Costco is a warehouse club. It boasts that it does not have minimum mark up on their product. It seems like a good warehouse club to save money. However, I was cold to the idea – there are three members in my household. Costco’s packages are too big for us, for example, pork packages are more than ten pounds. It would last more than a month for us. Meat can be frozen for later use, but milk, fruit and vegetable should be used fresh. Their smallest milk package is one gallon. It will last at least two weeks in my house. Bread packages have two loafs, corn cooking oil is one gallon or two gallons. So I haven’t joined the club. But I noticed a lot of people around me were Costco members. There is a Costco store less than five miles from my house, so I decided to give it a try and see if it made money sense for me.
There are two levels of Costco membership: gold membership with fee of $60/year, executive membership with fee of $120/year, which has 2% reward on normal purchase. I selected the executive membership, hoping that cost saving and reward can cover the membership fee. After three months as a member, here is a reality check.
|
Item |
Costco price |
Market Price |
Yearly Costco Cost |
Cost Saving/unit |
Yearly Saving |
|
Costco Hotdog with drink |
$1.50 |
$3.00 (MCD dollar meal) |
$1.50 x 4 = 6.00 |
$1.50 |
$6.00 (not every time) |
|
Gasoline – Car 1 |
$2.57/Gal |
$2.69/Gal (WalMart) |
$2.57 x 15 x 50 = $1,927.50 |
$0.09/Gal (with WMT gift card) |
$67.50 (15 Gal/week) |
|
Gasoline – Car 2 |
$2.57/Gal |
$2.69/Gal (WalMart) |
$2.57 x 15 x 30 = $1,156.50 |
$0.09/Gal (with WMT gift card) |
$40.50 (15 Gal/ 2 weeks) |
|
Organic Egg (24 count) |
$5.99 |
$3.45 (WalMart, 12 counts) |
$5.99 x 50 = $299.5 |
$0.91 |
$45.50 |
|
Bottle water (40 count) |
$2.99 |
$2.49 (GV, 24 count) |
$2.99 x 6 = $17.94 |
$0.029 |
$6.96 |
|
Milk (Gallon) |
$2.09 |
$2.33 (WMT) |
$2.09 x 6 = $12.54 |
$0.24 |
$1.44 |
|
Auto insurance |
$1,718 |
$1,279.50 |
$1,718 |
-$438.50 |
0 (no change) |
My regular base yearly spending will be around $3,414. My 2% reward will be $68.28 ($3.414 x 0.02 = 68.28). Cost saving will be $167.90 (6+67.50+40.50+45.50+6.96+1.44=167.90). Total saving will be $236.18 (68.28 + 167.90 = 236.18). Costco’s saving is less than I think, but it is still a saving I can use. I heard Costco offers great services on car purchasing, electronic warranty, travel planning and others. I will check them out if the opportunity arises.
Opportunities for Costco:
1. If Costco offers smaller food packages, such as 1/3 or 1/2 of current package size, to be comparable with retail store package size, more small families would join Costco.
2. I was annoyed by the double gas filling station sometime – the front car filled up and left but the second car was still filling and blocked the way. I wish Costco use single car filling stations to remove this potential choke point. More filling stations also helps – normally the waiting is four cars deep over the weekend.
Conclusion
Costco does save money even for a small family like mine. More than likely, I will renew my Costco membership next year.
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