Costco Angst

Costco has been getting me so mad lately. The visits usually start well enough but they’ve been ending on an infuriating note. Don’t get me wrong. Costco can be generally enjoyable, mainly when there’s hardly anyone there. They usually have all these random, interesting things that they bring in to sell which you might not see elsewhere. They have solid prices on a lot (but not all) of what they sell. And they have cheap take out food. But man, the last few times when I end up at the cashier…holy smokes does it rile my biscuits, and I’m going to tell you why.

For many years now, I’ve maintained a basic Costco membership. In the pre-kids time in my life, we’d go somewhat regularly – maybe every couple weeks – and stock up on some things. We could usually get away with trips around $100 or so; simple needs and such. Then when babies came along, the bills did increase noticeably, especially when factoring in a box of diapers, wipes, and some teething children meds. These could easily tack on an additional $100. Then came the post baby food stage, and now entered food items like soy milk, bear paws, kid snacks etc.

More recently, as in during the pandemic period, we’ve gone much more infrequently. Maybe once every month or two. Of course, now we tend to stock up more on each trip to hold us through until the next one, so the last bill came up to around $450. Not too bad when you average that over 2 or 3 months.

Guilting A “Basic” Grump

However, as I said previously, the cashier experience has been driving me nuts. I swear now every time I go, the cashier always asks me “Have you considered upgrading from the basic membership to our executive membership?”, to which I always reply, “I’m aware of it, but not interested.” Usually this is enough to end that conversation. But this last time I went, after I told the guy “No”, he took my receipt, and wrote out the number I would have “saved” if I had been with the executive membership. “You would be saving $8 this time. It would especially be worth it if you’re spending this much ($450) each time you come”. At this point, I just wanted to take my groceries and go. Which I did, but boy oh boy do they try and guilt you in to upgrading your membership.

This one time I went a few years ago, I had a lady cashier who asked me the same thing about upgrading. And I told her what I had told that other cashier. You know what she did? She called one of their “standby” people over, gave them MY card before I knew what was what, and next thing I know that person ran away with it to this far off computer while I was stuck with my groceries. They ran a quick profile of my account to “figure out” how much I’d save. Did I tell her, “Hey, I’m interested. Can you please look into this for me?”. Hell No!. What the heck! Holy aggressive sales tactics. You know what, I get it. More/higher memberships increase Costco’s profits and I know that Costco employees are highly “encouraged” to push these membership upgrades, but geeze. Leave me be!! I’ve thought about trying to argue with them, but then convince myself I’d just be wasting my time.

I also really like the fact that Costco tracks your spending from each visit. (Insert Sarcasm here). Nothing like invasion of privacy! Then they try and convince you to upgrade based on their predetermined amounts. I’m not always going to be buying diapers and wipes each trip, so I’m not confident in the amount I’ll be spending every time or even how often I’ll go. Circumstances change.

Membership From a Silly Person’s View

So what’s this executive membership all about? Why am I so angry about it? Am I just a silly person?

Costco’s basic membership allows you to shop at the store and runs at $60 (+ tax) per year. I’m a fan of this. You can get some pretty solid deals on certain items if you’re strategic with your grocery needs. But you can also easily blow your shopping budget if you lose focus of the purpose of your trip. Just try to avoid impulse purchases. The basic membership provides no cash back reward.

The executive membership is another $60 on top of the basic, so you’d be paying $120 (+ tax) per year. Their are several proclaimed advantages such as an annual 2% reward (up to $1,000/year) on most Costco purchase, as well as other options such as various insurance and telecommunication offers. But what they always push is the 2% cash back reward.

Can You Reap What You Sow?

However, to actually recoup the executive’s extra $60 + tax ($67.80), I’d have to spend almost $3400 per year just to break even! And that doesn’t even consider if I wanted to try and recoup the original base membership cost of $60. I’d have to spend near $6,800 total for that. That’s a boat load of grocery money!

So, back to that $3400/year number, you’d have to spend. Actually, it would be slightly more than that because you don’t receive 2% on taxes that you pay. If 50% of your $3,400 groceries were taxed, then you’d actually end up spending $~3,600 per year to recoup the fee. For non-taxed items think of things like vegetables, bread, milk, etc.

That means every month I would need to spend $300. But to that point, if I’m going to regularly spend a max of $300/month at Costco anyway, why would I bother paying an extra $60 for the privilege to do so? Because Costco tells me “it’s worth it!”??? Lies! All of it!

Just to be certain, I reviewed the last several years of Costco purchases.

2018: $3477

2019: $3339

2020: $2806

2021: $1289

Hey Big Spender!

Even if I was in the higher spender category, let’s say $600/month, and I was able to recoup the executive $60 fee as well as the base membership $60 fee, I would only be ahead ~$60 in total compared to if I had only had the base membership to begin with. It’s a lot easier (and quicker) to save $60 by not spending it, than it is by spending $7200/year to get the 2% back. Just spend $7140/year instead and you’re done!

So, I don’t believe the executive is worth. And I will NOT be upgrading to it any time soon.

Do you have an executive membership? How much do you spend each month at Costco? Should you be spending less there in the first place? Questions, questions…

End of rant… 🙂