Costco is the anti-Amazon • Hacker News Board

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#441

Post by acdha » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 2:27 PM UTC

mathgeek wrote: post #418

acdha wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is complicated, though, by the question of how you get there: suburbs may have lower land prices but everyone buys more of it and needs the expense of having a private car (usually one per adult). In the region where I live, 20-35% of household income is spent on cars and that doesn’t include the expense of the land devoted to them or road maintenance. If you live in a dense environment where you don’t need a ca…

> In the region where I live, 20-35% of household income is spent on cars and that doesn’t include the expense of the land devoted to them or road maintenance. Statistically, a large amount of that is beyond what they need most of the time (whether size, quality, or range).

Totally, but it’s interesting how basically everyone I know who moved to the suburbs to save money pays roughly as much for housing (things like lawn care services add up) plus an order of magnitude more on cars.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#442

Post by phil21 » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 2:30 PM UTC

didntknowyou wrote: post #381

gwbas1c wrote: post #33

> Even if you think it is preferable at an individual level, there are good reasons to question the social value of the logistical complexity that it necessitates. Home delivery of single-packaged items entails an entirely different cost structure than freight trucks driving to consumer-facing warehouses delivering entire pallets of goods to be driven home by customers themselves. Ok, so 100 people can all drive to t…

costco buyers typically buy in bulk and fill a pantry in one go. i doubt one truck can fill 100 pantry. maybe a few products each

Costco can only fill maybe half my pantry because they don’t carry everything I like to eat or use regularly.

They do a form of cherry picking the easy high volume stuff, and let other retailers deal with the harder more expensive low volume products.

Certainly useful to optimize their bit of the supply chain, but they only can really account for maybe a quarter of the food items we eat, which accounts for a third or maybe half of total product volume any given month. The rest needs to come from additional store runs or Amazon.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#443

Post by acdha » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 2:30 PM UTC

mlrtime wrote: post #408

acdha wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is complicated, though, by the question of how you get there: suburbs may have lower land prices but everyone buys more of it and needs the expense of having a private car (usually one per adult). In the region where I live, 20-35% of household income is spent on cars and that doesn’t include the expense of the land devoted to them or road maintenance. If you live in a dense environment where you don’t need a ca…

Then you just transfer that money to the landlords, and then remove the flexibility and convenience of leaving that city anytime you want. 30% of New Yorkers spend > 50% of their income on rent.

> 30% of New Yorkers spend > 50% of their income on rent.

My point was that’s a bit less than the median suburbanite here spends on housing and cars combined. That doesn’t mean either option can’t be improved but that these comparisons should compare the whole lifestyle cost. Otherwise you’re making the same mistake Americans do saying they pay much less in taxes than Europeans without including the additional spending we make for healthcare, college, childcare, etc.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#444

Post by newsoftheday » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 2:36 PM UTC

pupppet wrote: post #4

Whenever someone says America can do great things, I don't think of battleships, fighter jets, or AI models, I think of Costco.

I tend to think of veterans and their sacrifices manning those battleships, fighter jets and battlefields so that companies like Costco can exist.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#445

Post by thijson » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 2:37 PM UTC

rahimnathwani wrote: post #368

khurs wrote: post #126

All the comments appear to be US centric, but Costco is also in other countries. So to tell you about the UK: Here membership is unusual in that it isn't technically open to everyone, it's business and certain professions: https://www.costco.co.uk/membership but in reality anyone who wants to join can find a way. Also no mention in the article of non-food. In UK Costco is known for special offers on electrical and wh…

FWIW you can use your US membership in the UK. I ordered a dishwasher from Costco UK last week.

I used mine in Iceland too. It was one of the cheaper places to eat there. Still expensive though compared to the USA. I heard that the Costco hot dog and a soda is still $1.50 in Hawaii, that's a bargain.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#446

Post by thijson » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 2:39 PM UTC

borski wrote: post #73

furyofantares wrote: post #53

This is about 80% spot on, but the last 20% fails to mention that you can avoid the in store experience if it isn't for you, and in fact get the stuff you want delivered to your door in a short period of time, using services like instacart. Costco even partners directly with instacart for same day delivery. You can use your membership to get same day delivery shopping on costco's website and they will use instacart t…

True, but at higher prices (and with delivery fees), which somewhat defeats the purpose of the cost savings at Costco.

Just got a window air conditioner on the Costco web site, delivered to the home. That was 25% cheaper than in the store.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#447

Post by newsoftheday » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 2:40 PM UTC

senbrow wrote: post #255

makeitdouble wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To note, Costco doesn't make much sense in most places outside of the USA (and doesn't have to. No shop needs to cater to the whole world). It still exists in select locations in some countries, but are more exotic experiences than anything else. Shopping for weeks of groceries at a time is IMHO crazy niche, it requires a level of isolation and buying power that is seldom combined.

I think your main point is right, but there are many Costco members who are NOT shopping for "weeks of groceries" at a time, and many of them live in suburban or urban areas with high density. For example, I shop at Costco once a week for just my girlfriend and I; we don't buy outrageous quantities. We live in a populous area. Our situation is pretty common; it's just a normal grocery store in effect for lots of peop…

Agreed. We have two Costco's within 6 minutes driving distance, my wife visits them once a week, like Walmart and Whole Foods. We also shop regularly on Amazon. We don't buy weeks of food at a time.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#448

Post by rootusrootus » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 2:42 PM UTC

delichon wrote: post #194

mciancia wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol, where did you get those numbers from? xD Tesla uses something like 15kWh per 100km, so 5 mile drive is something like 1.1kWh

Yeah I botched that. It's around 1.5kw/mile for an ICE car.

And ~0.25 kWh/mi for an EV

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#449

Post by hibikir » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 2:43 PM UTC

gwbas1c wrote: post #33

> Even if you think it is preferable at an individual level, there are good reasons to question the social value of the logistical complexity that it necessitates. Home delivery of single-packaged items entails an entirely different cost structure than freight trucks driving to consumer-facing warehouses delivering entire pallets of goods to be driven home by customers themselves. Ok, so 100 people can all drive to t…

It depends on the lived environment. In my US suburban house, a 20 minute drive from the warehouse/Costco, absolutely. In the Spanish town I am in, where I can do 10 errands in an hour ln foot, as basically every street level space is a store, and streets are themselves narrow, Amazon's logistics advantage loses to the Asian bazaar.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#450

Post by thijson » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 2:45 PM UTC

christina97 wrote: post #181

This post seems quite far fetched. Amazon is well aware of the paradox of choice, and the vast majority of UI changes I have seen recently are exactly those that guide and reinforce you to buy one option, without the decision paralysis. Items are not homogeneous, and it is obvious that they try to concentrate purchases to a smaller set of SKUs to reap the same benefits as Costco. It’s simply that Amazon can additiona…

I know that I trust products from Costco being good quality, I'm less likely to regret my purchase decision. I've been burned with stuff I got on Amazon being crappy.