Shortly after our move to Nampa, my husband convinced me to get a Costco membership, though I was reluctant about it. The thought of having to pay a fee to be able to spend MORE money there was ridiculous! Well after 3 years of being a member, here is why I absolutely LOVE Costco and recommend it!
The return policy
I purchased a probiotic at Costco a year ago and just returned it without a receipt. I wasn’t satisfied with the results and had forgotten to return it for forever. You don’t need a receipt-every time you make a purchase at Costco you are required to show your membership card and they record everything you purchase through that member number. I have confidence that no matter what I buy at Costco, it comes with a money-back guarantee. It’s great to purchase Christmas presents there because no matter how far in advance I make the purchase, I know that if Christmas morning comes and those socks don’t fit-or maybe we found a better deal last minute shopping-I simply return the item to cheerful customer service. I return food sometimes for cash back without my receipt, whether it’s because it went bad before the expiration or we just didn’t like it when we tried it(most of the food was still there upon return). The return policy gives me confidence in Costco’s products and saves me money we would have lost had we not been able to return it at other stores.
The only exception to their never ending return policy is electronics. But folks it is still 90 Days for electronics at Costco! If you were to go to Walmart or Best Buy and purchase a laptop or a phone, the return policy would be 15 days. That’s Costco’s return policy of 3 months against other policies of 2 weeks! Amazing! I really wish someone would have told me that cell phones have a return policy of 90 days at Costco. We would have been able to save over 700 dollars this year from our horrendous experience with Sprint and Best Buy when we purchased a phone for my husband that had problems after the 2 weeks was up! For some reason I thought Costco only carried Verizon phones but they offer phones from all major carriers with STELLAR customer service to get you set up with no pressure towards any certain carrier. Amazons policy on electronics is the same as any item you buy-30 days, and I would definitely rather purchase electronics at a local store with a longer return window than online with a shorter one! (sorry, Amazon, even though I love you!)
High quality, low price
I do my research to make sure I am getting the best prices and for a large part, Costco wins. Especially if you load up on an item when a Costco coupon comes out for it, that just adds to the savings and makes it a flaming hot deal! They have consistently cheaper prices on eggs, milk, garbage bags, formula, soap, diapers, wipes, electronics, cereal, and many more items! I will share the full list of which items I buy where in a future post. Just don’t go buying a huge pack of romaine lettuce if you can’t eat it all before it goes bad-take that into consideration because it’s wasted money when you throw food out, no matter how cheap you got it!
The Gas
In the first year of our membership, we saved enough money in gas alone to cover the basic annual fee. We fill up every time we go to Costco so we aren’t wasting gas and time(=$) just to drive there to spend less per gallon. Also what if I told you-you can get 4% cash back on gas there? Read on to see how!
4% back on purchases at Costco
When you pay for a basic membership you get the savings and return policy Costco has to offer! However, if you upgrade to the executive membership you will get 2% back on Costco purchases. If you also sign up for the AMAZING Costco citibank credit card you will get an ADDITIONAL 2% back on Costco purchases, equaling 4% back in your pocket whenever you buy stuff at Costco. Other benefits include 3% back on trips purchased through Costcotravel and on restaurant and hotel rooms purchases anywhere. The 4% cash back with the credit card is good anywhere labeled as a gas station, so not just Costco gas pumps. Our family purchase the annual executive membership for 110.00 and at the years end got mailed an 83.00 certificate to Costco through our executive membership as well as a 250.00 certificate mailed to us from the credit card which can be used at Costco or to redeem for cash just take it to the customer service! That means we got 333.00 back after spending 110.00 on the membership which pays for the membership and gives us 223.00 additional. Keep in mind that this doesn’t take into effect how much we SAVED by purchasing great products for cheaper than anywhere around.
You can try a Coscto membership with a money back guarantee
This means that if you want to give Costco a try and see how much money you might save or what products they offer throughout the year, you can pay for the basic membership and get your money back after 11 months if you are unsatisfied. What an offer!
Costco carts have 2 seats for strapping in kids side by side
Having 4 kids makes shopping anywhere difficult, so if you’re telling me that Costco has carts which fit 2 kids safely strapped in, I am all over it!
The pizza in their food court is huge, delicous, and a steal!
My husband LOVES PIZZA, and if he has gone without pizza for over a week, you can bet he is bringing it up a lot. THANK YOU SO MUCH COSTCO for having a food court that offers amazing pizza that I can call ahead and order for CHEAP. Or I can order a full pizza when I get there, shop, and pick it up when I’m done! OR I can just pick up a few pizza slices that I don’t have to order ahead because they have slices ready right there! One huge pizza is 10 bucks people. It’s probably a tiny bit bigger than the family size pizzas at Papa Murphey’s. Costco offers cheese, combo, and pepperoni. I wish they offered pineapple but they don’t. They do have salad, hot dogs(1.50 each for a foot long with a soda? wow)
The samples
My kids love the samples at Costco and it creates a bribe for me to keep them behaving as we shop! The other reason I like samples is the reason they are there-to try a product I wouldn’t normally buy because I’m not sure about it. Sometimes I DO buy the product, but 9 times out of 10 we just say thank you and move along, either because I still don’t think it’s worth the money or it’s something we already buy and we were just tasting it at the store for fun!
In conclusion, I love Costco and highly recommend you try it to see if you would save money on products you already buy!
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