On Wed, 21 Feb 2007, Sean Waite wrote:

> Just last weekend I had to stop in at Costco to pick something up for 
> someone else. Personally I find Costco to be a complete rip-off. While I 
> was there I saw 50-pack of DVD+Rs for around $40-50.

This is somewhat OT, thus the new thread.  I just want to say that Costco 
gives great prices on some things.  When I got married a couple of years 
ago I researched booze prices and bought a bunch of bottles for the 
wedding.  Costco beat everyone else in town, usually by a fairly 
substantial margin.  On most days their gasoline is cheaper than anywhere 
else I know of (often by about $0.10/gal), but I'm not sure that's 
consistent.

One of the ways that Costco and Sam's club make their money is by selling 
some items at ordinary prices -- sometimes even higher than those at the 
grocery store.  The other more obvious approach is to buy massive amounts 
of smaller numbers of items.  If you don't have a stand-alone freezer or 
plenty of storage room, it might not be so great to shop at Costco. 
There is no doubt in my mind that I save plenty at Costco by buying the 
right things in large quantities.  I just ignore most of the stuff in 
Costco -- it isn't a good place for impulse purchases of big-ticket items. 
Apparently, it isn't a good place to buy DVD+R media.

Mike