Costco is mostly food, clothes, furniture, other large things, and auto services, which generally you don't get from Amazon even if you aren't a Costco member. The points about less choice more apply to like Costco vs grocery stores or Walmart. And I do like Costco, similar low-choice reason I like Trader Joe's even though Costco is its own league.

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DrewADesign 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Yeah I can’t get 5 different varieties of a ball bearings in the size I need delivered overnight from Costco. And for the things Costco or your local grocery store is great for, Amazon is often a far worse option. I noticed my wife was buying our toothpaste using a subscribe and save thing, so I compared it to our regular grocery store when I went shopping, and Amazon was like 20% more expensive. Great marketing on Amazon’s part getting people to assume it’s always the lowest price, but it’s often not.

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frollogaston 6 hours ago | parent [-]

The dumbest assumption I saw Amazon baiting people into was using Chase credit card points for purchases. You'd think spending those specifically on Amazon would be more efficient than just getting cash and buying from Amazon with that cash, right? Turns out it's the other way around, and by a large amount.

	▲	borski 5 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		They often have promotions which can make this very lucrative. “spend at least 1 mile, get 40% off” etc
	▲	mtzaldo 6 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		yes, I started buying with miles because Amazon was giving me more value for those than my current bank.

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lemoncucumber 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The Trader Joe's model is an interesting comparison with the Costco model.

Similarities:

* Like you said, both have fewer choices than a conventional grocery store: if you want ketchup or peanut butter, there's only going to be one brand and one size.

* Both of them don't have scales at the registers: unlike at a conventional grocery store, nothing is sold by weight (which I'm sure provides another small efficiency gain).

* Both of them are cheaper than your typical grocery store.

Differences:

* I feel like Trader Joe's leans on store brand / white-labeling items more than Costco -- yes Kirkland Signature is a thing but Trader Joe's takes it further.

* The shopping experience is pretty different both in terms of the in-store experience and the quantities things are sold in.

* Costco requires a membership, Trader Joe's doesn't.

I wonder which elements of the two models would work best for a public grocery store.

	▲	snark42 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> unlike at a conventional grocery store, nothing is sold by weight Costco and TJs both sell items like meat by weight, they're just pre-labeled so they can be scanned rather than weighed at the register. Things like produce that might be weighed elsewhere are sold by each or container though.
	▲	khurs 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Trader Joe is owned by one of the two German Aldi groups (two brother split original business to have one each) And both of them employ the same model globally. They are huge - ~15,000 stores worldwide and growing fast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldi

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jitix 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

As per their financials it’s roughly 50-50. I personally buy groceries and household consumables for the most part apart from the occasional electronics purchase.

IMO Costco’s food hits the sweet spot between high end grocery store quality and walmart level price.

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ironman1478 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I think a lot of people buy furniture and clothing on Amazon. It's extremely cheap and easy to return, or just throw away if you can't return it (not endorsing that).

	▲	ButlerianJihad 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I purchased a new mattress to fit my fold-out futon frame, from Walmart.com. And the reason I chose Walmart at that time is because they offered good products, mostly first-party inventory (despite the marketplace format) but moreover, they offered a quick add-on option at checkout to hire a haul-away service to come to my door and haul away the junked, old mattress. I own no vehicle; I live on the second floor no elevator, and the haul-away service was a godsend and a bargain price.