by Misty Rahman

As thousands of anxious Aussies queue up to the opening of Costco early this July keen to be the first to shop within the 73 000 to 20 500 square feet warehouse for wholesale goods, little notice goes by on its implications and actual worth.

‘Club Cos’ is aimed at providing consumers top brands for substantially lower prices than any of our typical conventional stores, such as Woolworths, Coles etc. Costco comes across as an appealing place to shop, especially for young growing Australian families who intend to save. The products are bought in bulk size and calculated to work out cheaper for the consumer, in other words more for less.

Unfortunately, shopping at Costco isn’t as simple as it sounds. To enter the warehouse your initial step would be to become a cardholder and to be a member does come at a price, quite literal to be exact. The joining fee of $55 dollars to be a standard member or a gold start member of $60 dollars certainly did not get in the way. Whether it be a clever marketing technique, the exclusivity of joining before shopping heightened the hype of the store as many submitted membership forms online months before the store was up and running. The millions Costco racked in from memberships alone was enough to further expand in the ACT the same month. The future prospect for Costco is a bright one, as it plans to be opening many more warehouse outlets.

As a consumer, I joined with the hope of saving, except my expectations were not met the day I basked in the glory of what seemed to be yet another over priced warehouse. Not only had I been lured in with the hype, I was not offered what Costco is aiming to provide. I walked isle, to isle, eager for a great find, instead found myself with an empty shopping trolley. To my dismay I saw apple juice priced at a gallon for $11 (A gallon =3.5 Liters) as well as 4 bottles of Shampoo marked at $32 dollars a pack and I compared the prices to my regular grocery shop.  I came to the conclusion I was far better off shopping Woolies and Coles on a good day and stock up on sale items and I would happily advise anyone else to do the same.

To leave things on a positive note, I hope that in the future Costco does make an effort to stick to their objective on providing satisfied customers.