Costco is a discount warehouse style chain of shops, offering a massive range of goods at knock down prices. The company originated in America, but there are now units appearing at various locations across the UK.

In order to shop at Costco it is necessary to be registered as a member. Costco is not open to the general public, but the criteria for membership are not as strict as you might imagine. There are two types of membership currently available:

1. Trade

“You are eligible for Trade membership if you are a bona fide business owner or manager who can provide evidence of trading in the form of a business utility bill, plus a VAT registration certificate or two other pieces of identification.”

The fee for Trade membership is £20.00 a year plus VAT. Each account may have up to six additional cardholders registered at £12.00 plus VAT each. Additional cards thereafter are charged at £20.00 plus VAT.

2. Individual

“You are eligible for Individual membership by being employed in, or retired from, one of the following groups:

Banking/Finance
Civil Service
Education
Fire and Rescue
Insurance
Local Government
Medical
Police Force
Solicitor or Barrister

Or by holding a recognised professional qualification (such as pharmacist, dentist or media press card holder).”

The fee for Individual membership is £25.00 plus VAT, but this does include an additional card for a second person (spouse, parent etc).

I was very fortunate in that I was approached by Costco (through my Company) to apply for membership, with the condition that I could have a joint account with one other person also working for the Company. This meant that we split the annual fee 50/50, the cost to me therefore being halved. I don’t really understand why membership is restricted at all – I can’t see any valid reason why everyone shouldn’t be given the chance to shop here. That aside, it seems likely that those people who don’t actually qualify for membership will know someone who does whom they can tag along with. Costco also guarantee satisfaction on the grounds that if you are ever dissatisfied then you may have a refund of your annual fee – at any time during the twelve months.

You are required to present your membership card whenever you visit the store, but you are allowed to bring up to two adult guests with you. Your guests’ goods must be paid for on your account, but it’s a simple matter to settle costs in private. When I first joined I did not have a membership card, but was issued with a temporary pass that meant I could shop there as soon as I liked.

The store environment is surprisingly pleasant. The layout and atmosphere of the store is like a cross between Aldi, Ikea and a B & Q Warehouse, with wide spacious aisles laid out as you might find in a warehouse, with shelves of goods to be selected at shopper’s height, and pallets stacked above them. In order to keep costs as low as possible, it comes as no surprise that there are no frills here. There is no flashy point of sale advertising and there are no special offers – but prices are clearly identified on the shelf-edge labels (both with and without VAT). There are two types of trolley you can use – one extra large shoppers’ trolley (large enough to wheel a small hippo around the store in) or the flat based warehouse trolleys for those bulkier items. No shopping baskets here – the emphasis is on buying big and in bulk.

The first visit to the store is a relatively eye-opening experience. The range of different products on sale is excellent – I was amazed at just how much was on sale. Not surprisingly, a lot of the products on sale are targeted towards small businesses, so certainly as far as food and toiletries are concerned, it’s all multipacks and catering sizes. Whilst the range of different products is excellent, the actual choices of brands are quite limited – there are normally only one or two of the top brands available for each product type. This is another way that Costco keeps the prices down – by dealing with only one or two major manufacturers they can ensure greater buying power and greater discounts. Costco is not like any of the European discount supermarkets currently out there – Costco only deal with the brand leaders.

I was surprised to find that there was an enormous in-store bakery and butchery department. The bakery stocks a relatively uninspiring selection of bread and rolls, but the fresh cakes are fantastic. I noticed huge chocolate gateaux for around a £5, family packs of muffins, cookies and shortbread, Danish pastry selections and loads of hand-made celebration cakes. It is a chocaholic’s paradise – but a slimmer’s nightmare. Bearing in mind that most of the cakes are intended for tea shops and coffee bars to slice up and sell by the portion, you can imagine just how big some of them are.

The butchery section is very impressive – the quality of the cuts of meat is consistently very high. The store seems to specialise in thick, juicy steaks and joints, all from the finest stock, at really good prices. There are also cooked meats and chicken, poultry and speciality meats – the large packs of ready sliced meat are a brilliant idea for sandwiches and salads. Once again, most of the packs were very large, so unless you are shopping for a family, a greedy pig or both, you may find the stuff goes out of date before you can eat it (not something I personally have a problem with..).

There are some excellent savings to be made on fresh produce. The quality of the produce is excellent, and again large packs are generally what’s on offer. A massive punnet of strawberries is currently £1.99, 14 large granny smith apples are £2.99, and salad stuff is amazingly cheap. There are also some exotics and more interesting products such as plantains, fresh seaweed and yellow tomatoes.

The largest section is for the grocery and long-life foods. Here you can buy the catering sizes of products such as ketchup, tuna, baked beans etc, but as well as the catering sizes, there are good savings to be made on multi-packs of family size products. Many of the items on sale currently carry a manufacturer’s offer (such as six for the price of five or 50% free) and this extends the savings even further. I didn’t recognise many of the brands on sale in the frozen food department (although I couldn’t help but notice an absolutely enormous tub of Haagen Das ice cream for just over £10). There was a limited range of dairy products, with six litre bottles of milk around £1.20 and huge tubs of butter and margarine. Some of the savings were relatively unimpressive - £6 for six bottles of Coke is not much cheaper than most supermarkets offer, but on some brands there were real bargains to be found. Remember that this is a long-term saving though – your initial outlay will be high, but you will not need to buy new supplies for much longer. If you think larger sizes means that you would simply eat more in a shorter space of time, then this probably isn’t a good place for you to be (that ice cream springs to mind...).

There is a good selection of all the most popular beers, wines and spirits – a case of Stella or Bacardi Breezers can be found at dangerously low prices. All the popular branded spirits can be found as well, so this is an absolute must for anyone planning a big party or a family Christmas. The selection of wines is quite impressive – and not just £4 bottles of plonk. Some of the wines were on sale for between one and two hundred pounds, so wine gourmets may well find something they like. There was also the most enormous bottle of champagne you could imagine – on sale for £620. Well – it could be a party piece!

Costco also offers an excellent range of toiletries and household goods. I bought a triple pack of Radox shower gel for about 50p more than one pack costs in the shops, and things like toilet rolls, condoms and sanitary towels were all much cheaper than the high street. You can even buy vitamins, painkillers and cough syrup - at up to 60% less than the chemist. Needless to say the packs of washing powder and fabric conditioner are absolutely enormous – I heard a couple of people talking about how they were going to divide the stuff up – but the brand choice is probably most limited here.

There was a disparate selection of electrical goods – not simply cheap mass produced goods as you would find in Aldi or Lidl, but top brands. Couple of notable examples that I saw were a large American style fridge freezer for £750 (inc VAT), a Braun electric toothbrush for £25 and a Black and Decker pressure washer for £120 (£200 elsewhere). Needless to say, you won’t get the selection of goods or payment options offered by Currys but the cash savings speak for themselves.

Costco also have a fair range of designer clothes. Calvin Klein jeans go for about £23 and Levi 501s can be picked up for about £25. All the trendy underwear is there, as well as a considerable range of sportswear and trainers. There’s nothing terribly exciting to be found, but there are good savings to be had. CDs can be bought for around £10 and chart DVDs are about £14 with VAT. One of the best departments for discount is in the tyre fitting centre, where you can get brand new Michelin tyres for the same price as a remould in the well-known fitting centres. Wearers of contact lenses and glasses may think Boots are cheap, until they have a look in the opticians – designer frames and branded soft lenses discounted by up to 40%. There is even a café and pizza takeaway – where you can get 18 inches for £6.99 (oo-er).

One of the things that I liked around the store were the demonstration staff offering samples of various foods – whilst browsing they are sure to approach you and invite you to try things. The number of staff around to offer assistance was very limited, but there was an information desk at the front of the store. The store was reasonably quiet when I visited (Saturday afternoon) but to be honest the place is so huge there is plenty of room to wander round. You may only pay for your shopping with cash, cheque or debit card – no credit cards I’m afraid (due to the high fees charged by the bank). There is nothing to pack your shopping in either (carrier bags cost money you know) so you may want to take a box or some bags of your own, although most of what you buy will be in a case already.

Costco is the first store that I’ve visited that strikes a balance between no frills and top brands. Although Lidl and Aldi are cheap, you’ll be lucky to find anything you’ve ever heard of, whereas shoppers at Tesco and JS are still paying the price for supermarket banks, loyalty cards and bright, trendy stores. At Costco the emphasis is on removing all the unwanted costs so that the prices are rock bottom – and let’s face it what is important is that you get good gear as cheap as possible (so to speak). It will be interesting to see if the idea catches on – we may well start to see this system of shopping springing up all over the place. Sounds like good news to me!