:D

You've probably heard of the store named Costco. It originated in the US and has a huge presence over there with 425 stores. Costco have recently come to Australia with 3 stores so far, with the one in Sydney opening in July this year.

The main selling point Costco has is that it sells nearly everything, often in bulk, at wholesale prices. From Wikipedia:

Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST) is the largest membership warehouse club chain in the United States. As of July 2009 it is the third largest retailer in the United States, where it originated, and the ninth largest in the world. As of October 2007, Costco is the largest retailer of fine wine in the world.

Costco focuses on selling products at low prices, often at very high volume. These goods are usually bulk-packaged and marketed primarily to large families and businesses. Furthermore, Costco does not carry multiple brands or varieties where the item is essentially the same except when it has a house brand to sell, typically under the Kirkland Signature label. This results in a high volume of sales from a single vendor, allowing further reductions in price, and reducing marketing costs.

Previous to going to Costco, I had heard it's praises from quite a few people, it reminded me of Aldi when I first heard about it, I definately wanted to check it out.

One of the main points about Costco is that it's a membership only store, it costs $60 a year, which you will easily get back in savings only if you shop there a couple of times.

I went on Saturday, what better time to go than one week before Christmas? My brother is a member, and you are permitted to take 2 guests with you to 'browse, but not purchase', like that happens though...

The building is a giant warehouse, like Bunnings (which is actually across the road, it's better to park there in fact).

Inside is high ceilings and tall aisles with pallets upon pallets of merchandise, from alcohol to clothes, food, game consoles, frozen food, bathroom supplies, generators, the list goes on, you could live in there. There are even the latest models of TV's as you walk in.

While walking around it felt like we were preparing for a zombie apocalypse or stocking our fallout shelter because everything is available, the trolleys are huge to cater for this.

It's very bare in appearance, which is great, for example theres a big open refridgerated area with a simple sign above stating "Dairy - Eggs" with pallets inside, nothing more.

Almost everything is oversized, on average double the amount you would normally get for often the same price. You can really see how much markup there is compared to your local Woolworths or Coles.

I had heard stories about people being pushy and rude as that's just what the atmosphere is like, but it was actually pretty good, just crowded and sometimes hard to move.

There is usually one only brand for most items, with not much variety, which isn't a bad thing. Noteably there is the Kirkland Signature store brand, the equivalent of Home Brand or No Frills, these are Costco's own products.

I purchased lots of kitchen supplies, like paper towels, heaps of frozen blueberries (only $6 for 1kg!), walnuts, olive oil, water filters and things like that. There are a lot of imported American products, things you don't usually see here in Australia, like candy.

While walking around, I was overwhelmed, and started to get a bit freaked out. The American shopping culture has arrived in Australia in full force, this is what it's like?

There is a suprising amount of cheap food inside this place, there are massive cakes, muffins, cupcakes, pies, candy and bread for crazy cheap prices. People were walking around loaded with the stuff in their trolleys. I can't help but think about the long term effects of having more and more stores like Costco in the future and how it will affect our population.

In the end though, it's a seemingly great thing for consumers, although not for small businesses, it will be interesting to see what happens in the next few years.

If you know someone who is a member you should definately go at least once, it's a surreal experience. I'll definately go a couple of times a year from now on as it's a great way to save money.