Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I want to live like Costco people

tastecooking.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 760 posts

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#171

Post by senkora »

yabones wrote: post #137

I get the allure, but it's not for me and my partner. We live in a small apartment. We drive a small car. The pantry has a good amount of dry bulk & canned food, but we largely shop one week at a time. Sure, we could "lock in" on two or three foods, buy weeks worth of them at a time, and save some money. But like most people we like a bit of verity. It's just not possible to buy such massive quantities of things with…

Trader Joe's is probably closest to what you want. It targets single shoppers with small quantities and low prices, and it rotates products frequently to keep things interesting.

Anecdotally I feel like a lot of TJ's shoppers shift into Costco shoppers as they age up.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#172

Post by malfist »

queuebert wrote: post #108
giwook wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair point. What about cars or houses?

A Tesla will out accelerate all but the most niche cars now. Even the cheapest cars can have giant screens and climate control. I don't think they are equal to a Rolls Royce, but extreme luxury has greater diminishing returns now than at any point in history. Where I live pretty much all new houses are being built with granite counter tops and hardwood floors. Whether that's a good thing is a whole other topic ...

A Tesla Model 3, dual motor has a 0 to 60 speed of 4.3 seconds. My F-150 lightening extended range can do that it 3.8 seconds.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#173

Post by throw0101c »

dahinds wrote: post #161
hn_acc1 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always found that weird because we get like 5x our membership dues back in rewards every year, so I guess we're the exception, rather than the rule?

The claim could be true even if every customer is exactly like you. The implication is that Costco doesn't really make money selling stuff, they just need to roughly break even. And "breaking even" here includes paying rewards on purchases. The fact that you earn a lot of rewards doesn't stop your membership dues from contributing to Costco's bottom line.

> The fact that you earn a lot of rewards doesn't stop your membership dues from contributing to Costco's bottom line.

It could also be similar insurance floats: premiums and claims generally even out, but they make their returns while they're holding people's money.

(Perhaps it's explained in their financial statements, but I've never been curious enough to check.)

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#174

Post by conception »

yabones wrote: post #137

I get the allure, but it's not for me and my partner. We live in a small apartment. We drive a small car. The pantry has a good amount of dry bulk & canned food, but we largely shop one week at a time. Sure, we could "lock in" on two or three foods, buy weeks worth of them at a time, and save some money. But like most people we like a bit of verity. It's just not possible to buy such massive quantities of things with…

I think you’re describing Trader Joe’s for something at the giant chain level.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#175

Post by FireBeyond »

hn_acc1 wrote: post #138
skeeter2020 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people can do even better with the executive membership if you spend ~$550 a month you'll get the $130 fee back in your rebate. That may seem like a lot but not if you buy most of your groceries there, or things like tires or book a vacation.

We get like 4-5x our exec. membership fee back in rewards cost every year - and I stopped buying tires/car batteries there (takes too long / quality no longer as good) and usually go to best buy for electronics (their return policy is no longer as good, and they often stock sub-par models, etc). Even with that, Costo is essentially paying us to save money.

Yeah, with TVs, Costcos in our area only stock one tier of Samsung models, but "worse" they're recently the 2-3 year old model that has already been superseded. And while the markup is minimal, you're still paying retail for a 3 year old model. Shades of Apple selling the Mac Pro 2019 (cheese grater) with a 4 year old Xeon processor at "full Apple" prices (I almost said full retail, but full Apple is a bit more), and with RAM prices from 4 years prior, too.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#176

Post by hparadiz »

yabones wrote: post #137

I get the allure, but it's not for me and my partner. We live in a small apartment. We drive a small car. The pantry has a good amount of dry bulk & canned food, but we largely shop one week at a time. Sure, we could "lock in" on two or three foods, buy weeks worth of them at a time, and save some money. But like most people we like a bit of verity. It's just not possible to buy such massive quantities of things with…

The basic membership is $65. If all you do is get a year's worth of detergent, toilet paper, and cleaning supplies chances are that will already pay for the membership. They also have grocery items that are kinda wholesale but not really. Pantry stuff like a bag of nuts that you can go through on your own in under a week that is marked down significantly from the grocery store. Oh also olive oil is another big one for me.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#177

Post by gib444 »

farmeroy wrote: post #142
yabones wrote: post #137

I get the allure, but it's not for me and my partner. We live in a small apartment. We drive a small car. The pantry has a good amount of dry bulk & canned food, but we largely shop one week at a time. Sure, we could "lock in" on two or three foods, buy weeks worth of them at a time, and save some money. But like most people we like a bit of verity. It's just not possible to buy such massive quantities of things with…

sounds like you just want to live in europe (or probably anywhere outside of the US?). You can typically go buy a half (or quarter) loaf of bread from a baker, and street markets let you buy all the small quantities you want by the kilo

You can even buy half a baguette from a baker in France lol (They're already relatively small!). Love it - great for single people.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#178

Post by jsbisviewtiful »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #110
jsbisviewtiful wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Costco is a store... where coffee, usually gas and most food + home goods are reliable in quality and priced well comparatively. Comparing the price of salmon fillets at Costco to Whole Foods or elsewhere is eye-opening. Would I buy clothes or furniture from Costco? No - because both are bland. The end. If the writer wants to make it anything more than that... They are a bit too obsessed with self-image vs wasting mo…

>> Would I buy clothes or furniture from Costco? Careful - even Gen-Z is looking at Kirkland clothing for certain pieces, and some furniture (like the Murphy bed I bought from them) is better when it's bland and greige

No hate on people who buy that stuff - I like more eccentric style/colors and a specific fit that I've never seen at a Costco (athletic/form fitting vs bulky). Something like pajamas pants I would consider, but otherwise I've never had luck with their clothing and their furniture usually doesn't fit the decor of my house. I did snag a great kitchen island there last year that's held up really well, but otherwise I really don't like their couches, chairs, lawn decor, etc

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#179

Post by gruez »

hparadiz wrote: post #176
yabones wrote: post #137

I get the allure, but it's not for me and my partner. We live in a small apartment. We drive a small car. The pantry has a good amount of dry bulk & canned food, but we largely shop one week at a time. Sure, we could "lock in" on two or three foods, buy weeks worth of them at a time, and save some money. But like most people we like a bit of verity. It's just not possible to buy such massive quantities of things with…

The basic membership is $65. If all you do is get a year's worth of detergent, toilet paper, and cleaning supplies chances are that will already pay for the membership. They also have grocery items that are kinda wholesale but not really. Pantry stuff like a bag of nuts that you can go through on your own in under a week that is marked down significantly from the grocery store. Oh also olive oil is another big one fo…

>The basic membership is $65. If all you do is get a year's worth of detergent, toilet paper, and cleaning supplies chances are that will already pay for the membership.

Maybe savings are that large if you're comparing against regular prices at retailers, but if you wait for sales, they're as cheap, if not cheaper than Costco.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#180

Post by havblue »

tantalor wrote: post #3

I'm guessing the title is a reference to Pulp - Common People

I wanna live like Costco people I wanna do whatever Costco people do Wanna sleep with Costco people I wanna sleep with Costco people like you. Well, what else could I do? I said, "I'll... I'll see what I can do.
Post reply on HN