Costco - hidden deals??

[Gardenarian]

Hi,

tyr2bfrugal recently posted that Costco has discount movie tickets - news to me!
This summer I did get cheap tickets at Costco for an amusement park.

Although their prices on tech stuff might not be the lowest, their service and return policies are wonderful.

We also recently switched to Costco for car insurance - shopped around and they were the cheapest by quite a bit!

Anyone have great deals at Costco they'd like to share? They seem to have just about everything, from garage doors to hearing aids.

[sweetana3]

Project boxes about 14 X 14 for storage are 5 for $18.99. Not all Costco's have them all the time. They sell out fast. Crafters love them to sort projects.

They have the best!!!! almond bark and peppermint bark. They use a high quality dark chocolate for the base.

We pay for our membership by buying discount Einstein Bagel gift cards. We checked our records and figured out how much we spend a year at Einstein and got that many cards. $50 card for $40.

Hearing aid batteries are $8.99 or more than 50% off. Plus Mom says they last longer.

Real vanilla and maple syrup are cheaper than I can get anywhere locally.

Hubby loves their underwear and we just got quick dry Adidas Tshirts for exercise and travel for $10 each.

I am thinking about the wool blend trail socks.

[rosarugosa]

They have really good prices on booze. I've been told that their Kirkland brand vodka is actually Gray Goose.
Their prices for eye wear are also excellent, as well as prescriptions.
I'm interested in learning more about their car buying program, but getting contacted by one of their preferred dealerships is too early in the process for me, i.e. I want more info on the program, such as sample prices and dealership names, before I share my contact info. Apparently they have pre-negotiated prices with certain dealerships.
I'll have to see if my Mom knows about the movie tickets. She is a Costco member and she goes to the movies a lot.

[catherine]

Yeah, as I just posted in the other thread, I'm now excited about a Costco coming in about 2 min. from my house.

[Rogar]

I do some serious amateur photography including photos to display in juried exhibits. They use professional quality printing equipment and their prices are close to half what I can get by mail order from printing services. I occasionally do prints 16"X 20" or larger. The have printer profiles online for the more serious, so I can profile my digital files to their printer for color accuracy. I've had some small quality issues and they will make good on things. At least around here, they do prints in store but outsource canvas prints, which are also very inexpensive.

They also scan and digitize the old 35mm slides and I've used this service to digitize old family photos on slides. The quality is good and the cheapest I could find. Also, I've had them put VCRs on DVDs. They outsource these services so turnaround is sort of slow.

I looked into their car buying service for a recent car purchase, and my opinion was that a person could do as well or better doing their own research and negotiation, but I read some good reviews and some people swear by it.

[lhamo]

I really like Costco. Their headquarters and flagship store is in the town where I went to high school, and we go there to stock up on stuff when we are back in the US. Things we find to be of excellent value, especially compared to prices in China for imported goods:

Vitamins and OTC drugs
Contact lens solution (sometimes can find it cheaper on sale at Target or Fred Meyer, but since I'm only in the US a couple of times a year if the timing doesn't work out on sales I just stock up here)
Maple syrup (though I kind of like Trader Joe's brand better...)
Spices -- whole black pepper, ground black pepper, smoked paprika, italian blend, himalayan pink salt, steak rub, taco seasoning, VANILLA, ground cinnamon
Dried fruits -- these are really expensive in China
Chocolate chips -- ditto
Protein bars and protein powder -- ditto
Parchment paper -- amazing value compared to what you pay at grocery and cooking specialty stores

For daily grocery type items, we like:

Dave's bread -- I think it is $6.99 or 7.99 for two loaves, while Fred Meyer is almost that much for one loaf
Whole wheat tortillas -- we actually stock up on these and bring them back to china. really expensive here
Cheese, cheese, cheese. Costco's non-specialty cheeses run around $.25/ounce. We pay close to $.70/ounce for cheese here in China. Last year I bought 10 pounds of sliced and shredded cheese to bring back. This year I will probably buy more.
Roast chicken -- their chickens are huge and I can usually get three or more meals out of them if I make soup from the carcass.
Salad mix -- amazing deal compared to grocery stores. A big box of organic salad mix lasts us about a week.
Produce -- stuff that is expensive in regular stores tends to be a good deal here. Avacadoes, asparagus, sweet peppers, and mushrooms are the things we typically get. Fruit is sometimes more expensive than the grocery store, but quality is often better. The cherries they had last summer were AMAZING. I probably ate about 10 lbs in the two weeks we were home....

[puglogic]

The coolest thing I get at Costco are Spa Finder gift cards. You can get $100.00 in gift cards (2 x 50) for about $80.00. If I use them then on a day when my local massage place has a special, I end up paying half what I'd pay if I didn't get sneaky like this. In the winter, I find if I get a massage every 3rd week or so, I can help avoid getting injured, stiff/sore, etc. So Costco is a godsend that way.

[try2bfrugal]

I bought an Entertainment book at Costco for $25. The books get marked down online at the Entertainment.com site as the year wears on, but I bought mine when the online prices were still $35 for a $10 savings. We went out to eat last night at a cute Mexican restaurant - $10 off the bill with an Entertainment coupon. If you like to go out to eat once a week, that could be a $475 savings on restaurants alone. We order two meals for $10 each, get one for free, plus pay tax and tip for a meal out for $14. If we ate at home we might spend $5 anyway. So for $9 over eating at home we get a date night out each week. If we go to the movies it is $8 each for the Costco tickets by us, though local matinee prices are $6.50, so that is even cheaper than Costco movie ticket prices.

We live near a Costco so we get gas for the cars at ours. They have the lowest prices for gas for miles.

This month we bought the Entertainment book, movie tickets, 10 pounds of frozen chicken breasts for $2.10 a pound, eggs, olive oil, organic beef, box of 4 pizzas ($2.50 each for the cheese kind), contact solution, paper towels, toilet paper, natural laundry detergent, facial tissues, organic frozen mixed veggies, honey, dried onions, taco seasoning, bulk gravy mix, frozen sirloin burgers, deli chicken and hamburger buns. We get our glasses from Costco Optical and sometimes get tires from the tire shop.

From the snack bar DH and kids get hot dogs and I get a huge frozen yogurt for $1.25 compared to $4 for half the size from the strip mall yogurt shops.

Our local Sam's Club has better prices on some items. We find it pays to belong to both clubs. Sam's often has electronics priced so much below other stores we can save the membership fee and then some just on one PC or lap top. I got a good deal on a low end lap top at Sam's yesterday to browse the web from the big screen TV. I want to show DH how he can watch the network shows for free through the Internet on the network web sites, plus free courses and documentaries, so he will agree to give up cable.

Office supplies (manila and hanging folders), sirloin steak and fresh chicken breasts ($1.77 pound) were cheaper at Sam's Club for us than Costco this past month. We also bought wine and chocolate liqueurs for Christmas at Sam's but I don't know for those if the Costco prices were more or less.

We can get produce much cheaper at the local ethnic markets that either Sam's or Costco, plus we don't have to buy such large amounts.

[Liv]

Costco is cheaper on just about Everything here in Maui. They even have the 'tourist' stuff like whale watching tours, snorkeling tours, dinner at Outback, Ruby Tuesdays, etc at fairly big discounts. Really worth it to stop in at the beginning of your vacay here!