This is about 80% spot on, but the last 20% fails to mention that you can avoid the in store experience if it isn't for you, and in fact get the stuff you want delivered to your door in a short period of time, using services like instacart. Costco even partners directly with instacart for same day delivery. You can use your membership to get same day delivery shopping on costco's website and they will use instacart to fulfill it for you. Or you can use instacart directly, in which case you don't even need a membership yourself.

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borski 5 hours ago | parent [-]

True, but at higher prices (and with delivery fees), which somewhat defeats the purpose of the cost savings at Costco.

	▲	drudoff 27 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		There's free 2-day shipping from Costco for purchases over $75 (at least in Seattle). It's not hard meet that requirement. Right now, I only tend to go to Costco if I need to buy refrigerated or frozen items.
	▲	abawany 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Yep, around 18% higher not including tip, in my estimate. HEB (local Texas grocery chain featured here a few days ago) puts in just a 3% margin for pickup or delivery (before tip.) Walmart and Sams have no special delivery/pickup margin but instead charge delivery fees that can be avoided by membership levels or order amount thresholds.
	▲	SoftTalker 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		But saving the cost and time of you driving there yourself, which if you're honest is probably worth the delivery fee.
	▲	furyofantares 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Sure, although personally the comparison would be to delivery from other stores.