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by Ramiro 778 days ago
The most significant value I get from Costco is that the quality is consistently high and the options are well curated. I like not having to go through 100s of brands of basic staples like yogurt, toilet paper, milk, etc...
3 comments

Personally I've found that "well curated" sometimes becomes a double-edged sword in Costco's case. Mainstream brands can be expected to be available perennially; however, smaller/niche items and brands will often get cycled out or replaced by something else which may or may not be comparable.

Many times I've found products at Costco that I enjoy, only for them to suddenly stop carrying them a week or a month later.

A typical grocery store will carry on the order of 40,000 unique products. Costco is hard limited to a max of 3,700 unique products. If a store wants to bring a new product in, something must be rotated out. This also means that if a product wants to stay in Costco, it has to sell a certain minimum number of pallets, per month, to be worth it.
That used to be the case under the founder. Not so much any more.
the best example of this can be seen by comparing the experience buying a treadmill on amazon, to the experience buying a treadmill from costco.