Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I'm Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're discussing why warehouse clubs are awesome but
Speaker 1: really they're not. Now they're great, Now they suck. All right,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get into it. Just in the second cue
Speaker 1: the music. Yeah, man, there are lots of pros to
Speaker 1: joining a warehouse club, and so we're gonna get into those.
Speaker 1: And I think you know, by the end of this episode,
Speaker 1: you're going to completely agree with me. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: on the same page and all's gonna be right with
Speaker 1: the world. You can try to convince me, but man,
Speaker 1: I have not joined yet, so this is your last chance.
Speaker 1: It should be last and final chance should be a
Speaker 1: fun discussion, and you know, to be fair from the
Speaker 1: get go, I will say they're not for everyone. You're
Speaker 1: already backpedaling, But I love my costco membership. I think
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a fun conversation today. We will see
Speaker 1: about that, best buddy. I wanted to share a quick
Speaker 1: story though with you about a bike helmet. A story
Speaker 1: about a bike helmet. This sounds intriguing. It's like the
Speaker 1: it's like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants it's about
Speaker 1: the helmet though this time. Actually I don't know anything
Speaker 1: about that movie or those books, but I feel like
Speaker 1: that this might be a very similar story. Okay, alright,
Speaker 1: I'm intrigued. I never read the book either. A couple
Speaker 1: of months ago I was writing, I had taken the
Speaker 1: girls up to up the corner between where you and
Speaker 1: I live. In between us is a big parking lots
Speaker 1: that belongs to a church, and they paved it recently,
Speaker 1: and it's awesome for biking, fantastic spots. Take the kids
Speaker 1: to ride bikes, kids go up there play. It is
Speaker 1: a little free library. It's just like a little hub
Speaker 1: to our neighborhood. We had a great time, came home,
Speaker 1: we know, went back to living our life. A few
Speaker 1: days later, I was trying to get the girls together
Speaker 1: to go on another bike ride, and we were missing
Speaker 1: a helmet. Well, you can guess as to where we
Speaker 1: finally realized that we left it. We left it up
Speaker 1: at that church. But it was close to a week
Speaker 1: later at least, before we realized that your detective skills,
Speaker 1: by the way, we could totally for got unparalleled. We thought, well,
Speaker 1: the girls will grab the helmets and just like stash
Speaker 1: them somewhere in the house, and so I'm like looking
Speaker 1: in the closets, looking outside. I've been there. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. I know what that's But we finally realized, like, oh,
Speaker 1: we probably left it up there. So I went up
Speaker 1: to the church and was asking someone that works there
Speaker 1: and like, hey, any chance you saw a pink helmet?
Speaker 1: And well they asked around and she got back to
Speaker 1: me and was like, hey, somebody saw that. Nobody can
Speaker 1: remember what happened to it. It was sort of this
Speaker 1: vague answer, and I was like, this is weird, but whatever, alright, fine.
Speaker 1: I put it off for a couple of months, but
Speaker 1: I finally realized, we need to get a helmets because
Speaker 1: all the girls they need one, right, So that leads
Speaker 1: me to value village. I wasn't necessarily looking for a helmet.
Speaker 1: I was looking for some yard tools. Oh I would
Speaker 1: have assumed you might have gone to all need to
Speaker 1: get a bike helmet, but no, Hey, that would have
Speaker 1: been a great guest because all the is the best.
Speaker 1: And you know, like on your phone, like you think
Speaker 1: of something and then you see an ad for that,
Speaker 1: like the next day on Instagram. Yes it's creepy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Aldi has that, but without like the Vladimir Putin Russian technology.
Speaker 1: Somehow they just know what it is that my wife
Speaker 1: and I need, and all of a sudden they're carrying it.
Speaker 1: This massive company just into it what you need. It's incredible.
Speaker 1: But regardless. I was at value village looking for a
Speaker 1: rake or something, and I thought, oh, this might be
Speaker 1: a good spot to maybe find a helmet that might
Speaker 1: actually be in decent shape. Specifically, I hopped over there,
Speaker 1: and I was looking for one that had the little
Speaker 1: round dial in the back because a little word to
Speaker 1: the wise, that's how you get a helmet to really
Speaker 1: fit your kid well as you make sure that you
Speaker 1: can adjust it. And and I saw one and saw
Speaker 1: so stoked, and I thought, oh, man, there's one at
Speaker 1: the bottom of the pile, kind of like hanging on there.
Speaker 1: And I looked a little bit closer and I realized,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, that's pink helmet, Like that's the helmet
Speaker 1: that we lost. I flipped it over it It It had
Speaker 1: the mini mouth sticker there on the side and everything.
Speaker 1: I could not believe it. Man, I was beside myself.
Speaker 1: I was so stoked. That's incredible, like like what are
Speaker 1: the chances right right to find something that you lost,
Speaker 1: first off, that made it to the third story by
Speaker 1: your house, and then second off that you know wasn't
Speaker 1: already gone or what I mean just then I happened
Speaker 1: to like go and see it. There's so many other
Speaker 1: things that could have happened. That little helmet along the
Speaker 1: way sister to the traveling Helmet. Am I right? And
Speaker 1: so obviously I was stoked. I was beside myself. I
Speaker 1: thought it was just sort of a funny story. And
Speaker 1: so when I took it to the register, I started
Speaker 1: telling the lady about how all this came to be,
Speaker 1: which she as amazed as I am. Well, she kind
Speaker 1: of rolled her eyes because I think she knew where
Speaker 1: I was going with it, which was trying to see
Speaker 1: if I could somehow get this helmet back for free
Speaker 1: because it was my helmet, and she wasn't that convinced
Speaker 1: by my story. Maybe she gets this all the time,
Speaker 1: I don't know. So she had to go get a manager.
Speaker 1: And while she did that, what I realized is that
Speaker 1: I need some proof. I need some evidence. So whipped
Speaker 1: out that phone, scroll back a few months and found
Speaker 1: a picture of my daughter wearing that helmet and you
Speaker 1: couldn't see that mini mouth sticker, but what you could
Speaker 1: see was a chip piece of the shell of the helmet.
Speaker 1: So I pinched and zoomed in and I was like, look, man,
Speaker 1: it's right there. So I showed him the chip in
Speaker 1: the picture, showed him the chip on the helmet, and
Speaker 1: he just kind of cracked up, laughing and just let
Speaker 1: me go with it. He let me have the helmet
Speaker 1: for were free. I didn't have to pay anything, but
Speaker 1: it didn't That just crazy. I mean, I wanted to
Speaker 1: share that story because it's just such a wild thing.
Speaker 1: I feel like that happened totally random. I was so happy.
Speaker 1: But then secondly, I wanted to share how you know,
Speaker 1: like we've had an episode before, we talked about the
Speaker 1: art of asking for a discount episode number eighteen, Buddy,
Speaker 1: eighteen eighteen. I was way back when it was a
Speaker 1: while ago. But yeah, that's what you have to do.
Speaker 1: You have to ask for that discount. You have to
Speaker 1: be that advocate for yourself, because you know, had I
Speaker 1: not said anything and not shared how excited I was,
Speaker 1: or shared the whole story, man, I would have just
Speaker 1: had to pay the five bucks. The four nine that
Speaker 1: was written on the helmet with with sharpie that I
Speaker 1: had to go home and rub off plus tacks exactly.
Speaker 1: You know what that makes me think of, like we
Speaker 1: just gotta well, first off, I love the story and yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah it happened, and then you found the helmet. I'm
Speaker 1: sure your girls were pumped when you brought it home, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I came in literally I was. I was holding it
Speaker 1: over my head kind of like bouncing it up and down,
Speaker 1: you know, while the girls were like, Daddy, where did
Speaker 1: you find being commed? You know, I got to play
Speaker 1: the hero, which is a lot of fun, kind of
Speaker 1: like in the movie Rudy where they hold him on
Speaker 1: their shoulders or something like that. Yeah. No, I just
Speaker 1: made me think of a recent listener email that we
Speaker 1: got based on that episode about asking for a discount,
Speaker 1: and the listener told us that their landlord was planning
Speaker 1: to raise their rent somewhere in the range like a
Speaker 1: hundred seventy dollars a month, a lot of money. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it was like a corporate department complex. And
Speaker 1: he asked for a discount. He asked for a lower
Speaker 1: monthly rate, and just by asking his landlord was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: and only raised his rent thirteen dollars some teen bucks.
Speaker 1: Isn't that crazy? He saved almost two thousand dollars a year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he didn't say that he wrote some like giant
Speaker 1: essay or like some official letters. He just straight up
Speaker 1: just asked the guy. It doesn't have to be anything
Speaker 1: over the top. It doesn't have to be you know,
Speaker 1: this big song and dance. But sometimes just by asking
Speaker 1: just that act alone can actually lead to a major
Speaker 1: impact in your finances or something minor or five bucks
Speaker 1: off a helmet that's already yours, but it was less
Speaker 1: the money for us and just more of the like
Speaker 1: that's mine, like that used to be ours. It felt
Speaker 1: weird because that's like, am I really going to pay
Speaker 1: for something that used to be mine? That was accidentally
Speaker 1: donated there? So the more of the story. Yeah, if
Speaker 1: you don't ask, you don't receive EVE. But also to man,
Speaker 1: check out your local thrist store, your local value village
Speaker 1: if that's what you've got, or or goodwill, and yeah,
Speaker 1: you never know what you might find. You might even
Speaker 1: find something that used to belong to you that you
Speaker 1: won back, No doubt, dude, I love a good thrist
Speaker 1: store run although it's been a while for me. I
Speaker 1: need to get back into the swing of things. Where's
Speaker 1: that you know? My favorite thrist store shirt that you
Speaker 1: had was like that. Uh it's like there's a T
Speaker 1: shirt and it had like these rabbits on it that
Speaker 1: we're running like some sort of bunny run. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: still got that one. Yeah. Actually, one of my best friends, Josh,
Speaker 1: had an eBay store where he sold vintage clothing. All
Speaker 1: he did was shop at every single local area Thirst
Speaker 1: store in Florida and he would resell that stuff on eBay.
Speaker 1: And he had a full time job out of reselling
Speaker 1: clothes on on online, which I thought was really cool
Speaker 1: idea for her business. Yeah, Josh, he had good taste,
Speaker 1: he did. I love that shirt. Alright, So Matt, let's
Speaker 1: mention the beer that we're having on the show today.
Speaker 1: We're drinking Buffalo Soldier by Utah Brewing Company. And big
Speaker 1: thanks again to listener Andy for sending this beer out
Speaker 1: as well. We had a beer that he donated on
Speaker 1: Monday A two. Yeah, this is a black I p A.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if you've ever had this style on
Speaker 1: the show before. This is one of the styles that
Speaker 1: maybe I've only had once or twice in my entire life,
Speaker 1: so really excited to share this one with you. And
Speaker 1: we'll share our thoughts on this beer at the end
Speaker 1: of the episode, no doubt. All Right, Matt, onto the
Speaker 1: subject at hand, why warehouse clubs are so stinking great?
Speaker 1: And uh, I think right. I think it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a fun conversation because we both kind of fall on
Speaker 1: different sides of this issue. I am kind of a
Speaker 1: die hard Costco member. I I also have been a
Speaker 1: member of Sam's Club in the past. I think there's
Speaker 1: some really good, compelling reasons for people to consider joining
Speaker 1: a warehouse club. And I know that you have really
Speaker 1: staunchly refused to partake. And so let's get into kind
Speaker 1: of some pros and cons and kind of not partake
Speaker 1: of the Costco. So let's get into the too, the
Speaker 1: good and the bad. And yeah, I want to hear
Speaker 1: your take on on warehouse clubs. All right, Jil, let
Speaker 1: me share my problem that I had with warehouse clubs.
Speaker 1: The issue you know that I have and maybe others
Speaker 1: do too, is that I am not sure that a
Speaker 1: warehouse club membership is worth it. The reason being is
Speaker 1: that with new grocery stores like Aldi, Like you mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: these guys are cropping up everywhere, and it's really easy
Speaker 1: for us now to get affordable groceries, you know. And
Speaker 1: then on top of that, online shopping allows us to
Speaker 1: get the best deals on the other items that I
Speaker 1: can't get at Aldi. So that begs the question is
Speaker 1: it worth it to join Costco or you know, like
Speaker 1: you said, Sam's Club or b J's whatever warehouse club
Speaker 1: that you have in your area. Yeah, So that's what
Speaker 1: we're discussing today. Let's run through a couple of things
Speaker 1: before we kind of get into the pros and cons
Speaker 1: of how we feel about the warehouse clubs. Really, these
Speaker 1: warehouse clubs cater themselves to different clientele. That's something that
Speaker 1: we kind of need to know upfront. I've been a
Speaker 1: member of Sam's Club. I'm currently member of Costco. Sam's
Speaker 1: Club seems to attract more small business owners. They just
Speaker 1: have more stuff that seems to target itself towards towards
Speaker 1: folks in particular that have their own small business that
Speaker 1: mix machines, yeah, factors. Yeah, especially people that own, like
Speaker 1: let's say, convenience store. They have a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: that convenience stores could resell in their own store. So
Speaker 1: it's interesting to note that they're all different, the price
Speaker 1: points different. Two so it's sixty dollars to join Costco,
Speaker 1: forty five to join Sam's. I think BJ's is fifty.
Speaker 1: And you can find sign up specials from time to
Speaker 1: time at each of these stores. B J's in particular,
Speaker 1: if you have one of those close close by awtent times,
Speaker 1: they'll offer you a free sixty day trial membership, which
Speaker 1: is kind of nice way to get your foot in
Speaker 1: the door for free. Yeah, and remember one time you
Speaker 1: were trying to get me to go ahead and join
Speaker 1: Costco when they're offering a sweet discount, they had like
Speaker 1: have their membership rates. They're gonna throw in like a
Speaker 1: free case of water, like a gift card. Chicken. Yes,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get to the chicken man. This is such
Speaker 1: a random assortment of goods this one has like to
Speaker 1: shop at Costco exactly what it's like Like. The whole
Speaker 1: thing kind of made me think, I don't think I
Speaker 1: want to be a part of this. The whole thing
Speaker 1: kind of weirded me out, I understand, honestly, because before
Speaker 1: I joined Costco, a spare tire here we'll just throw
Speaker 1: this as well. It does seem it does seem odd
Speaker 1: from the outside in if you if you've never been
Speaker 1: in one, if you kind of don't know how they work.
Speaker 1: By the way, I also wanted to mention there is
Speaker 1: a website that's kind of trying to be the online
Speaker 1: equivalent of a warehouse club. It's called boxed dot com,
Speaker 1: and uh, it doesn't necessarily have quite as good a deals,
Speaker 1: but there's also no membership fee. For someone who's looking
Speaker 1: to buy in bulk or maybe doesn't live very close
Speaker 1: to any of these warehouse clubs, you know, boxed dot
Speaker 1: com could be a good online alternative for folks like that.
Speaker 1: Nice man, I've actually never heard of boxed box dot com.
Speaker 1: Excited to hear that's an option, though. So in order
Speaker 1: to convince me, though, you're gonna have to lay some
Speaker 1: pros on me, all the different reasons why you love
Speaker 1: costco so much. Late on thick, I will, all right,
Speaker 1: So later in the show, we're gonna get into some
Speaker 1: of the specific services that are offered the best specific
Speaker 1: items to buy at warehouse clubs, but for now, I'm
Speaker 1: going to kind of generalize it. Okay, first that I
Speaker 1: want you to know a lot of these things. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna specifically talk about Costco a lot because that's where
Speaker 1: I'm a member, although many of these warehouse clubs offer
Speaker 1: kind of similar things. I wanted to mention that employees
Speaker 1: are treated really well. In particular, at Costco, there's a
Speaker 1: fifteen dollar minimum wage. Employees are just really happy there,
Speaker 1: and that that's a sign of a good company. In
Speaker 1: my opinion, shopping at Costco is is pleasant, and I
Speaker 1: think in large part that's because the employees feel loyal
Speaker 1: to the company because the company cares for them well,
Speaker 1: and to me, that kind of sets the table for
Speaker 1: enjoying the place where you shop. Right, Knowing that the
Speaker 1: employees are well taken care of and that they care
Speaker 1: for you, that's kind of one check mark in favor
Speaker 1: of Costco in the warehouse clubs. Yeah, you can always
Speaker 1: tell like a good company like that, right when you've
Speaker 1: got employees that are happy to be there and they're smiling,
Speaker 1: and they're asking you questions and engaging with you versus
Speaker 1: just showing up doing the bare minimum. If they're younger,
Speaker 1: a lot of times they're just like on their phone,
Speaker 1: like playing Fortnite while they're supposed to be working. It's like,
Speaker 1: come on, guys, like, I'm trying to find some tires, right, yeah, fortnite.
Speaker 1: A lot of people are predicted to that, right, I've
Speaker 1: heard of this, all right. So another check mark in
Speaker 1: the corner of the warehouse clubs is it buying in
Speaker 1: bulk does often lead to lower prices, and in Costco
Speaker 1: in particular has a commitment to not mark up anything
Speaker 1: more than fift in its stores, and so you kind
Speaker 1: of know when you're looking at the price that you're
Speaker 1: not getting gouged. You you know that whatever you're paying,
Speaker 1: well at max it's fifteen percent more than the cost
Speaker 1: the Costco paid to acquire the item. And there's kind
Speaker 1: of something cool about that. Yeah, I didn't know that,
Speaker 1: knowing that, you know, in a grocery store there could
Speaker 1: be certain items in there that are marked up. You know,
Speaker 1: most grocery store items are marked up between twenty five
Speaker 1: and fifty, and so you just kind of know that
Speaker 1: you're getting, you know, a solid deal. It might not
Speaker 1: always be the best deal, but you know you're getting
Speaker 1: a really really good deal. And so I like that
Speaker 1: about shopping at a place like Costco. You know, I
Speaker 1: wanted to share a quick pro of Costco is that
Speaker 1: I've experienced the Kirkland signature, which is like the Costco
Speaker 1: store brand, even though not a member there, though I
Speaker 1: have experienced that delicious brand, whether it be at your house, Joel,
Speaker 1: or at a friends. You know, you got to cook
Speaker 1: out and you see Kirkland signature. That's pretty good stuff.
Speaker 1: You know. I've been impressed with the quality, you know,
Speaker 1: of the store brand, and it's telling of a company
Speaker 1: when you see folks buying the store brand like that, Yes,
Speaker 1: you kind of just stole my thunder for the next thing.
Speaker 1: Else to say, no, it's all good, No, it's funny.
Speaker 1: It's so true that the Kirkland signature brand has kind
Speaker 1: of taken on this life of its own, and anybody
Speaker 1: that shops at Costco realizes that oftentimes the Kirkland signature
Speaker 1: equivalent to the name brand that's being sold next to it,
Speaker 1: is oftentimes better at a lower price. So it's fascinating
Speaker 1: how Costco has been able to create a lot of
Speaker 1: loyalty from their shoppers by giving them a cheaper, generic
Speaker 1: brand that they take a lot of pride in. Do
Speaker 1: you think it's in the marketing, The fact that they
Speaker 1: named it something kind of cool like Kirkland signature. Honestly,
Speaker 1: it had no appeal to me, and I doubted it
Speaker 1: until I started buying that stuff. And and Emily and
Speaker 1: I are both now Holkline and Sinker were like, if
Speaker 1: it says Kirkland signature, it's going to be good. It's
Speaker 1: just true. It just really is really good stuff. And
Speaker 1: is the Kirkland signature beer. Actually, Okay, that's one place
Speaker 1: they fall short. Their Kirkland signature beer is terrible. I
Speaker 1: will I will readily admit that. Just don't buy that beer.
Speaker 1: But but we're also ridiculous beers. Yeah, we're pretty. We're pretty,
Speaker 1: particularly when it comes to our booze. Yeah. But almost
Speaker 1: anything in the store that says Kirkland signature on it
Speaker 1: is going to be really, really good. And so also
Speaker 1: they have lots of organic options at Costco. So if
Speaker 1: you are super into buying organics, that's one of the
Speaker 1: best places in the United States to get really good
Speaker 1: organics at a reasonable price. Oh and by the way,
Speaker 1: you mentioned Aldi and buying groceries. There, have you ever
Speaker 1: bought a steak at Aldi? I just want to let
Speaker 1: you know right now there's a marked difference between a
Speaker 1: steak that you buy at all the versus a steake
Speaker 1: that you're gonna get a Costco. There's just something so
Speaker 1: nice about the quality of some of the things that
Speaker 1: Costco offers, especially in regards to to food like that.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, that's another reason that I love Costco
Speaker 1: is is that the quality is so much better than
Speaker 1: than I could get at a local grocery store. Yeah. Sure,
Speaker 1: I'll give that one to you. You know, we don't
Speaker 1: buy meat often, and so maybe that's because we shop
Speaker 1: at ALDI, or maybe it's the other way around. I
Speaker 1: don't know, but I have had stakes from Asco with
Speaker 1: you before, and yeah, those bone and ribbons are really good.
Speaker 1: And I also remember when we were getting those steaks, man,
Speaker 1: that we got to try some very delicious samples, and
Speaker 1: I now that's one of the selling points people always
Speaker 1: talk about the samples. You can kind of go around
Speaker 1: the store and get a full meal if you just
Speaker 1: like hot from one sample aid to the next to
Speaker 1: the next. That's pretty accurate that how you're all, that's
Speaker 1: pretty accurate. Yeah, though there's lots of good samples, especially
Speaker 1: on the weekends, and and so yeah, that's kind of
Speaker 1: one of the things that Costco shoppers love is it's
Speaker 1: kind of the samples at every little corner of the store,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, you're gonna get a little fill up,
Speaker 1: you know, while you're doing your shopping. So that's kind
Speaker 1: of cool, is it? Infomercial style as well? And they're like,
Speaker 1: you can actually buy the skillet right over there as well,
Speaker 1: and you can buy this meat over there. It is
Speaker 1: like that, but they're not super pushy, which is nice,
Speaker 1: and they're like super nice instead because they're happy to
Speaker 1: be there. Yeah, they're not like, if you take this bite,
Speaker 1: you must buy the product, So yeah, I appreciate that
Speaker 1: it's a little low key. Another big time pro in
Speaker 1: Costco's favor is their amazing return policy. Basically, you can
Speaker 1: get a full refund for anything anytime except for electronics
Speaker 1: and major appliances. Costco stands behind pretty much everything they
Speaker 1: sell and you never have to worry about whether three
Speaker 1: years later, you know your luggage broke. You know what.
Speaker 1: At almost every other retailer, you're gonna have an issue
Speaker 1: returning that you're you're just not gonna be able to
Speaker 1: take it back. But with Costco Boom, you take it
Speaker 1: back no questions. Asked refund or or you're given you know,
Speaker 1: the equivalent that they offer right now. So I love
Speaker 1: that return policy, especially for something like luggage, which is
Speaker 1: gonna get beat up, messed up, and to know that
Speaker 1: you can always take it back if something happens. I
Speaker 1: really do appreciate that factor in a major way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a pretty sweet perk. And you know, I've also
Speaker 1: heard you talk about Costco is a ridiculous warranty program.
Speaker 1: Once you try to convince me on that a little
Speaker 1: bit here. Yeah, So especially if you're buying I don't
Speaker 1: buy very many electronics at Costco, honestly, I think there's
Speaker 1: just a lot of competition in that space. If I'm
Speaker 1: buying a television, I'm just not getting it from Costco personally.
Speaker 1: But the reason that you would consider getting something like
Speaker 1: a television from Costco would be the warranty that you
Speaker 1: get in place when you buy electronics items. So you
Speaker 1: only have like ninety days to return an item like that,
Speaker 1: but the warranty is awesome through the Costco Concierge service,
Speaker 1: and so you can get a two year warranty on
Speaker 1: top of the manufacturer's warranty through that, and then in addition,
Speaker 1: if you have the Costco visa card, which of course
Speaker 1: I do, it gives you an additional two years beyond that,
Speaker 1: so you can get just like this sick warranty on
Speaker 1: electronics items like a computer or a television or a
Speaker 1: major appliance. And so that's super helpful to know that,
Speaker 1: in addition to the manufacturer's warranty, you might have five,
Speaker 1: six or seven years of coverage on a really expensive purchase.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of peace of mind in that knowing
Speaker 1: that you didn't fork out extra money like you normally
Speaker 1: would for a longer extended warranty. It's just kind of
Speaker 1: part of the package. And I think that's really cool.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Man. You're talking about the Costco credit card
Speaker 1: made me think of if Aldi had a credit card,
Speaker 1: and it would totally be like amex Aldi Black, you know,
Speaker 1: uper luxury or the opposite. Not really, it'd probably like
Speaker 1: a like a change purse with like Alredy written on it,
Speaker 1: you know, but like store your quarters for the carts
Speaker 1: you get like free ARTI chokes every year. That's like
Speaker 1: the reward I would imagine, which I would be all
Speaker 1: about because their produce is great. In my opinion hit
Speaker 1: or miss, But we can get into that at another
Speaker 1: another time. That's another debate for another episode of My Friend.
Speaker 1: But I did want to mention too that I think
Speaker 1: my favorite thing about Costco is that they sell more
Speaker 1: than just groceries. But really there's kind of a certain
Speaker 1: piece of mind when I buy from Costco based on
Speaker 1: kind of all these factors. I feel like they have
Speaker 1: a commitment to quality. I know that the price isn't
Speaker 1: going to be marked up over a certain place. They
Speaker 1: have this amazing return policy extended warranty. I just know
Speaker 1: that what I'm buying is is a good product, and
Speaker 1: if it's not, I can return it. So I might
Speaker 1: not be getting like the dirt cheapest price, but I'm
Speaker 1: getting something that's really high quality at an incredibly fair price,
Speaker 1: and it's in a place that I like to shop.
Speaker 1: And I know that there are some cons to shopping
Speaker 1: at a warehouse club. Um, And you know what, Matt,
Speaker 1: I'm ready for your side of the argument, right for
Speaker 1: the break, All right, Joel, we are back from the
Speaker 1: break now, and like you just mentioned, we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about the cons now. These are the reasons why, you know,
Speaker 1: Kate and I why we haven't joined Costco. And the
Speaker 1: first of those is because you do have to buy
Speaker 1: in bulk. You have to have room to store all
Speaker 1: that stuff. You know, when you're getting that discount, it
Speaker 1: is because you're buying lots of those things. And with
Speaker 1: more folks moving to the city in particular, folks just
Speaker 1: have less space. And so you know, to think you're
Speaker 1: gonna buy a pallette of like toilet paper, We're like,
Speaker 1: we're you gonna store that? You know, there's only so
Speaker 1: much space that you have, and and our small in
Speaker 1: town homes not to get the deal, you gotta get
Speaker 1: two pallets. Yeah, double the toilet paper share with the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: And then when it comes to food stuffs, you might
Speaker 1: be tempted to buy like even a deep freeze or
Speaker 1: in a sational fridge for storage, which obviously has the
Speaker 1: potential for for being wasteful. I'm not saying that everyone
Speaker 1: will do those things, but I think once you kind
Speaker 1: of start going down that path of oh man, we
Speaker 1: have to buy so much of this stuff, like, Okay,
Speaker 1: where are we gonna put it? Well, we've gotta freeze it.
Speaker 1: We gotta put it in the deep freeze, because that's
Speaker 1: where we put all of our Costco meats. Do you
Speaker 1: guys ever feel the temptation to, you know, be able
Speaker 1: to store stuff away more efficiently or you know, what
Speaker 1: do you do when it comes to buying like bulk
Speaker 1: fridge stuff. Well, you know, I honestly I think that
Speaker 1: this is a valid concern for some people, especially people
Speaker 1: living in really small spaces. But for a long time,
Speaker 1: our family has lived in a two bedroom, one bath
Speaker 1: in square feet and we're still Costco members, and so
Speaker 1: I don't feel the need to over buy. I feel
Speaker 1: like the packaging is mostly sensible. There are probably a
Speaker 1: couple of things that feel ridiculous based on just the
Speaker 1: enormous amount of bulk you'd have to buy on on
Speaker 1: certain items, like you buy two jars of peanut butter
Speaker 1: at the same time that are plastic grabbed together or whatever,
Speaker 1: and they're bigger than average jar of peanut butter. But
Speaker 1: you know what, we go through so much peanut butter,
Speaker 1: and their peanut butter is actually just better than any
Speaker 1: other peanut butter that we've ever had, so it's worth
Speaker 1: it to us, and it doesn't feel like it takes
Speaker 1: up too much space, you know what, I'm saying, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're not buying like twelve of them. It's just like two.
Speaker 1: If it was twelve, it would be insane, it would
Speaker 1: be ridiculous. So yeah, I can handle two or something.
Speaker 1: And I mean, well, peanut butter is a great example,
Speaker 1: because like y'all we you know, we got through a
Speaker 1: lot of peanut butter as well. So the next gripe then,
Speaker 1: is the distance and the time that it takes to
Speaker 1: get to the warehouse for us, Like where we live
Speaker 1: right now, I can run my bike to Aldi and
Speaker 1: get there in less than ten minutes. Hey, you could
Speaker 1: ride your bike to Costco too. It would just take
Speaker 1: you three hours. It only take me, yeah, like an
Speaker 1: hour and a half, like with traffic. But I mean
Speaker 1: I'm able to ride through with the neighborhood and hop
Speaker 1: into Aldi and pick something up pretty quickly. And that's
Speaker 1: the other thing too, is with Aldi being typically they're
Speaker 1: smaller stores, and so I can not even joking, I
Speaker 1: can get in and out of there in about nineties
Speaker 1: seconds if I just need to go in and pick
Speaker 1: up a gallon of milk, which is oftentimes the case.
Speaker 1: I would love to see your Aldi run in slow
Speaker 1: motion video ninety seconds I'm not even joking. I can
Speaker 1: do it. That's crazy. But you know, with a bigger
Speaker 1: warehouse club, it takes like ninety seconds even just to
Speaker 1: walk from your car and get to the front door.
Speaker 1: And then once you're in there, I've been in there
Speaker 1: with you. It's it takes a while to even navigate
Speaker 1: the entire space. They're they're larger buildings, and that's just
Speaker 1: more of your day kind of going towards perusing the aisles.
Speaker 1: And certainly there's deals to be had there, but I
Speaker 1: don't know, there's something that I love about the efficiency
Speaker 1: of all the of just being able to step inside
Speaker 1: the door and I can take almost like ten steps
Speaker 1: and I know I'm at milk, and I take temp
Speaker 1: steps back and I'm at the register, and before you
Speaker 1: know what, I'm out of there. No, I mean, I
Speaker 1: think this is actually the con that is is most
Speaker 1: accurate that I feel the most. It's kind of a
Speaker 1: pain to get there, and because that, it kind of
Speaker 1: dampens our excitement about going to actually go to the store,
Speaker 1: because it's a bigger deal. Yeah, and and it is,
Speaker 1: like you said, just has this enormous footprint and so
Speaker 1: at times, you know, parking and walking in and all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. It feels like a chore versus
Speaker 1: a quick bike ride to Aldy to pick up the
Speaker 1: four or five things you need. Doesn't feel that way.
Speaker 1: So I completely agree on this front. The worst thing
Speaker 1: about being a member of a warehouse club like Costco
Speaker 1: or Sam's Club is a distance that you're likely located
Speaker 1: away from one of these warehouse clubs, and then kind
Speaker 1: of that insane parking lot and just getting in and
Speaker 1: out of the store in general. Yeah, and another great
Speaker 1: thing about Audi as well is that there is not
Speaker 1: a barrier to entry unless you count the little quarter
Speaker 1: that you have to stick in the cart so to
Speaker 1: walk around because they're super efficient and they don't pay
Speaker 1: anybody to round up all the carts. No, I think
Speaker 1: it's such an amazing system. It's brilliant, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know it works really well so that you know,
Speaker 1: you might consider that a bar to injury. But with
Speaker 1: a warehouse club, you have to join. I think for
Speaker 1: a lot of folks, including us, like, that's what keeps
Speaker 1: us from from trying it out, because I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: I don't I don't even want to bother with with
Speaker 1: joining when I'm not even sure if this is gonna
Speaker 1: work out, I can go to Audi or shop at
Speaker 1: any online retailer for free whenever I want. And if
Speaker 1: I'm already paying for something, well, you know, I'm already
Speaker 1: an Amazon Prime member. And so it almost feels like
Speaker 1: that if you've got multiple sort of outlets this where
Speaker 1: you have to pay money to even begin to consider
Speaker 1: shopping there. I don't know something about that kind of
Speaker 1: rubs me the wrong way. I understand that. I think
Speaker 1: paying up front in order just to have the privilege
Speaker 1: of shopping at a store, I can completely see why
Speaker 1: that rubs people the wrong way and why people would
Speaker 1: avoid it because of that. I will say the great
Speaker 1: thing about these warehouse clubs is that if you do
Speaker 1: buy a membership and you feel like you're not getting
Speaker 1: enough value for it, you know what, they will refund
Speaker 1: the cost of that membership. So even if you were
Speaker 1: a member of Costco for three and sixty four days
Speaker 1: of that year and you on the three sixty fourth
Speaker 1: day said, hey, guys, you know what, this isn't worth
Speaker 1: it for me, they will refund your whole membership fee.
Speaker 1: And I think that's really cool. It just kind of
Speaker 1: gives you it's it's just kind of another way that
Speaker 1: you can have peace of mind when you're paying for
Speaker 1: a membership up front, which I understand is a barrier
Speaker 1: for loss of folks. Yeah, that is pretty cool, though
Speaker 1: I did not know that. You mean, not that I'm
Speaker 1: gonna wait until the very last day it's the cancel,
Speaker 1: but to know that, like hopefully you know, within the
Speaker 1: first month and like a couple of months of trying
Speaker 1: to get out and seen like how that affects your
Speaker 1: grocery bill, seeing if it works out with as far
Speaker 1: as traffic, because you know, again, like you said, like
Speaker 1: that's the worst part of it for for you guys
Speaker 1: like that that is going to be the worst part
Speaker 1: of it for us, is is the commute essentially to
Speaker 1: get to the grocery store. Another issue I have though
Speaker 1: with basically buying in bulked is the potential for waste.
Speaker 1: I think we might be tempted to buy more stuff
Speaker 1: than when we actually need, and food a lot of
Speaker 1: times doesn't last like it's gonna go to waste. We
Speaker 1: potentially either over consume whatever item we would buy in bulk.
Speaker 1: And then there's the psychological effect too of where you
Speaker 1: know where you say oh, I have tons of you know,
Speaker 1: X item, whatever it is, like chips or paper towels.
Speaker 1: I can just use however much of this I want,
Speaker 1: Like I feel that way, especially like with shampoo. Do
Speaker 1: you feel that way anytime you get like a full
Speaker 1: bottle of shampoo. At the beginning of the bottle, I
Speaker 1: use like so much shampoo because I'm like, oh, there's
Speaker 1: just tons of it. But then when you get to
Speaker 1: the very end of it, you're just like rationing every
Speaker 1: little pie size drop. It's just gonna take an exercise
Speaker 1: and self control and discipline to make sure that you're
Speaker 1: just not over consuming the item that you're getting such
Speaker 1: a great deal on because you're buying so much of it.
Speaker 1: I think it's another good point. Yeah, I think people
Speaker 1: can can get bigger amounts of something and just say
Speaker 1: who throwcaution on the wind us as much as they
Speaker 1: want and find themselves just like blueberries for breakfast, lunch,
Speaker 1: and dinner, right yeah, yeah, no, totally running through the
Speaker 1: items that they purchased more quickly and therefore just leading
Speaker 1: to more purchases and spending more money. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: think if you are going to be a thoughtful costco shopper,
Speaker 1: you need to be careful about how much shampoo, how
Speaker 1: many blueberries, whatever it is. You know, whatever the item is,
Speaker 1: make sure that you're not just consuming more of it
Speaker 1: because you have more of it. Yeah, it takes kind
Speaker 1: of having a plan, I guess, right, And I mean,
Speaker 1: and that's another maybe that's another point as well, is
Speaker 1: that if it takes more thought, it takes be more thoughtful,
Speaker 1: like you have to have a plan, and that takes
Speaker 1: more space in my mind or in Kate's mind. If
Speaker 1: she has to more diligently or more systematically planned the
Speaker 1: meals that she wants to cook, well, that's not how
Speaker 1: she normally cooks, right she You know, she is a
Speaker 1: fantastic cook, but she likes to wing it a little more.
Speaker 1: She's a little more like takes more of the artistic
Speaker 1: approach and see what's on sales, see what we have
Speaker 1: in the fridge, and kind of combines it and finds
Speaker 1: ways to to make you know, amazing meals for her.
Speaker 1: There would be a complete shift in grocery runs and
Speaker 1: how she approached meal prep. That's another sort of strike
Speaker 1: against Costco in the sense that I don't think she
Speaker 1: wants to do that. And if she doesn't want to
Speaker 1: do that, then we're gonna We're gonna do whatever she
Speaker 1: wants to do. You're not going to force her to
Speaker 1: becoming a costco. But I understand, I understand both partners
Speaker 1: in a marriage have to understand the glory that is
Speaker 1: costco got to be the same thing to commit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you gotta commit together. And speaking of that, Matt, I
Speaker 1: feel like one con that we should mention is that
Speaker 1: warehouse clubs don't make nearly as much sense for single people.
Speaker 1: If you like to talk about waste, right right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you live alone, it's unlikely that you're going to
Speaker 1: be able to get enough benefit from a warehouse club
Speaker 1: that would make it worth the cost of a membership fee.
Speaker 1: And in addition, you know, talking about potentially using too
Speaker 1: much or wasting too much as a single person buying
Speaker 1: things in that much bulk, you're just gonna be hard
Speaker 1: pressed to get enough value out of a membership if
Speaker 1: you live alone. So, yeah, it makes more sense for
Speaker 1: a family, Like you know, we're a family of four
Speaker 1: about to become a family of five, and it just
Speaker 1: kind of fits into our lifestyle a little more than
Speaker 1: it would for someone who you know, is living in
Speaker 1: a small apartment by themselves. So this just made me
Speaker 1: think of a great idea, which is does Costco have
Speaker 1: a dating app, because they totally should. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: that would be so good. Like the Costco die hards. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's got to be like a whole singles group that
Speaker 1: could totally revolve around the the Costco ecosystem. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. I guarantee you there's a sub credit
Speaker 1: for that. Yeah, man, I bet there is a lot
Speaker 1: of This does come down to you and your personal
Speaker 1: preferences and specifically what you purchase, and so it may
Speaker 1: or may not be more affordable for you to shop
Speaker 1: at Costco. It might be more affordable for you to
Speaker 1: shop at Aldi. There's a lot of sort of tests
Speaker 1: out there, like different bloggers and whatnot where they've done
Speaker 1: an Audi run and they've done a Costco run, and
Speaker 1: they've they've got apples to Apple's goods and they've totaled it.
Speaker 1: But it just completely depends on what you are purchasing
Speaker 1: at each of the stores. So you know, I'm not
Speaker 1: going to completely not Costco because I think there's a
Speaker 1: chance that depending on what you purchase, you have the
Speaker 1: chance of saving a lot of money. Also, on the
Speaker 1: flip side of that, depending on what you purchase, you
Speaker 1: might save more money if you shop at ALDI. So
Speaker 1: I think it really does come down to your individual
Speaker 1: purchasing patterns and as well as just kind of what
Speaker 1: you prefer. All right, So on that note, Matt, I
Speaker 1: think it's important to talk about some of the specific
Speaker 1: items that you can buy at Costco where you can
Speaker 1: get a deal that's unparalleled and that you can't find
Speaker 1: anywhere else. And I think Costco does sell some things
Speaker 1: that have a particular appeal and that could single handedly
Speaker 1: pay for your membership. And so yeah, let's get to
Speaker 1: some of those things right after the break. Okay, Joel,
Speaker 1: you just mentioned there are some specific items that can
Speaker 1: single handedly pay for your membership. That actually sounds really
Speaker 1: impressive and I'm excited to hear those. But first, let's
Speaker 1: talk about some access to services, like specific things that
Speaker 1: Costco offers. I wasn't aware of this until we started
Speaker 1: researching for this episode, but you have firsthand experience when
Speaker 1: it comes to some of these items once you share
Speaker 1: it with our listeners. Sure. Yeah, So the cool thing
Speaker 1: about warehouse clubs is that they offer services in addition
Speaker 1: to like groceries and electronics, right, so it's not just
Speaker 1: physical items. There are some really cool services that kind
Speaker 1: of set these stores apart. So I wanted to mention
Speaker 1: that you can find great travel deals. Costco in particular,
Speaker 1: has an awesome car buying program. I forget how many people,
Speaker 1: but like millions of people buy a new car through
Speaker 1: Costco's car buying program every year. Like that's how big
Speaker 1: it is their own financing, is that what it is?
Speaker 1: They're essentially negotiating with dealers on your behalf to get
Speaker 1: you a really good price. So it's a no haggle,
Speaker 1: walk out the door price on a new car. Basically, Matt,
Speaker 1: you know you don't recommend buying a new car, but
Speaker 1: if you really wanted to, you you you just felt
Speaker 1: the need to buy a new car. I think Costco's
Speaker 1: car buying program is a worthwhile place to go. And
Speaker 1: both Sam's Club and Costco offer merchant processing. For Let's
Speaker 1: say you have your own small business and you're using
Speaker 1: like a PayPal reader or a square read or something
Speaker 1: like that. Well, if you went instead with merchant processing
Speaker 1: through a company like you know, Costco or Sam's Club,
Speaker 1: you could potentially save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars
Speaker 1: a year just by changing your merchant processing to to
Speaker 1: going with one of them. It's kind of cool, some
Speaker 1: of these side services they offered. If you can take
Speaker 1: advantage of one or two of these, then I think
Speaker 1: that that just kind of puts this other just enormous
Speaker 1: check mark in the corner of the warehouse clubs that
Speaker 1: it just makes a whole heck of a lot more
Speaker 1: sense for you. I think I mentioned I bought my
Speaker 1: life insurance through a company that Costco partners with, and
Speaker 1: it was cheaper than even I could find on awesome
Speaker 1: sites like policy Genius or have in Life. And so
Speaker 1: because of that, it saved me a good bit of
Speaker 1: mone me every year. And it was just another service
Speaker 1: that's offered that's only available to members. And I think
Speaker 1: if you can find one of these services that you
Speaker 1: think will work for you, well, then it just means
Speaker 1: you should take a much closer look at potentially joining up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so what does that even look like? You mentioned life insurance?
Speaker 1: Do you just go in the store. Is there like
Speaker 1: somewhere on the shelf where there's a card and it
Speaker 1: says thirty year term life insurance you just kind of
Speaker 1: like grab that walk to the register and like ring,
Speaker 1: you know, ring it up. It's like on Costco's website.
Speaker 1: You know, you click through through the website. Okay, yep,
Speaker 1: so you click through and I said, you know, saw
Speaker 1: that they partnered with this company. You can call for
Speaker 1: a quote as a Costco member and you get a
Speaker 1: quote that's just unavailable to non Costco members. And similar
Speaker 1: thing with they have a mortgage program, so if you're
Speaker 1: looking to do a refinance, you can get better rates,
Speaker 1: lower closing costs through a lot of lenders just because
Speaker 1: you're a Costco member. And so so that's kind of cool.
Speaker 1: That's another service that they offer. And if you want
Speaker 1: like an easier way to refinance, you kind of want
Speaker 1: access to you know, a bunch of different quotes in
Speaker 1: one fell swoop, well then Costco kind of has that
Speaker 1: covered for you, and you just you might not be
Speaker 1: getting the exact best deal on the market, but you know,
Speaker 1: what you're getting is a really really solid deal and
Speaker 1: that Costco has negotiated the closing costs as well for
Speaker 1: you ahead of time, which which is really nice as
Speaker 1: a member to know that that's the case. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: I mean, that's awesome knowing that you've got a company
Speaker 1: going to bat for you there essentially your advocate, and
Speaker 1: you're not having to pay anything above and beyond your
Speaker 1: standard membership fee. Yeah. And when you think about those
Speaker 1: services though, like a sixty dollar membership fee pales in
Speaker 1: comparison to which you could potentially save on like a
Speaker 1: refinance or life insurance or merchant processing. Like it's those
Speaker 1: are the kind of things too, that that set these
Speaker 1: warehouse clubs apart. That just make it, like Hookline and Sinker,
Speaker 1: a good deal for potential members if they're going to
Speaker 1: take advantage of some of these additional services that are provided.
Speaker 1: All right, but let's talk about specific items. Are you
Speaker 1: ready for that? Some of my favorite items for people
Speaker 1: to look to purchase at warehouse clubs. Yeah, well, you
Speaker 1: already mentioned the chicken, and so you know that one's
Speaker 1: already kind of like out of the bag a little bit.
Speaker 1: The five dollar Roat Hisstory chicken is just Costco is
Speaker 1: known for it. They're five dollars. They're just way better,
Speaker 1: bigger than any Rooker Story chicken you're gonna get like
Speaker 1: a local grocery store. Another food item is lunch. While
Speaker 1: you're there. So if you are at Costco, everybody knows
Speaker 1: about the lunch. The price of the hot dog and
Speaker 1: a drink has stayed the same since five or something
Speaker 1: like that. It's like a dollar fifty in order to
Speaker 1: grab lunch there, So that's pretty great. They're also known
Speaker 1: for their nuts, grains, and cheese, so those are worth mentioning.
Speaker 1: I mentioned luggage earlier. That's another specific item to buy,
Speaker 1: mainly because of the return policy. Not necessarily because it's
Speaker 1: the cheapest luggage, but but because you can always return
Speaker 1: it if something happens. Yeah, I'll share another deal that
Speaker 1: I've been able to personally, uh take advantage of. Specifically
Speaker 1: when we go to visit our in laws in Greenville,
Speaker 1: their Costco members, and they always like to swing by
Speaker 1: and kind of make sure that we have access to
Speaker 1: the pump uh and and and fill up before we
Speaker 1: leave town. And yeah, the gas is so much cheaper.
Speaker 1: They're like ten to fifteen cents cheaper than any gas
Speaker 1: station anywhere nearby. Honestly, depending on how much you fill
Speaker 1: up just gas alone, that one expense. If you just
Speaker 1: drive a ton, yeah, and you drive past the Costco
Speaker 1: and you fill up there every time that could single
Speaker 1: handedly pa if your annual membership really just the savings
Speaker 1: and gas alone over the course of a year. Another
Speaker 1: thing is is tires. If you wait for deal on tires,
Speaker 1: you can get an awesome deal on really really good tires,
Speaker 1: because again, quality is kind of the utmost. At Costco,
Speaker 1: You're not gonna get the dirt cheap tires, but you're
Speaker 1: gonna get really really good tires at a really really
Speaker 1: good price if you wait for a deal. Another huge
Speaker 1: specific item or area to look for is kids stuff.
Speaker 1: If you're getting diapers, you can get really good deals
Speaker 1: on diapers at Costco. And obviously you know you're buying
Speaker 1: in big amounts, and and typically when you have an infant,
Speaker 1: a little kid or whatever that that's wearing diapers, you
Speaker 1: go through a lot. The thing that I found, honestly,
Speaker 1: if I had to say one thing is the best
Speaker 1: buy at Costco, it is their infant formula. Formula is
Speaker 1: so expensive. The price of formula at Costco is literally
Speaker 1: half the price, and it's just as good a formula
Speaker 1: as you'd get from all the name brands, but it
Speaker 1: literally cost half as much as Similac or whatever, any
Speaker 1: of those name brands. Formulas. So if you are if
Speaker 1: you've got a newborn, if you've got an infant and
Speaker 1: you're looking to introduce formula, well, Costco is the place
Speaker 1: to get the formula right now, I'm telling you that's
Speaker 1: like the number one reason it's just such a good deal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess you guys never tried the Aldi formula or
Speaker 1: the or the Aldi diapers when once they rolled all
Speaker 1: that out. No, that kind of came along, but like
Speaker 1: a year and a half ago something like that, after
Speaker 1: we were kind of out of that phase. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: we're kind of still in that phase a little bit,
Speaker 1: at least with diapers with our youngest. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: feel like I have to mention that a little bit.
Speaker 1: We're not doing like a Costco versus Aldi or anything.
Speaker 1: But you know, anytime I hear something that you're talking
Speaker 1: about Costco, I'm like, oh, yeah, all these got that too.
Speaker 1: I feel like I have to stick up from Aldi
Speaker 1: a little bit here. Well, another thing Aldi doesn't sell
Speaker 1: that Costco does, by the way, is dog food, and
Speaker 1: dog food is a great deal. You can get again
Speaker 1: really high quality dog food in great quantities at Costco.
Speaker 1: So if you have a pup, that's another great reason
Speaker 1: to consider having a membership there. Yeah, basically, anytime you're
Speaker 1: going through just a large quantity of something, whether that
Speaker 1: be diapers, formula, dog food, like all those things go
Speaker 1: really quickly. Like going back to the conversation before about
Speaker 1: someone like a single, it's like, well, you may not
Speaker 1: get your money's worth, but if you have a large family,
Speaker 1: or if you have a baby or a pup who
Speaker 1: requires lots of resources and time and money, yeah, it
Speaker 1: could definitely be worth it. Or if it's just you
Speaker 1: and you really like booze, well, Costco has awesome prices
Speaker 1: on booze too. Not every Costco has a liquor store,
Speaker 1: but the ones that do, the prices that you'll find
Speaker 1: are are just really incredible, no joke. They actually have
Speaker 1: Kirkland signature alcohol and people there you mentioned the beer
Speaker 1: that was terrible, which is terrible as the actual liquor decent.
Speaker 1: The actual liquor is really good. And there are all
Speaker 1: these rumors online about kind of who makes the liquor
Speaker 1: for them, and so people say that their vodka is
Speaker 1: made by Gray Goose or they're they're just kind of
Speaker 1: everyone has a thought on where they're gin or where
Speaker 1: their bourbons comes from. Yeah, it's super funny, but it's
Speaker 1: actually really solid. A lot of their booze and you
Speaker 1: can get it for the price of something that's like
Speaker 1: much lower shelf at a liquor store. In the Costco
Speaker 1: liquor store. See if you're throwing a party, especially and
Speaker 1: you're gonna make some mixed drinks for folks, having that
Speaker 1: Costco membership is clutch in order to save money. Right. Well,
Speaker 1: isn't it true though, that you don't have to have
Speaker 1: the membership in order to to take advantage of the
Speaker 1: booze that that actually is true in in a lot
Speaker 1: of states, it is illegal to charge more like a
Speaker 1: special membership for exactly exactly, and so people in most
Speaker 1: states can still shop at the liquor store even without
Speaker 1: a membership, which is nice and also another great perk
Speaker 1: of shopping at Costco. One thing you can do without
Speaker 1: a membership is get your prescriptions filled there, and Costco
Speaker 1: often has some of the lowest prices on prescriptions, so
Speaker 1: that's worth looking into. I just want to mention a
Speaker 1: couple of other random things that we buy every year
Speaker 1: at Costco. Christmas trees, detergent sometimes extremely discounted gift cards,
Speaker 1: and I can tell you, you you know, more things that
Speaker 1: we enjoy buying there. It's certainly not for everyone as
Speaker 1: we've as we've alluded to, but for our family, you know,
Speaker 1: having that membership, Uh, it might not even necessarily save
Speaker 1: us tons of money, but we're able to buy things
Speaker 1: that we feel like our higher quality at what ends
Speaker 1: up being an equivalent price to like a discount grocery
Speaker 1: store chain. And and we feel like we're getting a
Speaker 1: lot of value for our membership, in particular because of
Speaker 1: those services that we mentioned too. So yeah, I feel
Speaker 1: like we've definitely got our money's worth out of a
Speaker 1: Costco membership. But I also realized that it's not for everyone.
Speaker 1: And if I didn't convert you, Matt in this podcast episode,
Speaker 1: I'm okay with that. Well, I'm glad you are, because
Speaker 1: I'm not completely sure if you know, if we're converts
Speaker 1: at this point. I totally understand how that you know
Speaker 1: that it works out for you, But I keep going
Speaker 1: going back to the biggest hurdle for us, which is distance.
Speaker 1: You know, we just do not like spending a lot
Speaker 1: of time in the car, you know, with what you
Speaker 1: shared about getting the membership, trying it out for maybe
Speaker 1: a month or two, and then maybe you know, if
Speaker 1: you don't like it, getting refunded. That that might be
Speaker 1: a way, as I could convince Kate to give it
Speaker 1: a shot. We might join the ranks of costco fans
Speaker 1: and maybe we'll see you guys up there. Well, I
Speaker 1: would love to see that, my friend. We can go
Speaker 1: shopping together anytime you want. I don't think we need
Speaker 1: to spend more time together and say that's probably true.
Speaker 1: Probably true. But let's mention just a couple other ways
Speaker 1: real quick. That if people are interested in joining a
Speaker 1: warehouse club, like how they can test test the waters.
Speaker 1: I mentioned that b j's has like a lot of
Speaker 1: like free sixty day trials. You can try out b
Speaker 1: J's for free if there's one in your area by
Speaker 1: going to their website or just google google that free
Speaker 1: sixty day trial. You'll find something on that. Also, check
Speaker 1: out a local warehouse club with a friend. You've been
Speaker 1: with me before, Matt, get a taste for it for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and if you've got a friend who who has a
Speaker 1: membership and they've wanted to check it out, well, you
Speaker 1: know what, your friend would probably be more than happy
Speaker 1: to have you tag along and check it out. Also,
Speaker 1: ask your friend to buy you a gift card. If
Speaker 1: you have a twenty or a fifty dollar gift card,
Speaker 1: whatever it is to to Costco, you're allowed to to
Speaker 1: shop without having an actual membership. And so yeah, if
Speaker 1: you pay your friend any bucks to get that gift card,
Speaker 1: you can go spend it there without having to have
Speaker 1: that membership. Don't you have to show your Costco card
Speaker 1: before you walk in? Yeah, but if you've got a
Speaker 1: gift card that just like flash the gift card. It
Speaker 1: works in the same way. It kind of feels like
Speaker 1: a fake I D doesn't it. It's like a little
Speaker 1: bit like mclovin. You're just like walking in and it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: I got this, got the gifts gift card and they
Speaker 1: kind of like frown at you. You're like, all right, fine,
Speaker 1: start like sprinting past the guy at the front door.
Speaker 1: All right, that's pretty cool too. That didn't realize that
Speaker 1: that was an option. Yeah, man, So lots of ways
Speaker 1: to to test the waters. Yeah, And you know, if
Speaker 1: you are listening to this and you are like me
Speaker 1: and you're not sure if you're gonna join a warehouse club,
Speaker 1: maybe chime in on Facebook. Hop over in the group.
Speaker 1: Maybe we can see how folks are kind of comparing
Speaker 1: the costs that sort of trade off between joining Warehouse
Speaker 1: Club and they're affordable local grocery store that's maybe more
Speaker 1: conducive to their lifestyle. I'm very curious, I guess, to
Speaker 1: see what other folks are doing. But in the end,
Speaker 1: I guess it does kind of come down to what
Speaker 1: it is that you prefer as an individual and what
Speaker 1: you're looking for. But yeah, I guess I'm curious due
Speaker 1: to hear what other folks are buying, because I know,
Speaker 1: like the weird stuff that you guys buy when you
Speaker 1: get a costco. But I gotta I gotta figure stuff. Well,
Speaker 1: I know, you like, like once a year you buy
Speaker 1: like this massive pack of like socks or something like that,
Speaker 1: or an underwear as well, to like restock your underwear drawer.
Speaker 1: I do always get my socks and underwear a costco
Speaker 1: at least told me that before. But I gotta think
Speaker 1: that there's other folks out there who are quite proud
Speaker 1: of the oddities that they're purchasing at their costco as well.
Speaker 1: You have so jump into our Facebook group. You can
Speaker 1: just search how the money in the search bar on
Speaker 1: on Facebook and you'll find us and and yeah, and
Speaker 1: we want to hear your reaction to this. Super interested
Speaker 1: in in maybe why you've refrained from getting a membership
Speaker 1: and then if you have one kind of yeah, what
Speaker 1: your best buys are, what your favorite things are to
Speaker 1: get at a warehouse club, and and how it saved
Speaker 1: you money. Looking forward to that discussion, and maybe you'll
Speaker 1: even convert Matt who knows. Man. Maybe I want to
Speaker 1: kick it back now to our beer. The beer that
Speaker 1: you and I get to enjoy this episode is a
Speaker 1: Buffalo Soldier by you tag Brewing Company, Joel. At the
Speaker 1: beginning of this episode, you kind of mentioned like a
Speaker 1: out like some of those roasted flavors, and I'm curious
Speaker 1: if you're sticking with those notes, because I think those
Speaker 1: are the notes that I'm going to share. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: say it. It's a little stout like roastiness with some
Speaker 1: of those peppery rhye notes shining through at the same
Speaker 1: time the hot bitterness. It's an interesting beer because it
Speaker 1: has all those elements at the same time, and they're
Speaker 1: not elements that you typically associate with being together in
Speaker 1: a beer but surprisingly it's really really tasty, Like it
Speaker 1: did a really good job of kind of holding all
Speaker 1: those things at the same time together. Um, I really
Speaker 1: enjoyed it, even though it is kind of an abnormality
Speaker 1: in a way in my opinion. But yeah, I thought
Speaker 1: it was really good. Yeah, a really unique beer. Uh
Speaker 1: So I'm not note it kind of made me think
Speaker 1: of a porter, because typically porters feel lighter in your mouth,
Speaker 1: which this totally did. Porters tend to be less sweet,
Speaker 1: at least in my opinion a little bit like they
Speaker 1: kind of have like those roasted bitter notes without the
Speaker 1: sweetness that you normally finding a stout. And so by
Speaker 1: maybe combining an I p A with sort of this
Speaker 1: dark rye flavor, at times, I'd almost convinced myself that
Speaker 1: I was drinking a porter instead of a black rye
Speaker 1: I p A. But I like what you said about
Speaker 1: those peppery notes. Case been making a lot of rye
Speaker 1: bread lately. She's still on that breadmaking train because it's
Speaker 1: just affordable and delicious, and she's got it down to
Speaker 1: a science almost at this point. I don't know something
Speaker 1: about that ride, just as that additional level of flavor,
Speaker 1: and I'm all about it. So I'm super stoked that
Speaker 1: we got to enjoy this beer on this show. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So thanks again to Andy for sending that our way.
Speaker 1: We appreciate it, man, Yeah, Andy, thanks again. So Joel,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be it for this episode, man. Listeners can
Speaker 1: find our show notes up at how to money dot com.
Speaker 1: Will link to a few resources that we mentioned in
Speaker 1: this episode, like box dot com. Uh, maybe a couple
Speaker 1: of articles talking about Costco's great return policy and extended
Speaker 1: warranty as well. Yeah, and if you like this podcast
Speaker 1: and you've found it helpful, we'd appreciate your review on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts. And if you feel like we've out room
Speaker 1: for improvement, please drop us a line. We'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can do that at how to
Speaker 1: money dot com slash do Better. Well. I enjoyed this one, dude.
Speaker 1: It was good. Yeah all right, buddy, Until next time,
Speaker 1: Joel Best Friends Out as Friends Out