04-04-2017, 12:52 PM
" It's nuts that there are people who burn $30 worth of gas to save $32 on a shopping trip"
It depends on what you need. The stainless steel shelving units were $80 each cheaper at Costco than Cost-U-Less. Pays for 1 year membership and 1 trip's worth of gas. The same could be said for a single bottle of scotch. Or one car battery. Or two tires. A lot of people with the executive memberships don't pay for their memberships because their cash-back amount is higher than membership fees. There are other gimmicks too, like sharing costco memberships. Your membership comes with cards for two people. So long as they both can get mail at the same household they do not have to be related.
A lot of the produce for sale at the east side "farmer's markets" come from Costco. Half the inventory of Cost-U-Less comes from Costco, and marked up appropriately for the resale.
Gas at KOA Costco a week ago was $2.49/gallon. Imagine what it would be in Hilo if they didn't have to truck it half way across the island... $1.99? That would pay the yearly membership fee in 4-5 fill-ups.
It depends on what you need. The stainless steel shelving units were $80 each cheaper at Costco than Cost-U-Less. Pays for 1 year membership and 1 trip's worth of gas. The same could be said for a single bottle of scotch. Or one car battery. Or two tires. A lot of people with the executive memberships don't pay for their memberships because their cash-back amount is higher than membership fees. There are other gimmicks too, like sharing costco memberships. Your membership comes with cards for two people. So long as they both can get mail at the same household they do not have to be related.
A lot of the produce for sale at the east side "farmer's markets" come from Costco. Half the inventory of Cost-U-Less comes from Costco, and marked up appropriately for the resale.
Gas at KOA Costco a week ago was $2.49/gallon. Imagine what it would be in Hilo if they didn't have to truck it half way across the island... $1.99? That would pay the yearly membership fee in 4-5 fill-ups.