Woohoo! I'm Finally an Executive...
Jan. 8th, 2022 03:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerWoohoo! I'm finally an executive...
...member at Costco. 🤣
Hawk and I upgraded our membership a week ago. I just got the new card today. The store's printer was busted when we were shopping 10 days ago; I had to wait until my shopping trip earlier today to get one.
What does Costco Executive Membership get you? The main benefit is a 2% cash rebate on a year's purchases, paid at each anniversary. There are nominally other benefits, like special sales only for executive members, but I haven't seen people talking about specifics of those very much so I gather they're not that special.
Three thousand dollars may sound like a lot but it's only $250 a month. On groceries. And all the miscellaneous stuff Costco sells. On just today's trip, for example, I spent $257. I'm already ahead for the month! I'm confident we'll total $3k in a year.
Ideally we would have upgraded to executive membership a while ago. When we first joined Costco several years ago we figured we weren't spending that level of money there so we turned down the upgrade. That was the right decision then.
When the pandemic started in March 2020, though, our shopping habits changed. Suddenly we were cooking at home frequently enough that it made sense to buy Costco's larger packages at lower unit prices. I guess it was out of a sense of optimism that the end of pandemic, and thus a return to life like "before", was only ever a few months away that I kept putting off the decision to upgrade.
Now I figure that even if the pandemic-turned-endemic does ultimately fade away— which seems unlikely; I've been saying for weeks already This Is The New Normal— we'll keep using Costco size packages because we've altered our habits to cook & eat at home way more often. I'll report back in 11½ months to check the score!
...member at Costco. 🤣
Hawk and I upgraded our membership a week ago. I just got the new card today. The store's printer was busted when we were shopping 10 days ago; I had to wait until my shopping trip earlier today to get one.
What does Costco Executive Membership get you? The main benefit is a 2% cash rebate on a year's purchases, paid at each anniversary. There are nominally other benefits, like special sales only for executive members, but I haven't seen people talking about specifics of those very much so I gather they're not that special.
Math Is (Not) Hard
The 2% rebate isn't free. The executive membership costs an extra $60 beyond the $60 regular membership (it's $120 total). Is it worth it? Fortunately it's not hard to figure the break-even point. At 2% back we'll save the $60 premium with $3,000 spend.Three thousand dollars may sound like a lot but it's only $250 a month. On groceries. And all the miscellaneous stuff Costco sells. On just today's trip, for example, I spent $257. I'm already ahead for the month! I'm confident we'll total $3k in a year.
Ideally we would have upgraded to executive membership a while ago. When we first joined Costco several years ago we figured we weren't spending that level of money there so we turned down the upgrade. That was the right decision then.
When the pandemic started in March 2020, though, our shopping habits changed. Suddenly we were cooking at home frequently enough that it made sense to buy Costco's larger packages at lower unit prices. I guess it was out of a sense of optimism that the end of pandemic, and thus a return to life like "before", was only ever a few months away that I kept putting off the decision to upgrade.
Now I figure that even if the pandemic-turned-endemic does ultimately fade away— which seems unlikely; I've been saying for weeks already This Is The New Normal— we'll keep using Costco size packages because we've altered our habits to cook & eat at home way more often. I'll report back in 11½ months to check the score!
no subject
Date: 2022-01-09 07:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-09 04:27 pm (UTC)The dynamics of the local market changed about a year ago. Now, the Costco is $.40/gallon cheaper than the indie. The indie is still cheaper than the name-brand stations by about the same amount, so it's not that the indie stopped competing with them. I suspect Costco is selling its gas at an extremely small margin. Also, with how there's virtually always a line, despite 24(!) pumps, they're doing great volume.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-09 07:33 pm (UTC)The Executive membership is well worth it to us, especially when we organize a family shopping trip to stock up 3 households. We divvy everything up after, it's a lot of fun.