There’s shopping at a traditional grocery store, then there’s shopping at Costco. This famous wholesaler is now one of the most popular stores in the world due to its unique approach to the shopping experience. Costco usually sells its products in bulk, and they encourage you to buy their signature products through their Kirkland brand label.
Customers must become members to shop in the warehouse, usually for $60 a year. With this membership, you have access to a lot of different products and services, sometimes for an extra subscription or fee. We’ll talk about some of the top benefits of shopping at Costco, from
Costco home and auto insurance, to the lower prices on groceries.
We’ll also discuss some of the company’s business practices that have led them to great success. This ranges from the health and safety precautions used during the height of the pandemic to offering a food court for customers to eat inside of their warehouse locations.
#1 – Low Prices
Costco has several advantages related to pricing compared to other stores. They don’t mark up the price of their products the same way other stores do. This leads to products costing an estimated 10% less than their competitors. The large quantities, or bulk quantities, that Costco is famous for selling also make the shopping experience efficient and affordable.
You can buy the same products at Safeway or Fred Meyer, but they will be in smaller portions. You will then have to go to the grocery store more often than if you were to buy all of your food from Costco. This saves you time for other things that are important to you in life.
Another reason why Costco is less expensive than other stores is its Kirkland Signature brand of products. Many people don’t like buying house brand products because they trust name brands more. Costco has been able to build trust with its customers when it comes to its Kirkland Signature line.
Many shoppers view Kirkland Signature as being the same high quality that a name brand would be. Costco did this by having name brands help co-produce many of their products under this line through the years. This means that, unlike other stores, customers can now get the benefits of low prices and quality products when buying Costco’s house brand.
#2 – Variety of Items
You can find almost anything at Costco. It’s one of the only stores on the planet where you can buy a TV, a case of wine, and a birthday cake all in the same afternoon. They are also known for having some of the best quality beef and chicken in the world. Costco is a worldwide leader in meat sales for a reason.
Along with having a larger variety of goods than almost any other store, Costco also sells services that are hard to find at other locations. Insurance is one of those items. You can’t find an auto policy at your local Kroger.
#3 – Insurance
Costco offers auto insurance, homeowners insurance, and umbrella insurance through its partnership with American Family Insurance. You can get great discounted rates through Costco with student discounts, loyalty discounts, and safe driving discounts. All of these discounts should be familiar to people who have bought any type of auto insurance before.
Like with any other insurance company, you need to understand what these discounts are before you can receive them. Keeping a clean driving record should get you a safe driving discount. You need to avoid getting tickets, getting into accidents, and driving recklessly.
If you are a student, you can save your parents money on your insurance policy by getting good grades in school. GPAs above 3.5 are often good enough to get discounts on insurance if you talk to your agent.
#4 – Food Court
We know that Costco makes grocery shopping easy, but it’s the fact that going to Costco feels different than going to any other store that separates it from other grocers.
Often going to Costco feels like a daylong event, maybe even something that is a fun activity for the whole family. This is spurred on by the food court that Costco has implemented in most of its locations going back to the start of the company’s history.
Hot dogs, pizza, and chicken bakes are three of the most popular items at the Costco food court. Families have long enjoyed starting their shopping trip by eating lunch with each other, followed by getting the essentials they came to the store for. This cuts down on time spent going to another restaurant for lunch before going shopping.
Because eating with loved ones is something that builds traditions, many people have fond memories of coming to Costco during their upbringing and eating in the food court. This is something people continue to do with their own families once they grow up and move out of the house.
In this way, Costco has created a culture that goes beyond just getting groceries. This is something that many other retailers could choose to copy, but few have actually attempted to. The multi-faceted experience of going to Costco stands out compared to other competitors, and customers feel loyalty towards the business.
#5 – Public Health and Safety Measures
During the height of the pandemic, Costco was known for its strict adherence to safety protocols. While this didn’t make every customer happy, it was the right thing to do and helped show the majority of shoppers the company cared about keeping all of their shoppers safe.
Mask mandates were put in place in many Costco stores even when the local government didn’t have mandates. Limits were put in place on supplies like toilet paper and bottled water when shoppers started hoarding these products. This helped to alleviate some supply chain issues that are still present and affecting stores over two years after the onset of the virus.
You can see there are many benefits to shopping at Costco compared to their competitors. Between the lower prices, the ability to buy in bulk, the food court, and other services like insurance, the wholesaler has created a very unique brand. Others may try to replicate some of these things, but none of them have quite as much to offer as Costco.
