Alas, I think Fry’s fucked themselves before you had an opportunity.
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I do miss that I could run in to Fry’s and get HDMI cables that didn’t cost $20+.
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Welcome to Costco.
I love you.
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Is Scots whiskey, instead Scotch, a Costco knockoff equivalent to Champain wine, or Parmejan cheese?
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At my local Costco in Kobe, receipt checking takes all of two seconds and consists of checking that you have a receipt and that there is no huge discrepancy between the number of items listed and what’s in your cart.
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Actually, I did both of those things. I haven’t been a Costco member in nearly 20 years and haven’t regretted it; not because of the reciept thing but because I haven’t had to buy 3 gallon jars of pickles and pallets of processed food to trick myself into thinking i’m saving money.
I’m not sure how I was a dick skipping the line. It was my decision to not wait twice. I took the consequences for possibly being over charged. I didn’t inconvenience other customers. The weird over reaction of the managers who chased me and yelled at me was a bit more dickish.
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Well, there’s your problem. You considered yourself more important than all the other people waiting to leave the store so you skipped the line, and the policy you agreed to when you joined.
The receipt check is to make sure you have the same number of items as on the receipt - and not over or under, so it’s not just for your benefit. They are also making sure you don’t leave with something the cashier forgot to charge you for (or “accidentally” forgot to charge you for if you are a buddy or in on a scam). You bypassed their loss prevention procedures.
But, as to savings, yes, Costco can be a bad value for people who don’t need large quantities of food. It’s a lot harder to justify if you are, say, living on your own. So I don’t universally recommend Costco membership.
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The roasted chickens are delicious.
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For Costco? Yes. They are also fair to their suppliers. Their business model is to have an equal share of wallet with their suppliers. Try that with Wal-Mart!
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In Ottawa, they barely look, and since Covid half the time they were waving you through without looking at it. But no booze for sale, at least in Ontario (don’t know why, for wine/beer/cider is sold in grocery stores, liquor sales are strictly controlled by the gov’t.).
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It is for me. My wife and I go once a month or so, generally it’s for “staples”. My list pretty much always consists of the below and paper products and other things when we need it:
Cherry tomatoes
Spinach
Banana (organic)
Milk (organic)
Coffee
Chicken
Salmon
Greek yogurt
Coffee
Frozen fruit for smoothies
Dr. Bronners (when they have it)
All of those things are cheaper there. We bought the executive membership many years ago because they calculated it for us and noted that with the cash back aspect of it, it would pay for itself. Which it did.
When it was offered, I got the Costco Citi Visa card which offers another 2 percent back on purchases there, 4% back on gas, 3 percent on dining/travel and 1 percent everywhere else (though I don’t use it for other purchases). So just doing those first three things with it the first couple years I got more than $500 case back from that when combined with the Executive membership (over 400 for the Citi card, and 80 or 90 from the membership) though through Covid it was less because of no travel, hardly any gas or dining out. Looks like when it pays me back next Feb, I’ll be closer to where we were before.
The gas and dining thing are huge. Especially since Costco gas is already up to 50 cents a gallon cheaper in Southern CA than elsewhere, though we still don’t drive much as my wife is now permanently working from home.
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I’m beginning to think we got a bum deal on membership stores around here! Costco sound totally worth it, but I just checked and the closest ones are 112 miles away 
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Even before covid I made my membership up in coffee alone, once covid started I drink like 2x as much coffee at home so even more so. And yeah the executive membership paid for itself. Gas is about the same here and liquor at their store isn’t cheaper because they aren’t allowed to operate the liquor part of the store as members-only because texas has protectionist liquor laws.
We don’t buy in “bulk” so much as they just have stuff we like that you mostly don’t see other places, decent produce, good meat, good cheese, etc.
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As you don’t seem to agree to the regulations that were stipulated when you bought the membership, I’m sure you went straight to the customer service desk and asked to cancel your membership, right?
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I owe you a Coke.
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It’s not a surprise that Costco isn’t selling alcohol in Ontario (yet). Alcohol in grocery stores in Ontario only came within the last five years or so, and is still relatively limited. Sure, the closest Loblaws can sell beer and wine but the closest independent grocery store can’t (and I know they would love to). Nor can convenience stores.
According to the provincial government there are 450 grocery stores that can sell beer and cider and 150 that can sell wine (link).
I’d love to see them loosen up. I moved to Ontario from Wisconsin, where one of my favorite coffee shops also sold wine and craft beer.
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You have to buy in bulk at Costco for a lot of things. But it isn’t cartoonish. They sell 35 can flats of soda instead of 12 packs, for example, and they sell boxes of 18 ice cream bars instead of the six pack boxes you might get at a normal grocery store.
Same for the most part. We belong to a CSA, so Costco is the filler for stuff that we need otherwise for produce.
I just checked the GasBuddy map and it’s 42 cents cents a gallon cheaper than the closest station and 50 cents less than the next closest. That’s up to 8 bucks cheaper before cash back to fill my tank from empty.
I do buy wine, booze and beer there a fair amount. Particularly the former two. Beer often I’ll chase down at local breweries when the have a new release as I really dig very fresh IPAs.
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They do this at the Costco in Bristol,UK - and the stupidly cheap hot dog/drink combo.
And a tyre bay!
I love going to Costco.
The (in)famous Trago Mills sprawling discount stores in Cornwall, Devon and Wales have checked receipts for as long as I can remember - at least since the late '70.
What’s with the spires? Or are those guard towers?
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