San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

I think Costco should accept Monopoly money.

it's funds, no different thena check.

the only real hassle is the rules for accepting it.

costco may need to train about the rules

I think it's up to Costco and it's membership.

I actually think it's ok. Technically it is money. (actually our tax dollars at work again.)

The real question is whether or not someone on food stamps should blow $45 on the membership fee.

By the way, Whole Foods accepts food stamps.

Absolutely not!

What the hell is wrong with the damn local supermarket!

The lines are long enough as is; stay out of my precious CostCo, heathens!

Perhaps it's just crassy me. But I thought the entire point of foodstamps was to subsidize the poor who cannot afford bare essentials. I fail to understand how one could justify being able to spend $60 or so of personal income on a membership and at the same time be on foodstamps, unless the membership itself is paid by foodstamps.

Then you run into the other issue of if the membership itself can be paid by foodstamps, you need another class of membership that only allows one to buy boxed food (not even prepared food). Otherwise, that membership paid by foodstamp is not really just giving access to food, but other goods/services too ( otherwise the foodstamps is indirectly giving benefits to non food items)
Also, food stamps don't allow you to buy food that is served or prepared. So that most likely elminates things like bakery, rotissere chicken, costco fro2n pia, etc.

In reality, its way to much overhead for costco to do, and in the end the margins wouldnt justify the headache. Costco doesn't make that much from food sales itself, its all the other crap people buy there that has much higher margins.

Plus the belief that costco food is really that much cheaper than sales item is a myth. Costco has high quality food, but it isn't necessarily cheaper than elsewhere. Foodstamps are meant to allow one to buy an entire meal. Costco model is based on buying a lot of quantity. So someone on foodstamps would not be able to buy every essential thing at costco, or doing so, would be overconsuming.

Lastly, if costco allowed this, they should also be able to accept manufacterer coupons, otherwise its not really cost saving to shop there. But costco doesn't nor does it have abilities to, since most manufacterer coupons apply to retail sizes

Hey man,

Get with the program! Spread the wealth. If the rich can have access to the costco free lunctime dimsums, so should everyone else too :)

If one is a wise shopper Costco can come in handy for saving a few bucks especially for families and that is what people should be concerned with. Also, they very well could take them based on a bottom line decision with the deteriorating job market anyway. Tsk tsk people...

I'd challenge anyone to compare apples to apples their food bill from their normal grocery store to their bill the spend on food at costco...I'm willing to bet most people end either

1)End up spending more money on food from costco than from grocery stores, and end up consuming more than they need to

or

2)End up spending more money on food from costco than from grocery stores, and end up throwing away half of the stuff that perishes.

or

3)End up spending more money on food from costco than from grocery stores, because they don't routinely clip coupons, and use manufacturer coupons and then double the coupon savings with a grocery store coupon, or rotate their eating habits around what is on sale versus what they want to eat.

I am guilty of this myself in the past. I can buy say, a double pack of turkey breast meat or the yogurt special that comes in genormous 18-24 pack.. But mt family with either end up eating twice as much OR end up throwing half of it away. Costco, when it comes to food, to me, is a lot like the super-sizing concept.

Boxed stuff at costco bought on bulk is not cheaper than stuff bought on sale say at Vons, at the unit price level. Two boxes of cereal with a buy one get one free deal at vons + a manufacturer coupon is still cheaper than the bulk cereal you can buy at costco containing the equivalent of two boxes, for example.

But who's counting anyway, right?

The irony to all this economic downturn is that for me, fundamentally it hasn't changed our shopping habits. Because we were cheap during good economic times.

Costco's business model is great when you think about it...All those free food and demos. It's not just about getting you to buy that item they are demoing...The longer they keep you in the store, the more likelihood you'll spend a hell of a lot more...

It's a brilliant business model.
1)Joe and Jane and little Billy go to costco
2)Joe and Jane and Billy demo food
3)Joe and Jane thinks sample X is good, so buys sample X.
4)Billy gets thirsty from eating sample Y, so Joe and Jane goes to the outside food court and buys a pizza and soda for little Billy
5)Joe and Jane and Billy finish shopping, but Billy wets his pants
6)Joe an Jane remembers to buy diapers at costco
7)While Jane or Joe is changing billy, either Joe goes check out the TV section, or Jane goes check out the clothing section.
8)Jane and Joe walk back with other things they found in the store.
9) During checkout, cashier checks how much Jane and Joe spent at costco over the past year and checks their membership status.
10) Cashier states that if they upgraded their membership to premium, they'd save a lot more money for next year, due to the premium rebate.
11) Jane and Joe think, well gosh that does sound good, so they upgrade their membership.
12) Jane and Joe, in the interest of getting their membership's worth, end up coming back to costco more often.

Sound familiar to folks? It's a brilliant business strategy. Costco's going to do just fine in this recession...

Flu-Your argument is that you can't control yourself and make poor food management decisions when you go to Costco because of the business model so everybody else will suffer the same fate.HAHA Well I guess someone on food stamps my not be the best shopper so your argument has some merit but you sure are not the best spokesman for them. "Shop at Costco, we'll trick you into buying more than you need and won't really save you money!"

I have not shopped there in years but if I remember correctly certain bulk items were much cheaper. Milk and eggs come to mind. I remember thinking, "If I had a family it would make sense"

Costco is great for parties and big families. I went to school with a family that had 14 kids. You heard that right, 16 in the household. Costco was a godsend to them, not because they couldnt save money if they were just smarter about buying habits, but simply due to bulk buying. Can you imagine how fast they would run outa stuff if they were just buying the small box? They would be shopping almost daily.

I dont join cause I dont have a family, or even a wife, and feeding myself is rather cheap. id waste whatever savings I had on spoiled products or gas to get to the damn place.

And FLU you are right. They have an awsome buisness plan; especially when they dont have to do ANY store decorating or organizing.

Actually, Arraya, I'm sure if I compare apples to oranges, my food/waste management of superfluous would stack up pretty well, but thanks for asking.

If you are on food stamps, I'm not sure you'd qualify for a Costco Amex to get cash back, nor should you have $100 to buy the executive membership where you also get cash back. So some of the benefits I get out of it may not apply to this group.

I do not have a family to feed, but I had no problem joining Costco for a few simple reasons. The gas there is by far often the cheapest in the county. I don't buy a lot there, but I do buy milk, wine, water, and the household goods that are cheaper per unit (floss, toilet paper, etc). Since these items come in such large quantities, sometimes I split the items with a friend, or I simply just store it and use it for months and months. You get 2 cards when you join so you can give the other card to either a family member, or you could give the card to a friend. Costco is pretty lax on verifying the in one household thing when you get 2 cards.

If you do belong to Costco and don't have the executive membership, you should upgrade to it. If you don't get at least $50 back, then you can ask for the refund between the cost of regular membership and executive. But if you do, then your membership can be quite cheap.

And I like being able to buy the occasional appliance, electronic, etc at super great prices.

Up in Carlsbad there is an AM/PM tucked neatly away alongside Palomar Airport Rd. about 1 mile past Costco that usually has roughly the same prices without all the wait.