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You pay $50 a year for membership. It's a HUGE warehouse filled with food, clothes, appliances, jewelry everything you need for your home. They sell food, water, drinks, toiletries, etc in bulk so you end up saving money.
I love costco! They sell gas too! And tires..
Costco.com
Check it out!
DH and I used to go every Saturday morning for food samples. HAHA.

We love Costco too!! It's similar to a military commissary but much larger. You pay $50/yr membership and get discounted prices on what's sold which includes just about everything (even coffins!).

In my former life, Costco was one of my accounts and they have a great business model. They mark up their goods only a fraction of what other retailers would and instead make their money from membership fees and volume. Their pharmacy also follows the same model and charges sometimes less than half of what other pharmacies will charge for prescriptions. They're also very ecologically responsible, work with sustainable vendors when possible, and carry a good amount of organic foods. Another thing that most people don't know is that Costco performs their own battery of tests on a lot of the items (especially toys) that they bring in to make sure they pass standards.

Oh, and their private brand (Kirkland) actually performs as well if not better than a lot of name brands (according to consumer reports). I would definitely check them out when you get back.

Depending on where in Florida you took your placement, you'll have a hard time finding a costco. There are other bulk warehouses- Sam's club is the most popular in Florida, but there is also BJ's .We use Sam's club for our meat purchases (split up packages and freeze) and also for things like toilet paper, diapers, and dry goods. I don't know where you are moving to in Florida, but I live in central Fl on the west coast just north of Tampa- if you have any FL specific questions feel free to let me know

@Red: well, kirkland clothes - definitely very cheap - i'm speaking from experience. not very well made. we use their other products, like paper towels and all.

To really get the most bang for your buck you'll need to buy a chest freezer or something to store all the food you buy. Everything is in bulk (think 10# of flank steak) so you'll end up freezing a ton. If you've got a bigger family you'll probably get a lot out of a Costco style store.

@mamabolt: I LOVE COSTCO's return policy!! We just returned a broken 2 year old Keurig. Got cash back, no questions asked! They also took back my old engagement ring (about 2 years old) when my DH upgraded my rock. They're so awesome!!

I'm an extreme couponer (seriously, I have a binder and everything) and have come to the conclusion that Costco is still hands-down the best deal for most things, such as paper towels, toilet paper, laundry detergent (all Kirkland brand) and we LOVE their baby wipes. I wait for the coupon books to come out each month, and then whatever we use I stock up on like crazy. Our Costco is right around the corner so we go at least once a week to take advantage of deals like that (they usually have a limit for coupon use, per visit).

Be careful with food and produce-- their meat is AWESOME (second only to buying from a butcher in bulk) but it's easy to buy too much and it goes bad before you can use it.

And I echo the comments about the great return policy-- our Keurig was acting up so Rob Sr. brought it back, and they gave him a new one-- with the 60 free kcups!! So we got 60 kcups for free just for exchanging our Keurig. Sweet!!!

If you buy enough you can upgrade to an executive membership. I share a membership with my parents, who buy a lot for their church, and the yearly rebate checks they get from all of our purchases more than covers the membership fee (I think it's $90 a year?). So they pay the membership fee each year, I get a free membership, and they get the rebate check. Win win!

You will also be bombarded with yummy samples if you come during lunchtime! So you can try things out before you buy it.

I LOVE Costco! I miss it so much. It's pretty interesting because you can find a pack of bananas for 99 cents right across from a kayak for $1000. They also have a really good selection on wines and ginormous bottles of alcohol! The jewelry selection is limited but the quality is top-notch and they even have a guarantee on all their diamonds.

Also, if you happen to shop a lot, it might pay off to get an upgrade on your membership because you'll get a 2% discount on all purchases (correct me if I'm wrong, I've been away for a few years). For larger families, it pretty much will cover the membership fee plus.

Note that they only accept American Express, cash or debit. No credit cards.

I love Costco! For all reasons stated above. Watch out though, because if you're not careful, you'll end up buying stuff you never intended to. At least I tend to do that. So I make a list and stick to it. I head straight to those items and avoid browsing, so I don't buy something I don't need.

We don't have warehouse style stores that are open to the public where we live and our lifestyle isn't really conducive to huge amount of stuff (limited storage, small fridge/freezer).

Anyway, we are doing a relo to the US later this year and since we're a family of three, it doesn't make sense for us to get a membership to a warehouse store. The sizes on perishables are simply too much for us to consume. One thing you can do at Costco, not sure about other stores, is buy gift cards...any nonmember can use a gift card at Costco without a membership. Since my parents have a membership, we'll just get a few hundred dollars in gift cards a few times a year and use those to do a stock up if we feel we need it.