The Costco Shopping During Pandemic Experience

OneEyedDiva

OneEyedDiva

SF VIP
Location
New Jersey
My son has gone to Costco a couple of times since things got hectic here in Jersey. The first time the line was too long. After working long hours, he wasn't up for the wait. He went again yesterday, got there around 8:30 and already about 150 people were on line he said. It was raining and they were only letting 25 people (max) in at a time. But the system was to let only as many in as the number who exited the store. So he left. He was there by 7:30 this morning and a lady was already coming out with her groceries. Only 50 or 60 in line and the bonus....not raining. By a little after 8:00 he's inside. Big change in hours and policies for Costco. They usually don't open on Sundays until 10 (or 11) forgot which. Now only two people can go in per membership. So no more bringing the family. Also Costco will not be accepting returns on some items. More information about the changes here:
https://www.costco.com/covid-updates.html
Do you shop at Costco, Sams or BJs? If so, have you been since the pandemic? If so share you experience in this thread.
 

Wow! Good to know @OneEyedDiva. I haven't shopped Costco since mid-February and was wondering if it had improved much since the huge crowds started lining up.

Our grocery stores haven't had long lines and have been fairly well stocked during senior hours. Guess I'll stick with them for now.
 

StarSong said:
Wow! Good to know @OneEyedDiva. I haven't shopped Costco since mid-February and was wondering if it had improved much since the huge crowds started lining up.

Our grocery stores haven't had long lines and have been fairly well stocked during senior hours. Guess I'll stick with them for now.
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Ditto....We went to Sam's before all this happened (y).. The wife went to Wally World during the senior hour and got everything but one item (flour) that she wanted..She will be going again tomorrow although it won' t be during senior hour..
 
Ken N Tx said:
Ditto....We went to Sam's before all this happened (y).. The wife went to Wally World during the senior hour and got everything but one item (flour) that she wanted..She will be going again tomorrow although it won' t be during senior hour..
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The last time I went to Wally World (funny a friend of mine calls it that too)...it was with the seniors. We went in March, just before the lines at grocery stores started getting crazy. The following week was the last week the center was open. I had ordered a bunch of stuff from Walmart.com between October and December to take advantage of Discover's 5% cash back rewards so don't really need to go back anytime soon. I'll hit our neighborhood supermarket as necessary (some of their prices rival Walmart's). Don't even need to go there for a couple of weeks. Funny you said your wife needed flour. My DIL told me yesterday she was out of flour. Lucky for her I had some here, so I sent it to her.
 
I am a BJ's member but only tried going once right at the beginning of this covid-19 mess. It was the first time I ever saw carts lined up outside waiting to get in, so I didn't go in and I haven't been back. BJ's was offering senior only hours from 8 - 9 am daily, but I'm a few months short of the required age. Since I have someone at home with serious medical conditions, the only shopping I wanted to do was first thing when the store opened -- just sanitized and limited shoppers. Since BJ's won't give the rest of us even one day to be first in when they open, I crossed them off my list for in-store shopping. They also require you to go in the store for order pickup, which kind of defeats the purpose of pickup. I did order one thing online from them, yeast that I couldn't find anywhere else. I can't see a reason to renew the membership when it expires this August.

I've had a few non-perishables shipped from Target. Most of my shopping during this time will be curbside pickup from Walmart -- very easy to do and with the same prices as in the store with no extra fees. I was hooked after my first pickup there this week.
 
I'm a frequent Costco shopper but have not gone to the store since social distancing. I have since used their online
service twice but quite a few items were out of stock and delivery is slower than before the outbreak.
 
I have orderd some things from Costco, and Costco Business delivery. I ordered some things from Sam's Club for curbside pickup, they had only half of the things I ordered. There was a long line of people waiting at the entrance, all properly distanced, they were only letting in 25 shoppers at a time.

My pickup was easy, it was at the Exit, only one other person picking up an online order. Very little contact, man who took care of me had gloves and mask. Other than that, a couple of Kroger supermarket deliveries, no contact. Haven't been to Walmart since the virus restrictions.

Our bedroom TV died a couple of days ago, no picture. My husband ordered another one online and I picked it up curbside a couple of hours later from Best Buy. They put it in the back of my Jeep, easy peasy.
 
I used to shop at Sam's and Costco since we had 5 kids and I often needed a gallon of mayonaise. :LOL: I let my memberships lapse a few years ago but I still order k-cups and other stuff from Costco's website (pay a small upcharge). If I want to go for some reason I can tag along with my friend. She went last week and reported that the store wasn't crowded at all; she was able to get in and out easily and didn't have trouble finding the things she went for.
 
We have a Costco and it is too busy with long wait lines and I won't go in. I have ordered online and should get it next week. You can't order perishables online either (bummer). I do go for gas though as it is about 6-8 cents cheaper than other gas stations.
 
My sister has me on her members card for Sams. I rarely shop there as I don't need that much stuff. She has a lot of company in and out all the time. They also live in a rural area and not much of a grocery store beside Walmart. So it makes sense for her to stock up once a month at Sams including liquor.
 
win231 said:
Never shopped at Costco; never will. I wouldn't pay for the privilege of shopping anywhere & I don't need a ton of anything. I hate crowds, anyway.
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Win, I understand not wanting to shop in bulk (it's not for everybody) and not wanting to deal with the crowds...but trust me when I tell you...the membership fee is well worth it for those of us who do buy in bulk. We normally shop there once a month and easily got our fee back in discounts in two months time. And of course the discounts continued every time we shopped. My late husband had the executive membership which costs more but we figured out that it was cheaper in the long run because he got a yearly rebate of about 2/3 the fee.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
Win, I understand not wanting to shop in bulk (it's not for everybody) and not wanting to deal with the crowds...but trust me when I tell you...the membership fee is well worth it for those of us who do buy in bulk. We normally shop there once a month and easily got our fee back in discounts in two months time. And of course the discounts continued every time we shopped. My late husband had the executive membership which costs more but we figured out that it was cheaper in the long run because he got a yearly rebate of about 2/3 the fee.
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Completely agree. Plus Costco gets THE BEST quality at the best prices. They are one of the few stores who get their own custom contracts and if the companies can’t comply, they get dropped.

Another fantastic thing is that their return policy beats any others. You can purchase something there and if you want to return it years later, you can and get a full refund. Receipts aren’t needed since all the info is on your Costco card. I haven’t done this often but I have done it.

One person purchased a Vitamix from Costco. It has a 7 year guarantee. After 7 years she took it back cause the motor had burned out and got her money back ; no questions asked. 😳 Not something I’d personally do but added it just to show how great their refunds are.

Costco’s name brand Kirkland is also a good name brand. They pick the top brand name , on the most popular items and create their own brand but far cheaper. It’s WELL worth the membership fee.
 
IrisSenior said:
We have a Costco and it is too busy with long wait lines and I won't go in. I have ordered online and should get it next week. You can't order perishables online either (bummer). I do go for gas though as it is about 6-8 cents cheaper than other gas stations.
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Keesha said:
Completely agree. Plus Costco gets THE BEST quality at the best prices. They are one of the few stores who get their own custom contracts and if the companies can’t comply, they get dropped.

Another fantastic thing is that their return policy beats any others. You can purchase something there and if you want to return it years later, you can and get a full refund. Receipts aren’t needed since all the info is on your Costco card. I haven’t done this often but I have done it.

One person purchased a Vitamix from Costco. It has a 7 year guarantee. After 7 years she took it back cause the motor had burned out and got her money back ; no questions asked. 😳 Not something I’d personally do but added it just to show how great their refunds are.

Costco’s name brand Kirkland is also a good name brand. They pick the top brand name , on the most popular items and create their own brand but far cheaper. It’s WELL worth the membership fee.
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Yessss! Right on all counts. I also found out that when you have an eyeglass prescription filled at Costco...if the doctor screwed up the prescription and you don't see the way you should, Costco will fill your corrected prescription at no additional charge. Their Kirkland brand has better baby wipes and disinfectant wipes. Both are larger and sturdier than competing products. I'd buy Kirkland disinfectant wipes at regular price rather than Lysol or Clorox wipes on sale. I have actually been able to use 1/3 a sheet of disinfectant wipes. Costco used to refund the difference in the sale price and regular price if the item went on sale during the next sale cycle. It used to be for a month but now they give only two weeks to get the adjustment.

Costco's chicken Caesar salad is excellent and at half the cost of other restaurants. And of course their rotisserie chicken is to die for. You are right about top shelf stuff. A friend of mine services Costco warehouses and vouches for their top quality too. Also when there was a recall on mixed vegetables a couple of years ago (not their brand), I got a notice about getting refunded for the product. When I got there, the clerk refunded me for all the bags I had bought that year, not just the last one (which I believe was the only one in the recall). And have you noticed that sometimes prices go down at Costco? I saw a documentary that said they look to please their customers so do not raise prices unnecessarily. If they get an extra discount, that shows up in a price reduction.
 
Their famous rotisserie chicken they actually lose money on. I watched a recent documentary about Costco and it said the reason they sell their chickens for such a great price is because it brings customers in and they stay and purchase more things, plus it smells nice good and makes people hungry. Hungry people purchase more things .
It IS really good chicken but so are all their things.
It’s one of my favourite places to shop but I don’t like the crowds. ( who does ? )
 
I've never shopped at B J's or Costco. I WISH they had a Trader Joes nearby, but they don't. Go to Walmart when I need printer cartridges. Walmart has no right to check your packages or reciept on the way out. You didn't sign anything to give them the right to check your personal property. I don't go there unless I absolutely have to!
 
Never shopped at Costco; never will. I wouldn't pay for the privilege of shopping anywhere & I don't need a ton of anything. I hate crowds, anyway.
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I'm a confirmed fan of Costco. When my husband was alive, we used to shop there every 2 weeks or so. Now, I go less often, but still rely on them for excellent quality items at a price that no one else can match. You do have to buy in bulk, but it pays for itself very quickly.

Looking at the "gold standard" in shopping, toilet paper, look at their price for one of their huge packages of (luxury quality) TP, and then do the math to figure out how much you'd be paying for that same number of rolls at your local supermarket. And it's always about quality as much as savings. Last time I bought TP, Costco was out of it, and I connected with a package at my local store. It was the only brand they had. Single ply, crappy quality. And not that cheap. It reconfirmed my appreciation for Costco.

I'm running out of salmon (I always get a large filet and cut it up into several slices and freeze them). I don't want to get involved with the crowds now either, so I'm avoiding Costco, but will probably be forced to go when I start really missing my salmon, which I usually have about once a week.

I've used Costco twice for buying cars. You get a standard price, I think it's $4000 over list price for a new car. No bargaining, no nonsense. The few bucks for a yearly membership fee pays for itself many times over!

So I don't think of it as "paying for the privilege." Looking at the big picture over a year, I think of it as a cost-cutting measure. (Also, some people team up with a neighbor or family member and share an order, so they're not always buying everything in ridiculously large quantities.)
 
I do shop Costco but just not at this time. Well worth the membership and rebate for me at this time. Buy milk, eggs, butter, bread, meat, some cereal, tea, some snacks and have used Costco Travel for going to Nevada last Nov.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
Win, I understand not wanting to shop in bulk (it's not for everybody) and not wanting to deal with the crowds...but trust me when I tell you...the membership fee is well worth it for those of us who do buy in bulk. We normally shop there once a month and easily got our fee back in discounts in two months time. And of course the discounts continued every time we shopped. My late husband had the executive membership which costs more but we figured out that it was cheaper in the long run because he got a yearly rebate of about 2/3 the fee.
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we too have the executive membership, but we haven't shopped there since the pandemic lock-down, and the shortage of food. The huge queues for Costco put us right off the idea... people waiting more than an hour and a half to get through the doors and the same again at the checkouts, ...so we've just shopped at the regular supermarkets since Christmas
 
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Went to Sobey's for groceries this morning at 7 am. Only 2 other seniors shopping at that time. One was a lady with a "bandit" mask & the other was a man with no mask. It was great shopping there. Don't go to Costco nor to Superstore because of the crowds. Don't like the crowds nor do I stand in line for anything. Lucky me, hay?
 
Costco fan here as well. Always buy my tires there, I shop around at other places but with Costco everything is included at their price, it is a lot less expensive than anywhere else. And I saved over $200 on a rental car a few months ago, using costco rental services. Even clothes are excellent quality at bargain prices. And those chickens......and I would think their hot dogs or sausages with a large drink for $1.50 has to be a loss leader as well. These days, as others have said, it is just too busy to shop there, so I have bought a few things online from them.
 
Sunny said:
I've used Costco twice for buying cars. You get a standard price, I think it's $4000 over list price for a new car. No bargaining, no nonsense. The few bucks for a yearly membership fee pays for itself many times over!
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Sunny, I agree that Costco is a great place to shop, but anyone paying $4k OVER list price needs to go back to the bargaining table. :D
 
hollydolly said:
we too have the executive membership, but we haven't shopped there since the pandemic lock-down, and the shortage of food. The huge queues for Costco put us right off the idea... people waiting more than an hour and a half to get through the doors and the same again at the checkouts, ...so we've just shopped at the regular supermarkets since Christmas
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Ditto.
 

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