Why Warehouse Clubs Might Be Awesome #093

the world. You can try to convince me, but man, I have not joined yet, so this is your last chance. It should be last and final chance should be a fun discussion, and you know, to be fair from the get go, I will say they're not for everyone. You're already backpedaling, But I love my costco membership. I think it's gonna be a fun conversation today. We will see about that, best buddy. I wanted to share a quick story though with you about a bike helmet. A story

about a bike helmet. This sounds intriguing. It's like the it's like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants it's about the helmet though this time. Actually I don't know anything about that movie or those books, but I feel like that this might be a very similar story. Okay, alright, I'm intrigued. I never read the book either. A couple of months ago I was writing, I had taken the girls up to up the corner between where you and

I live. In between us is a big parking lots that belongs to a church, and they paved it recently, and it's awesome for biking, fantastic spots. Take the kids to ride bikes, kids go up there play. It is a little free library. It's just like a little hub to our neighborhood. We had a great time, came home, we know, went back to living our life. A few days later, I was trying to get the girls together to go on another bike ride, and we were missing a helmet. Well, you can guess as to where we

finally realized that we left it. We left it up at that church. But it was close to a week later at least, before we realized that your detective skills, by the way, we could totally for got unparalleled. We thought, well, the girls will grab the helmets and just like stash them somewhere in the house, and so I'm like looking in the closets, looking outside. I've been there. You know what I'm saying. I know what that's But we finally realized, like, oh,

we probably left it up there. So I went up to the church and was asking someone that works there and like, hey, any chance you saw a pink helmet? And well they asked around and she got back to me and was like, hey, somebody saw that. Nobody can remember what happened to it. It was sort of this vague answer, and I was like, this is weird, but whatever, alright, fine.

I put it off for a couple of months, but I finally realized, we need to get a helmets because all the girls they need one, right, So that leads me to value village. I wasn't necessarily looking for a helmet. I was looking for some yard tools. Oh I would have assumed you might have gone to all need to get a bike helmet, but no, Hey, that would have been a great guest because all the is the best. And you know, like on your phone, like you think of something and then you see an ad for that,

like the next day on Instagram. Yes it's creepy. Yeah, Aldi has that, but without like the Vladimir Putin Russian technology. Somehow they just know what it is that my wife and I need, and all of a sudden they're carrying it. This massive company just into it what you need. It's incredible. But regardless. I was at value village looking for a rake or something, and I thought, oh, this might be a good spot to maybe find a helmet that might

actually be in decent shape. Specifically, I hopped over there, and I was looking for one that had the little round dial in the back because a little word to the wise, that's how you get a helmet to really fit your kid well as you make sure that you can adjust it. And and I saw one and saw so stoked, and I thought, oh, man, there's one at the bottom of the pile, kind of like hanging on there.

And I looked a little bit closer and I realized, wait a minute, that's pink helmet, Like that's the helmet that we lost. I flipped it over it It It had the mini mouth sticker there on the side and everything. I could not believe it. Man, I was beside myself.

I was so stoked. That's incredible, like like what are the chances right right to find something that you lost, first off, that made it to the third story by your house, and then second off that you know wasn't already gone or what I mean just then I happened to like go and see it. There's so many other things that could have happened. That little helmet along the way sister to the traveling Helmet. Am I right? And so obviously I was stoked. I was beside myself. I

thought it was just sort of a funny story. And so when I took it to the register, I started telling the lady about how all this came to be, which she as amazed as I am. Well, she kind of rolled her eyes because I think she knew where I was going with it, which was trying to see if I could somehow get this helmet back for free because it was my helmet, and she wasn't that convinced by my story. Maybe she gets this all the time, I don't know. So she had to go get a manager.

And while she did that, what I realized is that I need some proof. I need some evidence. So whipped out that phone, scroll back a few months and found a picture of my daughter wearing that helmet and you couldn't see that mini mouth sticker, but what you could see was a chip piece of the shell of the helmet. So I pinched and zoomed in and I was like, look, man,

it's right there. So I showed him the chip in the picture, showed him the chip on the helmet, and he just kind of cracked up, laughing and just let me go with it. He let me have the helmet for were free. I didn't have to pay anything, but it didn't That just crazy. I mean, I wanted to share that story because it's just such a wild thing. I feel like that happened totally random. I was so happy.

But then secondly, I wanted to share how you know, like we've had an episode before, we talked about the art of asking for a discount episode number eighteen, Buddy, eighteen eighteen. I was way back when it was a while ago. But yeah, that's what you have to do. You have to ask for that discount. You have to be that advocate for yourself, because you know, had I not said anything and not shared how excited I was, or shared the whole story, man, I would have just

had to pay the five bucks. The four nine that was written on the helmet with with sharpie that I had to go home and rub off plus tacks exactly. You know what that makes me think of, like we just gotta well, first off, I love the story and yeah, yeah it happened, and then you found the helmet. I'm sure your girls were pumped when you brought it home, right, Yeah.

I came in literally I was. I was holding it over my head kind of like bouncing it up and down, you know, while the girls were like, Daddy, where did you find being commed? You know, I got to play the hero, which is a lot of fun, kind of like in the movie Rudy where they hold him on

their shoulders or something like that. Yeah. No, I just made me think of a recent listener email that we got based on that episode about asking for a discount, and the listener told us that their landlord was planning to raise their rent somewhere in the range like a hundred seventy dollars a month, a lot of money. Yeah, I think it was like a corporate department complex. And

he asked for a discount. He asked for a lower monthly rate, and just by asking his landlord was like, Okay, and only raised his rent thirteen dollars some teen bucks. Isn't that crazy? He saved almost two thousand dollars a year. Yeah, and he didn't say that he wrote some like giant essay or like some official letters. He just straight up just asked the guy. It doesn't have to be anything over the top. It doesn't have to be you know,

this big song and dance. But sometimes just by asking just that act alone can actually lead to a major impact in your finances or something minor or five bucks off a helmet that's already yours, but it was less the money for us and just more of the like that's mine, like that used to be ours. It felt weird because that's like, am I really going to pay for something that used to be mine? That was accidentally donated there? So the more of the story. Yeah, if

you don't ask, you don't receive EVE. But also to man, check out your local thrist store, your local value village if that's what you've got, or or goodwill, and yeah, you never know what you might find. You might even find something that used to belong to you that you won back, No doubt, dude, I love a good thrist store run although it's been a while for me. I need to get back into the swing of things. Where's that you know? My favorite thrist store shirt that you

had was like that. Uh it's like there's a T shirt and it had like these rabbits on it that we're running like some sort of bunny run. Yeah. I still got that one. Yeah. Actually, one of my best friends, Josh, had an eBay store where he sold vintage clothing. All he did was shop at every single local area Thirst store in Florida and he would resell that stuff on eBay. And he had a full time job out of reselling clothes on on online, which I thought was really cool

idea for her business. Yeah, Josh, he had good taste, he did. I love that shirt. Alright, So Matt, let's mention the beer that we're having on the show today. We're drinking Buffalo Soldier by Utah Brewing Company. And big thanks again to listener Andy for sending this beer out as well. We had a beer that he donated on Monday A two. Yeah, this is a black I p A. I'm not sure if you've ever had this style on

the show before. This is one of the styles that maybe I've only had once or twice in my entire life, so really excited to share this one with you. And we'll share our thoughts on this beer at the end of the episode, no doubt. All Right, Matt, onto the subject at hand, why warehouse clubs are so stinking great? And uh, I think right. I think it's gonna be a fun conversation because we both kind of fall on different sides of this issue. I am kind of a die hard Costco member. I I also have been a

member of Sam's Club in the past. I think there's some really good, compelling reasons for people to consider joining a warehouse club. And I know that you have really staunchly refused to partake. And so let's get into kind of some pros and cons and kind of not partake of the Costco. So let's get into the too, the good and the bad. And yeah, I want to hear your take on on warehouse clubs. All right, Jil, let me share my problem that I had with warehouse clubs.

The issue you know that I have and maybe others do too, is that I am not sure that a warehouse club membership is worth it. The reason being is that with new grocery stores like Aldi, Like you mentioned earlier, these guys are cropping up everywhere, and it's really easy for us now to get affordable groceries, you know. And then on top of that, online shopping allows us to get the best deals on the other items that I

can't get at Aldi. So that begs the question is it worth it to join Costco or you know, like you said, Sam's Club or b J's whatever warehouse club that you have in your area. Yeah, So that's what we're discussing today. Let's run through a couple of things before we kind of get into the pros and cons of how we feel about the warehouse clubs. Really, these warehouse clubs cater themselves to different clientele. That's something that we kind of need to know upfront. I've been a

member of Sam's Club. I'm currently member of Costco. Sam's Club seems to attract more small business owners. They just have more stuff that seems to target itself towards towards folks in particular that have their own small business that mix machines, yeah, factors. Yeah, especially people that own, like let's say, convenience store. They have a lot of stuff that convenience stores could resell in their own store. So it's interesting to note that they're all different, the price

points different. Two so it's sixty dollars to join Costco, forty five to join Sam's. I think BJ's is fifty. And you can find sign up specials from time to time at each of these stores. B J's in particular, if you have one of those close close by awtent times, they'll offer you a free sixty day trial membership, which is kind of nice way to get your foot in

the door for free. Yeah, and remember one time you were trying to get me to go ahead and join Costco when they're offering a sweet discount, they had like have their membership rates. They're gonna throw in like a free case of water, like a gift card. Chicken. Yes, we're gonna get to the chicken man. This is such a random assortment of goods this one has like to shop at Costco exactly what it's like Like. The whole thing kind of made me think, I don't think I

want to be a part of this. The whole thing kind of weirded me out, I understand, honestly, because before I joined Costco, a spare tire here we'll just throw this as well. It does seem it does seem odd from the outside in if you if you've never been in one, if you kind of don't know how they work. By the way, I also wanted to mention there is a website that's kind of trying to be the online

equivalent of a warehouse club. It's called boxed dot com, and uh, it doesn't necessarily have quite as good a deals, but there's also no membership fee. For someone who's looking to buy in bulk or maybe doesn't live very close to any of these warehouse clubs, you know, boxed dot com could be a good online alternative for folks like that. Nice man, I've actually never heard of boxed box dot com.

Excited to hear that's an option, though. So in order to convince me, though, you're gonna have to lay some pros on me, all the different reasons why you love costco so much. Late on thick, I will, all right, So later in the show, we're gonna get into some of the specific services that are offered the best specific items to buy at warehouse clubs, but for now, I'm going to kind of generalize it. Okay, first that I

want you to know a lot of these things. I'm gonna specifically talk about Costco a lot because that's where I'm a member, although many of these warehouse clubs offer kind of similar things. I wanted to mention that employees are treated really well. In particular, at Costco, there's a fifteen dollar minimum wage. Employees are just really happy there,

and that that's a sign of a good company. In my opinion, shopping at Costco is is pleasant, and I think in large part that's because the employees feel loyal to the company because the company cares for them well, and to me, that kind of sets the table for enjoying the place where you shop. Right, Knowing that the employees are well taken care of and that they care for you, that's kind of one check mark in favor

of Costco in the warehouse clubs. Yeah, you can always tell like a good company like that, right when you've got employees that are happy to be there and they're smiling, and they're asking you questions and engaging with you versus just showing up doing the bare minimum. If they're younger, a lot of times they're just like on their phone, like playing Fortnite while they're supposed to be working. It's like, come on, guys, like, I'm trying to find some tires, right, yeah, fortnite.

A lot of people are predicted to that, right, I've heard of this, all right. So another check mark in the corner of the warehouse clubs is it buying in bulk does often lead to lower prices, and in Costco in particular has a commitment to not mark up anything more than fift in its stores, and so you kind of know when you're looking at the price that you're not getting gouged. You you know that whatever you're paying, well at max it's fifteen percent more than the cost

the Costco paid to acquire the item. And there's kind of something cool about that. Yeah, I didn't know that, knowing that, you know, in a grocery store there could be certain items in there that are marked up. You know, most grocery store items are marked up between twenty five and fifty, and so you just kind of know that you're getting, you know, a solid deal. It might not always be the best deal, but you know you're getting a really really good deal. And so I like that

about shopping at a place like Costco. You know, I wanted to share a quick pro of Costco is that I've experienced the Kirkland signature, which is like the Costco store brand, even though not a member there, though I have experienced that delicious brand, whether it be at your house, Joel, or at a friends. You know, you got to cook out and you see Kirkland signature. That's pretty good stuff.

You know. I've been impressed with the quality, you know, of the store brand, and it's telling of a company when you see folks buying the store brand like that, Yes, you kind of just stole my thunder for the next thing. Else to say, no, it's all good, No, it's funny. It's so true that the Kirkland signature brand has kind of taken on this life of its own, and anybody that shops at Costco realizes that oftentimes the Kirkland signature equivalent to the name brand that's being sold next to it,

is oftentimes better at a lower price. So it's fascinating how Costco has been able to create a lot of loyalty from their shoppers by giving them a cheaper, generic brand that they take a lot of pride in. Do you think it's in the marketing, The fact that they named it something kind of cool like Kirkland signature. Honestly, it had no appeal to me, and I doubted it until I started buying that stuff. And and Emily and I are both now Holkline and Sinker were like, if

it says Kirkland signature, it's going to be good. It's just true. It just really is really good stuff. And is the Kirkland signature beer. Actually, Okay, that's one place they fall short. Their Kirkland signature beer is terrible. I will I will readily admit that. Just don't buy that beer. But but we're also ridiculous beers. Yeah, we're pretty. We're pretty, particularly when it comes to our booze. Yeah. But almost anything in the store that says Kirkland signature on it

is going to be really, really good. And so also they have lots of organic options at Costco. So if you are super into buying organics, that's one of the best places in the United States to get really good organics at a reasonable price. Oh and by the way, you mentioned Aldi and buying groceries. There, have you ever bought a steak at Aldi? I just want to let you know right now there's a marked difference between a steak that you buy at all the versus a steake

that you're gonna get a Costco. There's just something so nice about the quality of some of the things that Costco offers, especially in regards to to food like that. And so yeah, that's another reason that I love Costco is is that the quality is so much better than than I could get at a local grocery store. Yeah. Sure, I'll give that one to you. You know, we don't buy meat often, and so maybe that's because we shop

at ALDI, or maybe it's the other way around. I don't know, but I have had stakes from Asco with you before, and yeah, those bone and ribbons are really good. And I also remember when we were getting those steaks, man, that we got to try some very delicious samples, and I now that's one of the selling points people always talk about the samples. You can kind of go around the store and get a full meal if you just like hot from one sample aid to the next to

the next. That's pretty accurate that how you're all, that's pretty accurate. Yeah, though there's lots of good samples, especially on the weekends, and and so yeah, that's kind of one of the things that Costco shoppers love is it's kind of the samples at every little corner of the store, and so yeah, you're gonna get a little fill up, you know, while you're doing your shopping. So that's kind

of cool, is it? Infomercial style as well? And they're like, you can actually buy the skillet right over there as well, and you can buy this meat over there. It is like that, but they're not super pushy, which is nice, and they're like super nice instead because they're happy to be there. Yeah, they're not like, if you take this bite, you must buy the product, So yeah, I appreciate that it's a little low key. Another big time pro in

Costco's favor is their amazing return policy. Basically, you can get a full refund for anything anytime except for electronics and major appliances. Costco stands behind pretty much everything they sell and you never have to worry about whether three years later, you know your luggage broke. You know what. At almost every other retailer, you're gonna have an issue returning that you're you're just not gonna be able to take it back. But with Costco Boom, you take it

back no questions. Asked refund or or you're given you know, the equivalent that they offer right now. So I love that return policy, especially for something like luggage, which is gonna get beat up, messed up, and to know that you can always take it back if something happens. I really do appreciate that factor in a major way. Yeah, that's a pretty sweet perk. And you know, I've also heard you talk about Costco is a ridiculous warranty program. Once you try to convince me on that a little

bit here. Yeah, So especially if you're buying I don't buy very many electronics at Costco, honestly, I think there's just a lot of competition in that space. If I'm buying a television, I'm just not getting it from Costco personally. But the reason that you would consider getting something like a television from Costco would be the warranty that you

get in place when you buy electronics items. So you only have like ninety days to return an item like that, but the warranty is awesome through the Costco Concierge service, and so you can get a two year warranty on top of the manufacturer's warranty through that, and then in addition, if you have the Costco visa card, which of course I do, it gives you an additional two years beyond that, so you can get just like this sick warranty on electronics items like a computer or a television or a

major appliance. And so that's super helpful to know that, in addition to the manufacturer's warranty, you might have five, six or seven years of coverage on a really expensive purchase. There's a lot of peace of mind in that knowing that you didn't fork out extra money like you normally would for a longer extended warranty. It's just kind of part of the package. And I think that's really cool.

That's awesome. Man. You're talking about the Costco credit card made me think of if Aldi had a credit card, and it would totally be like amex Aldi Black, you know, uper luxury or the opposite. Not really, it'd probably like a like a change purse with like Alredy written on it, you know, but like store your quarters for the carts you get like free ARTI chokes every year. That's like the reward I would imagine, which I would be all

about because their produce is great. In my opinion hit or miss, But we can get into that at another another time. That's another debate for another episode of My Friend. But I did want to mention too that I think my favorite thing about Costco is that they sell more than just groceries. But really there's kind of a certain piece of mind when I buy from Costco based on kind of all these factors. I feel like they have a commitment to quality. I know that the price isn't

going to be marked up over a certain place. They have this amazing return policy extended warranty. I just know that what I'm buying is is a good product, and if it's not, I can return it. So I might not be getting like the dirt cheapest price, but I'm getting something that's really high quality at an incredibly fair price, and it's in a place that I like to shop. And I know that there are some cons to shopping

at a warehouse club. Um, And you know what, Matt, I'm ready for your side of the argument, right for the break, All right, Joel, we are back from the break now, and like you just mentioned, we're gonna talk about the cons now. These are the reasons why, you know, Kate and I why we haven't joined Costco. And the first of those is because you do have to buy in bulk. You have to have room to store all that stuff. You know, when you're getting that discount, it

is because you're buying lots of those things. And with more folks moving to the city in particular, folks just have less space. And so you know, to think you're gonna buy a pallette of like toilet paper, We're like, we're you gonna store that? You know, there's only so much space that you have, and and our small in town homes not to get the deal, you gotta get two pallets. Yeah, double the toilet paper share with the neighborhood.

And then when it comes to food stuffs, you might be tempted to buy like even a deep freeze or in a sational fridge for storage, which obviously has the potential for for being wasteful. I'm not saying that everyone will do those things, but I think once you kind of start going down that path of oh man, we have to buy so much of this stuff, like, Okay, where are we gonna put it? Well, we've gotta freeze it. We gotta put it in the deep freeze, because that's

where we put all of our Costco meats. Do you guys ever feel the temptation to, you know, be able to store stuff away more efficiently or you know, what do you do when it comes to buying like bulk fridge stuff. Well, you know, I honestly I think that this is a valid concern for some people, especially people living in really small spaces. But for a long time, our family has lived in a two bedroom, one bath in square feet and we're still Costco members, and so

I don't feel the need to over buy. I feel like the packaging is mostly sensible. There are probably a couple of things that feel ridiculous based on just the enormous amount of bulk you'd have to buy on on certain items, like you buy two jars of peanut butter at the same time that are plastic grabbed together or whatever,

and they're bigger than average jar of peanut butter. But you know what, we go through so much peanut butter, and their peanut butter is actually just better than any other peanut butter that we've ever had, so it's worth it to us, and it doesn't feel like it takes up too much space, you know what, I'm saying, yeah, you're not buying like twelve of them. It's just like two. If it was twelve, it would be insane, it would be ridiculous. So yeah, I can handle two or something.

And I mean, well, peanut butter is a great example, because like y'all we you know, we got through a lot of peanut butter as well. So the next gripe then, is the distance and the time that it takes to get to the warehouse for us, Like where we live right now, I can run my bike to Aldi and get there in less than ten minutes. Hey, you could ride your bike to Costco too. It would just take you three hours. It only take me, yeah, like an

hour and a half, like with traffic. But I mean I'm able to ride through with the neighborhood and hop into Aldi and pick something up pretty quickly. And that's the other thing too, is with Aldi being typically they're smaller stores, and so I can not even joking, I can get in and out of there in about nineties seconds if I just need to go in and pick up a gallon of milk, which is oftentimes the case. I would love to see your Aldi run in slow

motion video ninety seconds I'm not even joking. I can do it. That's crazy. But you know, with a bigger warehouse club, it takes like ninety seconds even just to walk from your car and get to the front door. And then once you're in there, I've been in there with you. It's it takes a while to even navigate the entire space. They're they're larger buildings, and that's just more of your day kind of going towards perusing the aisles.

And certainly there's deals to be had there, but I don't know, there's something that I love about the efficiency of all the of just being able to step inside the door and I can take almost like ten steps and I know I'm at milk, and I take temp steps back and I'm at the register, and before you know what, I'm out of there. No, I mean, I think this is actually the con that is is most

accurate that I feel the most. It's kind of a pain to get there, and because that, it kind of dampens our excitement about going to actually go to the store, because it's a bigger deal. Yeah, and and it is, like you said, just has this enormous footprint and so at times, you know, parking and walking in and all that kind of stuff. It feels like a chore versus a quick bike ride to Aldy to pick up the four or five things you need. Doesn't feel that way.

So I completely agree on this front. The worst thing about being a member of a warehouse club like Costco or Sam's Club is a distance that you're likely located away from one of these warehouse clubs, and then kind of that insane parking lot and just getting in and

out of the store in general. Yeah, and another great thing about Audi as well is that there is not a barrier to entry unless you count the little quarter that you have to stick in the cart so to walk around because they're super efficient and they don't pay anybody to round up all the carts. No, I think it's such an amazing system. It's brilliant, you know, yeah, I know it works really well so that you know, you might consider that a bar to injury. But with

a warehouse club, you have to join. I think for a lot of folks, including us, like, that's what keeps us from from trying it out, because I'm like, well, I don't I don't even want to bother with with joining when I'm not even sure if this is gonna work out, I can go to Audi or shop at any online retailer for free whenever I want. And if I'm already paying for something, well, you know, I'm already

an Amazon Prime member. And so it almost feels like that if you've got multiple sort of outlets this where you have to pay money to even begin to consider shopping there. I don't know something about that kind of rubs me the wrong way. I understand that. I think paying up front in order just to have the privilege of shopping at a store, I can completely see why that rubs people the wrong way and why people would

avoid it because of that. I will say the great thing about these warehouse clubs is that if you do buy a membership and you feel like you're not getting enough value for it, you know what, they will refund the cost of that membership. So even if you were a member of Costco for three and sixty four days of that year and you on the three sixty fourth day said, hey, guys, you know what, this isn't worth it for me, they will refund your whole membership fee.

And I think that's really cool. It just kind of gives you it's it's just kind of another way that you can have peace of mind when you're paying for a membership up front, which I understand is a barrier for loss of folks. Yeah, that is pretty cool, though

I did not know that. You mean, not that I'm gonna wait until the very last day it's the cancel, but to know that, like hopefully you know, within the first month and like a couple of months of trying to get out and seen like how that affects your grocery bill, seeing if it works out with as far as traffic, because you know, again, like you said, like that's the worst part of it for for you guys like that that is going to be the worst part of it for us, is is the commute essentially to

get to the grocery store. Another issue I have though with basically buying in bulked is the potential for waste. I think we might be tempted to buy more stuff than when we actually need, and food a lot of times doesn't last like it's gonna go to waste. We potentially either over consume whatever item we would buy in bulk. And then there's the psychological effect too of where you know where you say oh, I have tons of you know, X item, whatever it is, like chips or paper towels.

I can just use however much of this I want, Like I feel that way, especially like with shampoo. Do you feel that way anytime you get like a full bottle of shampoo. At the beginning of the bottle, I use like so much shampoo because I'm like, oh, there's just tons of it. But then when you get to the very end of it, you're just like rationing every

little pie size drop. It's just gonna take an exercise and self control and discipline to make sure that you're just not over consuming the item that you're getting such a great deal on because you're buying so much of it.

I think it's another good point. Yeah, I think people can can get bigger amounts of something and just say who throwcaution on the wind us as much as they want and find themselves just like blueberries for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, right yeah, yeah, no, totally running through the items that they purchased more quickly and therefore just leading

to more purchases and spending more money. So yeah, I think if you are going to be a thoughtful costco shopper, you need to be careful about how much shampoo, how many blueberries, whatever it is. You know, whatever the item is, make sure that you're not just consuming more of it

because you have more of it. Yeah, it takes kind of having a plan, I guess, right, And I mean, and that's another maybe that's another point as well, is that if it takes more thought, it takes be more thoughtful, like you have to have a plan, and that takes

more space in my mind or in Kate's mind. If she has to more diligently or more systematically planned the meals that she wants to cook, well, that's not how she normally cooks, right she You know, she is a fantastic cook, but she likes to wing it a little more. She's a little more like takes more of the artistic approach and see what's on sales, see what we have in the fridge, and kind of combines it and finds ways to to make you know, amazing meals for her.

There would be a complete shift in grocery runs and how she approached meal prep. That's another sort of strike against Costco in the sense that I don't think she wants to do that. And if she doesn't want to do that, then we're gonna We're gonna do whatever she wants to do. You're not going to force her to becoming a costco. But I understand, I understand both partners in a marriage have to understand the glory that is costco got to be the same thing to commit. Yeah,

you gotta commit together. And speaking of that, Matt, I feel like one con that we should mention is that warehouse clubs don't make nearly as much sense for single people. If you like to talk about waste, right right, Yeah, if you live alone, it's unlikely that you're going to be able to get enough benefit from a warehouse club that would make it worth the cost of a membership fee.

And in addition, you know, talking about potentially using too much or wasting too much as a single person buying things in that much bulk, you're just gonna be hard pressed to get enough value out of a membership if you live alone. So, yeah, it makes more sense for a family, Like you know, we're a family of four about to become a family of five, and it just kind of fits into our lifestyle a little more than it would for someone who you know, is living in

a small apartment by themselves. So this just made me think of a great idea, which is does Costco have a dating app, because they totally should. Oh my gosh, that would be so good. Like the Costco die hards. Uh, there's got to be like a whole singles group that could totally revolve around the the Costco ecosystem. You know what I'm saying. I guarantee you there's a sub credit

for that. Yeah, man, I bet there is a lot of This does come down to you and your personal preferences and specifically what you purchase, and so it may or may not be more affordable for you to shop at Costco. It might be more affordable for you to shop at Aldi. There's a lot of sort of tests out there, like different bloggers and whatnot where they've done an Audi run and they've done a Costco run, and they've they've got apples to Apple's goods and they've totaled it.

But it just completely depends on what you are purchasing at each of the stores. So you know, I'm not going to completely not Costco because I think there's a chance that depending on what you purchase, you have the chance of saving a lot of money. Also, on the flip side of that, depending on what you purchase, you might save more money if you shop at ALDI. So I think it really does come down to your individual purchasing patterns and as well as just kind of what

you prefer. All right, So on that note, Matt, I think it's important to talk about some of the specific items that you can buy at Costco where you can get a deal that's unparalleled and that you can't find anywhere else. And I think Costco does sell some things that have a particular appeal and that could single handedly pay for your membership. And so yeah, let's get to some of those things right after the break. Okay, Joel, you just mentioned there are some specific items that can

single handedly pay for your membership. That actually sounds really impressive and I'm excited to hear those. But first, let's talk about some access to services, like specific things that Costco offers. I wasn't aware of this until we started researching for this episode, but you have firsthand experience when it comes to some of these items once you share

it with our listeners. Sure. Yeah, So the cool thing about warehouse clubs is that they offer services in addition to like groceries and electronics, right, so it's not just physical items. There are some really cool services that kind of set these stores apart. So I wanted to mention that you can find great travel deals. Costco in particular, has an awesome car buying program. I forget how many people, but like millions of people buy a new car through

Costco's car buying program every year. Like that's how big it is their own financing, is that what it is? They're essentially negotiating with dealers on your behalf to get you a really good price. So it's a no haggle, walk out the door price on a new car. Basically, Matt, you know you don't recommend buying a new car, but if you really wanted to, you you you just felt the need to buy a new car. I think Costco's car buying program is a worthwhile place to go. And

both Sam's Club and Costco offer merchant processing. For Let's say you have your own small business and you're using like a PayPal reader or a square read or something like that. Well, if you went instead with merchant processing through a company like you know, Costco or Sam's Club, you could potentially save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars a year just by changing your merchant processing to to going with one of them. It's kind of cool, some

of these side services they offered. If you can take advantage of one or two of these, then I think that that just kind of puts this other just enormous check mark in the corner of the warehouse clubs that it just makes a whole heck of a lot more sense for you. I think I mentioned I bought my life insurance through a company that Costco partners with, and it was cheaper than even I could find on awesome sites like policy Genius or have in Life. And so because of that, it saved me a good bit of

mone me every year. And it was just another service that's offered that's only available to members. And I think if you can find one of these services that you think will work for you, well, then it just means you should take a much closer look at potentially joining up. Yeah, so what does that even look like? You mentioned life insurance?

Do you just go in the store. Is there like somewhere on the shelf where there's a card and it says thirty year term life insurance you just kind of like grab that walk to the register and like ring, you know, ring it up. It's like on Costco's website. You know, you click through through the website. Okay, yep, so you click through and I said, you know, saw that they partnered with this company. You can call for a quote as a Costco member and you get a

quote that's just unavailable to non Costco members. And similar thing with they have a mortgage program, so if you're looking to do a refinance, you can get better rates, lower closing costs through a lot of lenders just because you're a Costco member. And so so that's kind of cool.

That's another service that they offer. And if you want like an easier way to refinance, you kind of want access to you know, a bunch of different quotes in one fell swoop, well then Costco kind of has that covered for you, and you just you might not be getting the exact best deal on the market, but you know, what you're getting is a really really solid deal and that Costco has negotiated the closing costs as well for you ahead of time, which which is really nice as

a member to know that that's the case. Yeah, that's I mean, that's awesome knowing that you've got a company going to bat for you there essentially your advocate, and you're not having to pay anything above and beyond your standard membership fee. Yeah. And when you think about those services though, like a sixty dollar membership fee pales in comparison to which you could potentially save on like a

refinance or life insurance or merchant processing. Like it's those are the kind of things too, that that set these warehouse clubs apart. That just make it, like Hookline and Sinker, a good deal for potential members if they're going to take advantage of some of these additional services that are provided. All right, but let's talk about specific items. Are you ready for that? Some of my favorite items for people

to look to purchase at warehouse clubs. Yeah, well, you already mentioned the chicken, and so you know that one's already kind of like out of the bag a little bit. The five dollar Roat Hisstory chicken is just Costco is known for it. They're five dollars. They're just way better, bigger than any Rooker Story chicken you're gonna get like a local grocery store. Another food item is lunch. While you're there. So if you are at Costco, everybody knows

about the lunch. The price of the hot dog and a drink has stayed the same since five or something like that. It's like a dollar fifty in order to grab lunch there, So that's pretty great. They're also known for their nuts, grains, and cheese, so those are worth mentioning. I mentioned luggage earlier. That's another specific item to buy, mainly because of the return policy. Not necessarily because it's the cheapest luggage, but but because you can always return

it if something happens. Yeah, I'll share another deal that I've been able to personally, uh take advantage of. Specifically when we go to visit our in laws in Greenville, their Costco members, and they always like to swing by and kind of make sure that we have access to the pump uh and and and fill up before we leave town. And yeah, the gas is so much cheaper. They're like ten to fifteen cents cheaper than any gas station anywhere nearby. Honestly, depending on how much you fill

up just gas alone, that one expense. If you just drive a ton, yeah, and you drive past the Costco and you fill up there every time that could single handedly pa if your annual membership really just the savings and gas alone over the course of a year. Another thing is is tires. If you wait for deal on tires, you can get an awesome deal on really really good tires,

because again, quality is kind of the utmost. At Costco, You're not gonna get the dirt cheap tires, but you're gonna get really really good tires at a really really good price if you wait for a deal. Another huge specific item or area to look for is kids stuff. If you're getting diapers, you can get really good deals on diapers at Costco. And obviously you know you're buying in big amounts, and and typically when you have an infant, a little kid or whatever that that's wearing diapers, you

go through a lot. The thing that I found, honestly, if I had to say one thing is the best buy at Costco, it is their infant formula. Formula is so expensive. The price of formula at Costco is literally half the price, and it's just as good a formula as you'd get from all the name brands, but it literally cost half as much as Similac or whatever, any

of those name brands. Formulas. So if you are if you've got a newborn, if you've got an infant and you're looking to introduce formula, well, Costco is the place to get the formula right now, I'm telling you that's like the number one reason it's just such a good deal. Yeah, I guess you guys never tried the Aldi formula or the or the Aldi diapers when once they rolled all that out. No, that kind of came along, but like a year and a half ago something like that, after

we were kind of out of that phase. Yeah, so we're kind of still in that phase a little bit, at least with diapers with our youngest. So yeah, I feel like I have to mention that a little bit. We're not doing like a Costco versus Aldi or anything. But you know, anytime I hear something that you're talking about Costco, I'm like, oh, yeah, all these got that too. I feel like I have to stick up from Aldi

a little bit here. Well, another thing Aldi doesn't sell that Costco does, by the way, is dog food, and dog food is a great deal. You can get again really high quality dog food in great quantities at Costco. So if you have a pup, that's another great reason to consider having a membership there. Yeah, basically, anytime you're going through just a large quantity of something, whether that be diapers, formula, dog food, like all those things go

really quickly. Like going back to the conversation before about someone like a single, it's like, well, you may not get your money's worth, but if you have a large family, or if you have a baby or a pup who requires lots of resources and time and money, yeah, it could definitely be worth it. Or if it's just you and you really like booze, well, Costco has awesome prices on booze too. Not every Costco has a liquor store, but the ones that do, the prices that you'll find

are are just really incredible, no joke. They actually have Kirkland signature alcohol and people there you mentioned the beer that was terrible, which is terrible as the actual liquor decent. The actual liquor is really good. And there are all these rumors online about kind of who makes the liquor for them, and so people say that their vodka is made by Gray Goose or they're they're just kind of everyone has a thought on where they're gin or where

their bourbons comes from. Yeah, it's super funny, but it's actually really solid. A lot of their booze and you can get it for the price of something that's like much lower shelf at a liquor store. In the Costco liquor store. See if you're throwing a party, especially and you're gonna make some mixed drinks for folks, having that

Costco membership is clutch in order to save money. Right. Well, isn't it true though, that you don't have to have the membership in order to to take advantage of the booze that that actually is true in in a lot of states, it is illegal to charge more like a special membership for exactly exactly, and so people in most states can still shop at the liquor store even without a membership, which is nice and also another great perk

of shopping at Costco. One thing you can do without a membership is get your prescriptions filled there, and Costco often has some of the lowest prices on prescriptions, so that's worth looking into. I just want to mention a couple of other random things that we buy every year at Costco. Christmas trees, detergent sometimes extremely discounted gift cards, and I can tell you, you you know, more things that

we enjoy buying there. It's certainly not for everyone as we've as we've alluded to, but for our family, you know, having that membership, Uh, it might not even necessarily save us tons of money, but we're able to buy things that we feel like our higher quality at what ends up being an equivalent price to like a discount grocery store chain. And and we feel like we're getting a lot of value for our membership, in particular because of

those services that we mentioned too. So yeah, I feel like we've definitely got our money's worth out of a Costco membership. But I also realized that it's not for everyone. And if I didn't convert you, Matt in this podcast episode, I'm okay with that. Well, I'm glad you are, because I'm not completely sure if you know, if we're converts at this point. I totally understand how that you know that it works out for you, But I keep going going back to the biggest hurdle for us, which is distance.

You know, we just do not like spending a lot of time in the car, you know, with what you shared about getting the membership, trying it out for maybe a month or two, and then maybe you know, if you don't like it, getting refunded. That that might be a way, as I could convince Kate to give it a shot. We might join the ranks of costco fans and maybe we'll see you guys up there. Well, I would love to see that, my friend. We can go

shopping together anytime you want. I don't think we need to spend more time together and say that's probably true. Probably true. But let's mention just a couple other ways real quick. That if people are interested in joining a warehouse club, like how they can test test the waters. I mentioned that b j's has like a lot of like free sixty day trials. You can try out b J's for free if there's one in your area by going to their website or just google google that free

sixty day trial. You'll find something on that. Also, check out a local warehouse club with a friend. You've been with me before, Matt, get a taste for it for sure. Yeah, and if you've got a friend who who has a membership and they've wanted to check it out, well, you know what, your friend would probably be more than happy to have you tag along and check it out. Also,

ask your friend to buy you a gift card. If you have a twenty or a fifty dollar gift card, whatever it is to to Costco, you're allowed to to shop without having an actual membership. And so yeah, if you pay your friend any bucks to get that gift card, you can go spend it there without having to have that membership. Don't you have to show your Costco card before you walk in? Yeah, but if you've got a gift card that just like flash the gift card. It works in the same way. It kind of feels like

a fake I D doesn't it. It's like a little bit like mclovin. You're just like walking in and it's like, hey, I got this, got the gifts gift card and they kind of like frown at you. You're like, all right, fine, start like sprinting past the guy at the front door. All right, that's pretty cool too. That didn't realize that that was an option. Yeah, man, So lots of ways

to to test the waters. Yeah, And you know, if you are listening to this and you are like me and you're not sure if you're gonna join a warehouse club, maybe chime in on Facebook. Hop over in the group. Maybe we can see how folks are kind of comparing the costs that sort of trade off between joining Warehouse Club and they're affordable local grocery store that's maybe more conducive to their lifestyle. I'm very curious, I guess, to

see what other folks are doing. But in the end, I guess it does kind of come down to what it is that you prefer as an individual and what you're looking for. But yeah, I guess I'm curious due to hear what other folks are buying, because I know, like the weird stuff that you guys buy when you

get a costco. But I gotta I gotta figure stuff. Well, I know, you like, like once a year you buy like this massive pack of like socks or something like that, or an underwear as well, to like restock your underwear drawer. I do always get my socks and underwear a costco at least told me that before. But I gotta think that there's other folks out there who are quite proud of the oddities that they're purchasing at their costco as well.

You have so jump into our Facebook group. You can just search how the money in the search bar on on Facebook and you'll find us and and yeah, and we want to hear your reaction to this. Super interested in in maybe why you've refrained from getting a membership and then if you have one kind of yeah, what your best buys are, what your favorite things are to get at a warehouse club, and and how it saved you money. Looking forward to that discussion, and maybe you'll

even convert Matt who knows. Man. Maybe I want to kick it back now to our beer. The beer that you and I get to enjoy this episode is a Buffalo Soldier by you tag Brewing Company, Joel. At the beginning of this episode, you kind of mentioned like a out like some of those roasted flavors, and I'm curious if you're sticking with those notes, because I think those are the notes that I'm going to share. Yeah, I

say it. It's a little stout like roastiness with some of those peppery rhye notes shining through at the same time the hot bitterness. It's an interesting beer because it has all those elements at the same time, and they're not elements that you typically associate with being together in a beer but surprisingly it's really really tasty, Like it did a really good job of kind of holding all those things at the same time together. Um, I really enjoyed it, even though it is kind of an abnormality

in a way in my opinion. But yeah, I thought it was really good. Yeah, a really unique beer. Uh So I'm not note it kind of made me think of a porter, because typically porters feel lighter in your mouth, which this totally did. Porters tend to be less sweet, at least in my opinion a little bit like they kind of have like those roasted bitter notes without the

sweetness that you normally finding a stout. And so by maybe combining an I p A with sort of this dark rye flavor, at times, I'd almost convinced myself that I was drinking a porter instead of a black rye I p A. But I like what you said about those peppery notes. Case been making a lot of rye bread lately. She's still on that breadmaking train because it's just affordable and delicious, and she's got it down to

a science almost at this point. I don't know something about that ride, just as that additional level of flavor, and I'm all about it. So I'm super stoked that we got to enjoy this beer on this show. Yeah. So thanks again to Andy for sending that our way. We appreciate it, man, Yeah, Andy, thanks again. So Joel, that's gonna be it for this episode, man. Listeners can find our show notes up at how to money dot com. Will link to a few resources that we mentioned in

this episode, like box dot com. Uh, maybe a couple of articles talking about Costco's great return policy and extended warranty as well. Yeah, and if you like this podcast and you've found it helpful, we'd appreciate your review on Apple Podcasts. And if you feel like we've out room for improvement, please drop us a line. We'd love to hear from you. You can do that at how to money dot com slash do Better. Well. I enjoyed this one, dude.

It was good. Yeah all right, buddy, Until next time, Joel Best Friends Out as Friends Out