richms:

 

Apparantly they will take anything back which is why I was game to try them

Wonder if this applies to the pizza?

GV27:

 

richms:

 

Apparantly they will take anything back which is why I was game to try them

 

Wonder if this applies to the pizza?

 

I don't see why not. It's not mentioned on their exclusions list. I assume you would need to return the vast majority of the pizza uneaten, and give a reason you are not satisfied.

https://www.costco.co.nz/return-refund-policy

Must say, given how busy the store is, there is going to be quite a cost in time to avail Costco's generous refund policy.

Personally Costco's return / refund policy seems unworkable generous, given their product offering.

Seems way to easy to game / milk. Essentially use as a free rental service.

90 day change of mind policy on various electronics & appliances. Buy a portable air conditioner on the 1st of December, and return it on the last day of Feb...

By the $1700 camping fridge freezer, and return after you camping holiday, or the summer camping season.

Spend a few months thrashing the $7000 dirt bike, then take it back for a refund.

Buy seasonal decorations (some offerings are many hundreds of dollars), and return after the season.

Buy a luxury handbag / watch etc, and change your mind every few months

Buy the $2000 set of dewalt power-tools, and take it back once you have finished building your deck...

Many years ago I worked for a retailer with a generous return policy. As a salesperson we won so many sales from it, so many people would make the decision to buy after being told they could bring it back if they didn't like it. But it was also clear that some people would just milk it, and use us as a free rental service, and we ended up with a lot of open box products to sell. Company ultimately dropped the no questions asked refund policy. And then failed a few years later (due to unrelated major issues)

"The Warehouse" has watered down their Money Back Guarantee a heap. Now requires items to be unused, undermining the original intent of the policy that people could try the item, but stopping them being used as a free rental service. Also they have quite a list of total exceptions (including mobile phones).

Will be interesting to see if Costco can keep this policy going (but it seam's to in other markets).

Scott3:

 

https://www.costco.co.nz/return-refund-policy

 

Must say, given how busy the store is, there is going to be quite a cost in time to avail Costco's generous refund policy.

 

Personally Costco's return / refund policy seems unworkable generous, given their product offering.

 

Seems way to easy to game / milk. Essentially use as a free rental service.

 

Will be interesting to see if Costco can keep this policy going (but it seam's to in other markets).

 

One primary difference is that you need to be a member, so your purchases and returns will be specifically recorded and no doubt searchable 

This will make is much clearer to CostCo if "abuse" is happening, 

They've been around for yonks in the States, So I would imagine plenty of College students have tried it on a few times.... and they haven't gone out of business yet...

maoriboy:

 

I see they are now talking about new locations for new Costco sites in NZ. Wellington, Chch and another Auckland location is mentioned. Personally, I could see the benefits of having one located in Palmerston North. Heaps of available land, on the main trunk so shipping is easier, will serve a large catchment of customers that tend to buy in bulk (farmers and those in remote areas) and isn't a big trip for people living anywhere from Wellington to Taihape, Dannevirke etc. So where do you think Costco should look at next?

 

Rotorua to cater some from Hamilton, Tauranga, Taupo, Whakatane, Tokoroa and even up to New Plymouth. Logistics shouldn't be too hard too as Tauranga is not far off. 

I went this morning.

Best deal's:

• Hot roast chicken $7.99 (and much bigger than supermarket hot chickens)
• Foodcourt stuff ($1.99 for a hotdog and drink, $3.48 for a big slice of pizza.
• Tires
• Opening special tegal cage free chicken breast. 2.1kg for $17.07
• Lego 11717 set $94.99

----------------

On tires, fitted / balanced prices (each) in 215/50R17 (Nissan leaf size for higher trims with 17" rims):

• BF Goodrich Advantage: $184
• Michelin Primacy 4: $244 (opening special, $100 discount on a set of 4)
• Bridge stone Turanza ER300: $236
• Bridgestone Ecopia EP300: $226 (opening special, $100 discount on a set of 4)
• Bridgestone Turanza ER33: $237
• Michelin Pilot sport 4 $262 

And for comparison I got the price of Michelin Primacy 4 in 215/55R17 (kona size). $209 each. 10mm or 3.086% increase in rolling radius. Staff member said they would fit within 3% of the standard size for the car. (In NZ you can legally run up to 5% different without a cert).

Ran some comparisons: Primacy 4 set of 4 fitted: Costco: $876,Hyperdrive: $1471.92 (incl 30% discount  & 27.99/tire fitting)

Ecopia EP300 set of 4 fitted: costco: $804, Local Bridge stone $1,668.00 (No discount today, but bridgestone often runs 4 for the price of 3, or buy one, get the one half price deals)

----------

I turned up cira 45 mins after opening. Volume of traffic going down gunton drive was causing a queue to form on the motorway, but the choke point was the lights at the end of the off ramp, not a tail back from costco.

Traffic management plan when I arrived was sending a bunch of car's to the gravel carpark, then a bunch to the main carpark. I got lucky and was got to go to the main carpark, which I was very happy about.

Car park was pretty full when I parked, but oddly about half empty when I left at around 1:30pm.

They were running separate queues for people coming from the main carpark, and from the street. The main carpark queue seemed more about spacing people out on the travelator, and was under 10mins. Outside queue was fairly short when I arrived, but was going around the corner when I left.

Between cira 11 and 12:30pm, there were very long queues for the checkouts (like half the length of the store). Took me cira 20mins waiting. 5 mins after I checked out, there were no check out queues. Wait time for food at the food court was about 30mins. Glad I went to the tire center instead of just standing and waiting. I didn't try to get a table.

Apparently between 2pm and 4pm weekdays is the quiet time (from a check out operators perspective)

Scott3:

 

On tires, fitted / balanced prices (each) in 215/50R17 (Nissan leaf size for higher trims with 17" rims):

 

• BF Goodrich Advantage: $184
• Michelin Primacy 4: $244 (opening special, $100 discount on a set of 4)
• Bridge stone Turanza ER300: $236
• Bridgestone Ecopia EP300: $226 (opening special, $100 discount on a set of 4)
• Bridgestone Turanza ER33: $237
• Michelin Pilot sport 4 $262 

And for comparison I got the price of Michelin Primacy 4 in 215/55R17 (kona size). $209 each. 10mm or 3.086% increase in rolling radius. Staff member said they would fit within 3% of the standard size for the car. (In NZ you can legally run up to 5% different without a cert).

 

Ran some comparisons: Primacy 4 set of 4 fitted: Costco: $876,Hyperdrive: $1471.92 (incl 30% discount  & 27.99/tire fitting)

 

Ecopia EP300 set of 4 fitted: costco: $804, Local Bridge stone $1,668.00 (No discount today, but bridgestone often runs 4 for the price of 3, or buy one, get the one half price deals)

 

If there is that much margin,  I can see pretty much all the independents in AK bulk buying out of Costco by the pallet load.... ( which Costco will do happily) 

Are there waiting lines to get into the place if you're walking there? I was thinking of going tomorrow but taking a bus and walking to the entrance from the bus stop.

As a general overview, for most items, the value is good, as long as you are after a quality brand, and are OK to buy a lot.

$20 for 195 Band-Aid brand sticky plasters is a good price (would cost $25 in countdown), but substantially more expensive than the buying 200 pams plasters (cira $13 at new world).

That basically sums up a lot of the experience. If you want 12 anchor blue UHT bottles, Costco offers it far cheaper then the supermarket. But if you are fine with pam's, pack n save would get you 12L of milk cheaper.

Got the Kirkland Toilet paper and paper towels.

Thing that really struck me is how heavy the pack is. Put the 48 pack on the scales and it is 8.2kG. For comparison, the cheapest countdown toilet paper rolls weigh 51g, so if they sold a 48 pack it would only be 2.4kg.

Photos of stuff I found interesting (not the stuff I purchased):

https://imgur.com/a/2xA6ClD

Good range of products I have never seen (personally, I know many of them are available) in a retail setting in NZ before.

As an examples:

• Cat branded neck band light (headtorch alterntive)
• Wood fired pizza oven
• Tide pods
• 5kg bags of pizza flour
• 1kg blocks of mozzarella cheese
• $7000 electric dirt bike.

And some products that are a bit comical for a personal shopper.

• 1,400 pack of cable ties
• 25kg pack of sugar
• 6 pack of WD-40

And some of the focus on multipack's seems odd. Why sell a 3x800ml pack of finish rinse aid (three bottles shrink wrapped together). A single 2.4L pack would be a lot better environmentally.

wellygary:

 

Scott3:

 

On tires, fitted / balanced prices (each) in 215/50R17 (Nissan leaf size for higher trims with 17" rims):

 

• BF Goodrich Advantage: $184
• Michelin Primacy 4: $244 (opening special, $100 discount on a set of 4)
• Bridge stone Turanza ER300: $236
• Bridgestone Ecopia EP300: $226 (opening special, $100 discount on a set of 4)
• Bridgestone Turanza ER33: $237
• Michelin Pilot sport 4 $262 

And for comparison I got the price of Michelin Primacy 4 in 215/55R17 (kona size). $209 each. 10mm or 3.086% increase in rolling radius. Staff member said they would fit within 3% of the standard size for the car. (In NZ you can legally run up to 5% different without a cert).

 

Ran some comparisons: Primacy 4 set of 4 fitted: Costco: $876,Hyperdrive: $1471.92 (incl 30% discount  & 27.99/tire fitting)

 

Ecopia EP300 set of 4 fitted: costco: $804, Local Bridge stone $1,668.00 (No discount today, but bridgestone often runs 4 for the price of 3, or buy one, get the one half price deals)

 

 

If there is that much margin,  I can see pretty much all the independents in AK bulk buying out of Costco by the pallet load.... ( which Costco will do happily) 

 

In the 215/50R17 size, it is only the PS4's that costco hold in stock, so I assume they are just using regular NZ wholesale channels for the non stocked tire options.

My gut feeling is that the tire shops can get tires wholesale tires cheaper than costco retail price, but just like to run massive margins.

I'm pretty sure you'll never see me in a Costco - at least not to shop. The very idea of having to buy a limited selection of goods in the form of a pallet or bucket in exchange for a membership fee in order to "save" makes me want to grab the shopping bag to buy fresh food at the nearest farmer’s market in the exact quantity needed to supplement those in my anti-food waste bag to make a quality meal. Who wants to chew on a pallet of pizza for weeks just because it was cheap?

quickymart:

 

Are there waiting lines to get into the place if you're walking there? I was thinking of going tomorrow but taking a bus and walking to the entrance from the bus stop.

 

Yes. There is a queue outside which covers both the walk up's, and people parking in the Costco temporary gravel car-park (if you drive, you don't get to choose where you park, it is just luck of the draw).

How bad/long is the queue for walkups? Half an hour?

Scott3:

 

quickymart:

 

Are there waiting lines to get into the place if you're walking there? I was thinking of going tomorrow but taking a bus and walking to the entrance from the bus stop.

 

 

Yes. There is a queue outside which covers both the walk up's, and people parking in the Costco temporary gravel car-park (if you drive, you don't get to choose where you park, it is just luck of the draw).

 

Thanks. That has helped me to decide to leave a visit until things ‘normalise’. Maybe a week or two…….

@Scott3 When you write “cira”, do you actually mean “circa” as in “approximately”

Scott3:

 

And some of the focus on multipack's seems odd. Why sell a 3x800ml pack of finish rinse aid (three bottles shrink wrapped together). A single 2.4L pack would be a lot better environmentally.

 

That is because not all manufacturers can spin their lines up to do a larger bottle, so making a multipack that isnt sold elsewhere is a way to keep their other customers happy.

If you are made to go into the gravel park remember its up hill back to it, 300m or so, and if you didnt park by the footpath you will have a bad time on the gravel with a trolley with those travelator braked wheels.