'd have to freeze it and eat it all year.

That said, at the end of last year I spent ages trying to find a Sony Wifi Blu Ray player to turn one of our standard TVs into a smart TV (to access Netflix, Youtube, SBS On Demand etc). I finally found a used demo one at Good Guys, nobody else had them. So I was astounded to see that Costco had dozens of them available for sale yesterday.

I was severely tempted to buy one of those huge blackforest cheese cakes - but again, it was just too big for two people.

Anyhow, I'll keep the membership for a year and see if it is worth it for us.
Regards,
Renato

The lamb tray is very good value. We split ours up into zip bags and froze it. You'd be surprised how quickly you work your way through it.

yohy?! · Jan 28, 2016

Pros

Consistently lower priced to Coles & Woolies, saw a pricing sample study between them and Costco showing that they had been using Costco pricing as the floor to set their sale prices (which roughly roll around every 3 weeks) - Costco keeps the same pricing across the entire month. (This was across major basket items sampled over 3 months - the outcome being that you could sometimes find the same products in Coles & Woolies at the same price but only at limited times). For us this is 25-35% savings on our grocery spend for 2 people.

Meat consistently cheaper and better quality across the board (e.g. less water, packaging).

Alcohol now consistently cheaper than DM (previously not the case but now they seem to set about 5% lower)

Brand quality - major aussie brands plus kirkwood private label all superior quality to aldi/home brand etc Also little or none of the rubbish "local & imported ingredients" chinese sourced private label products, kirkwood has a lot of US or Americas produce instead.

Cons

Locations - 30min drive for us which is wearable for a once every 6 weeks shop

Membership fee - although this is recouped in the first shop savings for us

Additional handling - need to freeze meat etc and split into smaller packs, about half an hours work for our monthly shop. well worth it for the savings

Larger package sizes - need to buy more due to warehouse format, storage may be a concern e.g. need to buy 10kg laundry powder rather than 2 or 5 but nothing like the giant 44 gallon drums of mayonnaise or pickle jars people seem to reference!

Renato1 · Jan 28, 2016

blackcat20 said:
The lamb tray is very good value. We split ours up into zip bags and froze it. You'd be surprised how quickly you work your way through it.

Worth considering thanks - though I'd have to start up another freezer to hold it.
Cheers,
Renato

Renato1 · Jan 28, 2016

yohy?! said:
Pros

Consistently lower priced to Coles & Woolies, saw a pricing sample study between them and Costco showing that they had been using Costco pricing as the floor to set their sale prices (which roughly roll around every 3 weeks) - Costco keeps the same pricing across the entire month. (This was across major basket items sampled over 3 months - the outcome being that you could sometimes find the same products in Coles & Woolies at the same price but only at limited times). For us this is 25-35% savings on our grocery spend for 2 people.

Meat consistently cheaper and better quality across the board (e.g. less water, packaging).

Alcohol now consistently cheaper than DM (previously not the case but now they seem to set about 5% lower)

Brand quality - major aussie brands plus kirkwood private label all superior quality to aldi/home brand etc Also little or none of the rubbish "local & imported ingredients" chinese sourced private label products, kirkwood has a lot of US or Americas produce instead.

Cons

Locations - 30min drive for us which is wearable for a once every 6 weeks shop

Membership fee - although this is recouped in the first shop savings for us

Additional handling - need to freeze meat etc and split into smaller packs, about half an hours work for our monthly shop. well worth it for the savings

Larger package sizes - need to buy more due to warehouse format, storage may be a concern e.g. need to buy 10kg laundry powder rather than 2 or 5 but nothing like the giant 44 gallon drums of mayonnaise or pickle jars people seem to reference!

Thanks for the summary of pros and cons.

They must be doing something right, I've just come back from taking my wife there who found over $200 worth of stuff for me to buy for her. I spent $23 on my stuff.
Regards,
Renato

Cruiser Elite · Jan 31, 2016

I have a mate staying with me for the tennis this weekend and he has never been to a Costco before so we took a quick visit - diesel down to .917 this morn.

Anybody after a diamond ring?

389:

Weren't capsicums a hot top here a while back?

Cruiser Elite · Jan 31, 2016

Any sweet tooths about?

And:

Cruiser Elite · Jan 31, 2016

Last one today - biggest pack of chips I have seen:

And Baileys 1ltr up to $35 today.

cove · Jan 31, 2016

Do they have the Kirkland chocolate coated macadamias? I have them in the best of the best at Costco Marina del Rey and Salt Lake City.

Cruiser Elite · Jan 31, 2016

cove said:
Do they have the Kirkland chocolate coated macadamias? I have them in the best of the best at Costco Marina del Rey and Salt Lake City.

I'll check for you next visit mate

cove · Jan 31, 2016

They got wolfed down in our office on my last return from the US.

sausagefingers · Jan 31, 2016

Picked up a mudcake for my daughters 12th birthday party, pretty good value considering size and price.

drewbles · Feb 1, 2016

Cruiser Elite said:
I have a mate staying with me for the tennis this weekend and he has never been to a Costco before so we took a quick visit - diesel down to .917 this morn.

389:

View attachment 64080

16c cheaper than Dan Murphy's (when purchased in any 6). Add in Cashrewards, ~8% cashback on top of that, so not great value.

https://www.danmurphys.com.au/product/DM_73309/penfolds-bin-389-cabernet-shiraz

Cruiser Elite · Feb 2, 2016

drewbles said:
16c cheaper than Dan Murphy's (when purchased in any 6). Add in Cashrewards, ~8% cashback on top of that, so not great value.

https://www.danmurphys.com.au/product/DM_73309/penfolds-bin-389-cabernet-shiraz

No suggestion this was cheap my friend - most time I will just supply the pics - you can make your own assessment - as the good Dr Ralph has pointed out earlier many Costco wine offers available cheaper elsewhere - but also as that wily character blackcat20 has also pointed out sometimes they have great deals - i'll supply the pics - you make the decisions.

BUT - if I do spot a deal I will quickly point it out - like these:

Lamb loin chops - beautiful chops - given size of muscle clearly off 20kg+ lambs - trimmed to perfection - you will never see better quality loin chops offered anywhere:

Cruiser Elite · Feb 2, 2016

These pics were taken back in Nov but I was somewhat remiss in the dispensation of my duties - my apologies to all - it will not happen again. Just a dew random offers: