See the thread on the cult page itself: Costco Canada.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CostcoCanada/comments/1nb7aj1/are_you_still_buying_canadian_at_costco/
People are dropping their Costco memberships, and slowly weaning their shopping habits away from the American Bank owned: Costco. This is still the minority viewpoint as seen in the comments. But our education campaigns are slowly shifting the tides!
Remember, Costco is an American cult.
The same herd mentality that brought sheep into Costco’s doors will bring them out, and onto a Canadian run option.
Costco has no direct Canadian wholesale competitor, yet.
But I have a sense that’s going to change very soon. Costco is absolutely ripe for Canadian disruption. Go Leafs!
Costco is one of the few US companies that is standing up to Trump, though. They refused to drop DEI measures.
Isn’t most of the Canadian industry owned by the same capital groups that own USA industry?
I’m currently rabidly anti-American (haven’t intentionally bought an American product since the trade war began, accidentally bought some plums that were mislabeled a couple of months ago :( ) but Costco gets a pass from me. They pay their Canadian employees far better than a Canadian store does, they haven’t backed off their diversity policies, and their prices on basically everything is much better than Canadian monopolies. I don’t buy American products there at all but I will continue to shop there until something changes probably. They’re the last American company I really do business with.
I could have written your comment, lol.
With inflation hitting food prices especially hard, getting the best value per dollar at Costco makes a huge difference. Anything at Costco is almost always ½-¾ what we’d pay elsewhere, and their return policy is incredible, so there’s much lower risk when buying durable goods, too.
I’m all for minimizing buying American, but I’m not going to pay double to shop local.
I will if it’s actually local. I buy beef from a friend with a well-cared for cattle herd a 20 minute drive from me, and I try to buy veg from local farms as well. But I refuse to pad Galen Weston’s bottom line, and until I see some actual antitrust action across most sectors I am simply not engaging.
Prioritize truly local, but Costco is my fallback because they’re actually good for the Canadian economy compared to our monopolistic alternatives.
They pay Canadian trucking companies about 2x-3x above market rates at times to guarantee good service. Their entire business model is just better for everyone at basically every step.
Anything at Costco is almost always ½-¾ what we’d pay elsewhere
The few times that I gave Costco a try, their grocery items were always more expensive than regular grocery stores. It never made sense to me.
And not having to visit their store in a cyclist-hostile area to battle their parking lot saves times, which is worth more than any potential savings.
Maybe they offer better deals for non-food items? Not sure.
That said, for me, it’s Canadian for most non-food items, and our local Canadian grocery stores for foodstuff.
I should probably have been more precise; their produce prices are generally roughly equal, plus or minus a bit, but the produce quality is almost always great, and it’s easy to return if/when you get a rare dud.
Any other food item is almost always cheaper: dairy and other refrigerated foods, meat (great quality), non-perishable food, etc.
If you’re happy to buy in bulk quantities, I haven’t found any good alternatives to Costco.
dairy and other refrigerated foods, meat (great quality), non-perishable food, etc.
Ah, it’s probably because I don’t eat animal products, so this additional context is helpful.
We try to strike a balance between local producers (fruit, veg, meats) that are more expensive and shopping at Walmart for staples. I know, I know Walmart but they have the MOST Canadian and international products here! It’s ridiculous but even our local coop where we shop too has LESS Canadian or non-US stuff!! Sobeys is mediocre at best as well.
Superstore won’t see us again (they are the worst liars and overpriced no end) so Walmart it is. With a heavy dose of ultra local farm products. Some Costco shopping (4x/year?) but I can’t stomach shopping there more often because of the amount of people.
Costco makes very thin margins on their sales, they make their only real profits from memberships. Not like Walmart is an alternative, they sell nothing but over processed food.
For the purposes of “how much does 5lb of onion cost me? And how much do they pay their employees in my local economy?” that’s kind of irrelevant. Sounds like they found a more economically efficient way to deliver products.
Costco gets a pass from me, but I still look at labels there to buy Canadian products, which they’re stocking more of. Costco isn’t the only place I shop at though.
- Costco did not drop DEI initiatives for Trump, which pissed off investors (good)
- Costco pays employees better (not sure if this is still true)
- I’m still not forgiving Loblaws, they still somehow sell the worst quality produce and meats.
I’ve got back on US goods pretty much everywhere else. I’m still cutting back more each month, some things just take time.
which pissed off investors (good)
This is actually the opposite of what’s the case.
Costco shareholders overwhelmingly voted against a review of DEI programs for “risks” that could have led to them being shut down. 98% of shareholders voted against a review.
Most investors still recognize that DEI initiatives are profitable overall, not just for optics for what is still a large portion of their customer base (especially considering the short attention spans of conservatives annoyed at DEI initiatives), but because it broadly tends to increase worker performance overall.
American here: Costco’s food court is amazing, but the shopping experience is absolutely terrible. For such a ‘great’ company, they only manage to staff less than half the registers as lines form throughout the store.
It is not because they cant find anyone to work there, it’s just they want to save as much money as they can by overloading their employees with work/metrics.
Usually about half the checkouts are there for holiday rushes, like Easter.
Costco has the unique problem that more tills open get bottlenecked at the receipt check, and you can’t let the checkout lane exits get blocked or your inner lanes stop moving.
And I swear every fucking time I go the store layout is just a little bit different. Assume it’s intentional to get you to wander a bit but it’s annoying as hell
That is 100% intentional.
It’s a tactic to expose you to more products and increases cart sizes.
I’m sure but damn it backfires. Piss me off and I am going to minimize my interaction or kill it entirely if if I can.
It is definitely annoying
Costco the company is amazing (the fact that it is US based notwithstanding), but the people who shop there (at least where I am, western US) are the worst. It’s like Disneyland for boomers who vote Republican.
Even with most of the 15 checkouts and 6 self-checkouts open, the downtown (transit-accessible!) Vancouver Costco has lines nearly all the time.
Can you explain how Costco is a cult…? I fully support boycotting American products (our country is absolutely dumb), and if people want to drop their Costco membership as a form of boycotting that’s totally valid (Perhaps it will incentivize a better local alternative in the long run!)
General sentiment from people is that Costco pays its employees well, has good customer service, competitive prices (if you’re buying in bulk), and more. People like supporting businesses like that.
If there’s some nefarious things going on in the background I’m all ears to learn how it’s a cult.
Cult in this context means loyal customer base.
The ceo makes 336 times more than the lowest paid worker and the company has had cases of opposing unions.
Do you have a source for that 336? I believe that was the previous CEO while the current has a pay ratio of 262, which is pretty standard from what I can tell.
https://aflcio.org/paywatch/company-pay-ratios
Not that Costco is sunshine and roses but (from an American perspective) they’re one of the least bad options.
I wouldn’t say most of us are loyal. We’ll be turning our backs on them the moment they enshittify. They just haven’t yet.
The shareholders are trying to start the process I think this will become a real risk once the main money maker is no longer the memberships but instead the in-house brands.
… Because a few random internet comments say so?
If random internet comments are on the side you want them to be, they are a sign of the people. If they are on the other side, obviously they are AI slop.
I’ve never been to Costco! I shop basically exclusively local in Downtown Toronto, but I recognize it’s a privilege to have that option being so convenient.
There’s a golden business opportunity here, it’s a proven model with proven demand. If you can work Boxed.com into the model too (subscription delivery of paper, sanitation, and plastic goods) you’ll be rich AF.
I’m working on my own thing at the moment, but… Anyone know someone with a logistics company?
