I finally visited a COSTCO...

…and it kind of sucked, LMAO

i mean, you guys ALWAYS talk about costco. Ive wanted to visit one since i joined here!

my buddy and his mom took me to eat up past the airport which is past the city… an hour one way trip for the crab shack… and i saw a COSTCO in t he diastance!

they wouldnt go, so, i made plane for ME and HIM to go back “whenever”… which happened a coup[le weeks before xmas…

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1) cool store, but…
2) they want 55 DOLLARS just for the PRIVELEGE of shopping there. every year!
3) i was imagining more flashlights, lol

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now to be fair? there was ONE awesome deal, mabe… a 3-pack of “FEIT” zoomies…3d, 3c and 3-aaa…they actuallyy LOOKED decent quality, like 25 bucks for the 3 pack…

no other flashlights even worth thinking about, i mean, walmart has a better selection, lmao… and 55 dollars a YEAR, for a 2 hour drive and 20 dollars worth of GAS…

not even worth it to order online and get free shipping to the store if they offer that? because the gas and membership eats up any savings whatsoever…

now… that all aside? great store, i think they had a lot of deals on a lot of stuff… and if i drove past one every day? it would be worth it to join and go there…

I don’t have a membership but sometimes go with people who do. to be fair, I didn’t see many good deals either! I guess it depends heavily on what you’d need and how big your family is.
Every once in a while they have a battery deal of some sort, like eneloops and a charger.
But the hot dogs and burgers typically are very decent at a fair price (the grill outside)

East coast… May I ask what store? One recently opened here in Lehigh Valley, PA.
Was thinking Eneloop deals but mentioned previously.
Not a place I would join as I am single and other than a major purchase like a TV (don’t need) or something similar I have no reason to spend $55 to save less than that in a year.

But I do and will continue to pay for Amazon Prime.

And I do all my own reloading, casting etc… :smiley: :+1:
will check your ste

I go to Costco every other week to buy food and household supplies. While I’m there I do a bit of impulse shopping. That being said, Costco works for me. I love it. I’ve been a member ever since they opened up near me in Melville Long Island many years ago. At the time they were called Price Club

Costco is not the place to see a selection of flashlights. Once in a while they have their 2-3 pack of tactical, and or high lumen lights that come with batteries at decent prices.

If you shop often at their store the $55 membership fee (not a privilege) pays for itself many time over…especially if you have a Costco Visa…you get 4% back on gas purchases (not only Costco gas) 3% back on restaurants and travel, 2% on all purchases in Costco.

Most items online are shipped to your home free.

The main difference between Costco and Sam’s: you will find better quality merchandise and customer service than you would find at Sam’s or BJ’s.

At Costco, many items priced will be your best price to purchase. Once one becomes a member you learn real fast that if you see an item at a great price…you better buy it or it will be gone by the next time you come back shopping.
Shopping around at other stores for the same item, makes you realize that your wasting your time…Costco’s price will either be better or equal to the best sale price you find in any other store.

Their pricing on Michelin or Goodrich tires are hard to beat….with lifetime tire rotation, and road hazards included.

Try and beat their pricing on prescription glasses or contacts….you can’t.

You like to drink a nice wine?….They are the largest wine retailer in the country, and the largest importer of high-end French wines.

Discounted Gift cards for many restaurants…20% off the retail value;;;ie $100, you pay $80

Next time you need a drug prescription filled, compare it to Costco’s drug prescription pricing…and you don’t need to be a member to have your drug prescription filled.

You also receive access to their travel program, flights, hotels, rental cars, and cruises.

Their price of gas will be the most competitive around for top tier gas.

If you have a young family, or entertain a lot…you would save a ton of $$.

Where else can you get a cooked rotisserie chicken for $5…….or an all beef hot dog with a soda for $1.67?

It just happened that I went to Costco today, only for the purpose of grabbing Lunch. Lunch prices are the cheapest around by FAR. The hotdog soda combo is $1.50, 1/4 pound hotdog with large soda. Can’t beat that. Today I got the chicken Caesar salad. it’s huge.

BUT, today after I ate lunch, I walked the store to get the free food samples :slight_smile: and found these.

These are consumer versions of the cheap, junky RGB lights that you see on Banggood, FastTech, etc.
This kit includes power brick, remote and 3! strips of 12 foot (10M) LED’s. They are indoor and outdoor and they don’t smell. Very high quality and packaged for the retail market.
I have bought other versions of this product and compared to the quality and price of these, I feel ripped off on the ones I ordered online.

Other pics with my SK68 in the pic for scale.


High quality connectors. Each 12 foot section can be daisy chained for a total of 36 feet.



And it comes with a nice printed manual! (4 languages)

for 55$ a year i prefer amazon prime thanks

As mentioned Costco is not a flashlight store, they are a bulk products store that has a couple flashlight related items.
I can usually beat Costco prices if i go to every other retailer on sales, cereal at one grocery, meat at another, vegetables at a third.
Hence Costco is usually cheaper then retail but more pricey then a good sale.
You pay a slight premium for the convenience of not waiting for the sale and all at one location.

Sometimes they have great prices on some items and sales of their own, this is when you really stock up.

One thing to always beware of with Costco is that if you buy large amounts of anything you become tempted to use it faster then you would otherwise, which is how they keep you coming back for more, a variation of the jevons paradox.

In my country (Panama) Costco changed its name to PriceSmart many years ago and the membership fee is $40 per year. Price as compared to a normal supermarket chain are usually much lower and they offer imported products that otherwise wouldn’t be available anywhere else.

I haven’t seen a decent flashlight for a long time, the last time they had something worthy of buying was a 9x AA Coast HP550, which was actually my first ever XM-L2 light. All I see now are duracell zoomies and cheap chinese stanley spotlight copycats…

Lowes had a number of these Feit flashlights on sale just before xmas… I almost bought one. No $55 membership fee either.

It’s true, Costco isn’t for everyone.
But there is no denying that it is a phenomenal store. Everyone must know about WalMart, they are the largest grossing retailer in the world. Costco is number 2, and they only started in 1976.
I pulled these statistics from this web site.
The World’s Top 10 Retailers (WMT, COST)

WalMart $485 Billion, 11,453 Stores
Costco $112 Billion, from only 671 stores

If you have never visited a Costco, you just can’t appreciate how much stuff they sell. The places are super, super busy. And they know how to move people thru the checkouts.

“No Soup for You” LOL

yeah, i slobbered over the big packs of eneloops, lol… like i said? if it were a LITTLE closer, to where i could SHOP there somewhat more regularly? yeah, it would be a good deal.

VW pieces… hey another fellow pennsylvanian. you seem to be on the SE of the state i am in the SW of the state. I look forward to (possibly) seeing you on the reloading site in my sig…

I just dont “see” costco’s around here much. This one was… we drove north to the city (pittsburgh) then up past the airport. would have never SEEN the place, except it was near the famous crab place we ate at…

Depends. I’ve only gone as a guest, and got some things I probably wouldn’t get elsewhere, like a basketball-sized jar of peanut butter, brick of cheddar cheese (a few, actually), and the like. Oh, stocked up on all seasons of “Alias” and “24” way back when, too, and a few assorted movies. Just got thinking about the bags of frozen potstickers I used to get there, and am getting really hungry now. Damn.

About tires, don’t really know. I always gravitate to GY Eagles, but they haven’t made GTs or GT+4s in ages. Their TripleTreds stick kinda nicely, though. No idea if they carry/sell GY tires, though.

My new car, though, came with Michelins, so I’d have to see if there be any Eagles in the right size. If not, I might stick with Michelin. Maybe TireRack carries something interesting… (I don’t want a “touring” tire, but something that sticks like glue.)

You don’t need a membership to get prescriptions filled, ’though thank B’harni (pbuh!) I don’t need any.

Gas, not sure what brand(s) they sell, but I’m pretty sure that’s discounted, too.

Other things, though, doesn’t really pay. Depends on what you need, and if they have it “in stock” at the time. If I’m looking for, say, those trays of fresh figs, or a hamper-sized box of granoly bars, well, they might have them, or they might not. Flip a coin. Dunno if they carry flashlights except for what you might find at a big box store.

Not sure if they offer a trial, but it might be worth it if you intend to do most/all your shopping there. Otherwise, it might not. Eg, the Stop’n’Shop by me has amazing fruits’n’veggies, but is hit or miss for other things. But, I get gas points. Save ’em up, and you can get 60¢, 70¢, or more off per gallon. Do some judicious pennypinching salewise, and you get score big.

I live in Southern California, and there is at least 4 or more Costco’s with a 10 - 20 minute drive from me.

I’m a Costco fan boy, so much, that I have the executive membership that is $110/yr. But last year I got $90 back… so really, it only cost me $20. In the SF bay area there are tons of Costco. Between work and home there are 4, and 2 of them have fuel stations. They are not a flashlight store for the type of people that come on here.

The quality of the products is generally pretty high. And if you have a problem with something, they have an almost unlimited return policy (electronics excluded). They have just about the lowest price on gas. And as others have mentioned, the dog and rotisserie chicken are great deals, and taste good. I also get a 2lb bag of fair trade coffee beans for $10. And they often clearance things for really cheap. Any price ending in .97 is clearance, like the strip lights above. Sometimes the “clearance” price is not great, but it will drop if it doesn’t sell.

Some of the downsides… they normally only have 1 type/brand/flavor of things. Like peanut butter, creamy or chunky, but not both. And one brand of it, maybe 2 if there’s a Kirkland (Costco store brand) version. I also find the produce to be lacking.

Costco sells dogs as food now? :smiley:

I go there for the big jar of Jelly Belly’s :+1:

And I actually like their meat counter.

Went today and got 10 made in Japan AA Eneloops for $19.99

Are these the latest 5th gen eneloops?