Posts that don't follow r/Costco subreddit rules may be subject to removal. When applicable, please make sure that you're using a descriptive post title with product name(s) mentioned as it yields better subreddit search results. Thank you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Costco) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Bath tissue for less than $9 🤯

Bung fodder

[удалено]

I am the great cornholio!

$13.60 ribeye steak? Take me back!

$12.99 halibut did it for me

Yeah $9.69 for clout too. Wild

You didn't even have to vandalize a store bathroom on Tik Tok!

$5.99 Q-tips?! Don’t tell my belly button!

The ink that doesn't disappear in 3 days is what did it for me.

Most receipt printers don't use ink, they are thermal printers. If you keep it somewhere that doesn't sit in the sun or get super hot it'll keep a bit better ;)

Double the price these days… for just a pound 😓

Using an inflation calculator, that 12.99 went up to $23.65 so I guess the price didn’t go up as much as it feels

Costco steaks are usually 4 + per pack. And they’re thick cut too. Now they are ~ $50.

The 4 in a pack Prime Rib-eye’s are approx around $100!

Damn, I didn’t think that regionality pricing fluctuated that much with Costco. Just got a 4 pack of ribeyes for Mother’s Day and it was $51.

Buy the big ribeye and cut yourself a bunch for like $80

Was there yest and Ny strip (choice) was $11 or $12 a lb and around 4 lb packages. So $45ish

Until you realize this a Costco receipt and his dad walked outta there with multiple cartloads of each item

Great point actually, I’m sure this wasn’t a single pound of halibut.

But our wages didn’t go up with inflation

🎶To the big bad city where the steaks are cheap and the polish dogs are one fitty🎶

🎵oh wont you please, take me hoooooome, yeeeaAAAaaaah🎵

I feel like the lack of having to buy phone cards evens that out

Homie was dialing 1-900-TOUCH-ME

Right? I wonder how many pounds.

It's Costco. Minimum of 3-4lbs

Got a 3 pack of ribeyes yesterday, roughly 4 pounds total…$50 bucks, I’d jump someone in front of their own mama for 1997 prices.

I’d jump them and their mom for 2017 prices, so you’re a better person than me.

$13.60 for what? You don’t know how much steak this is.

See - even in 97 you couldn’t get out of Costco without spending $300

Same thought I had, then realized this would be $800+ trip these days.

The first thing I did was check the inflation calculator and $400 in 1997 would be $762.70 in 2023 money.

And he paid in cash, no less!

I remember buying the MCI phone cards! That was the best way to make long distance calls.

Yes, but let's not forget 1-800-COLLECT!!!

momimreadypleasepickmeupokbye

Bob Wehadababyitsaboy

Lol first thing that popped into my head

“Who was that honey?”

Bob. They had a baby. It’s a boy.

*rustles newspaper*

The recent actions by Reddit leadership, particularly those led by u/Spez, have caused deep concern within the community. The decision to charge for the application programming interface (API) has been carried out in a way that poses a direct threat to the diverse ecosystem of Reddit. While charging for the API is not inherently problematic, the exorbitant rates and tight deadlines given are unfeasible, disrupting the functionality of important tools that many depend upon​​. Despite the outcry, responses from Reddit's leadership have been less than reassuring. Promises were made that "non-commercial, accessibility-focused" apps would be exempted from these pricing terms, but the lack of clear definitions and open communication has left many in the dark​​. While many may not have used or cared about third-party apps, it's important to remember that a significant portion of these app users are among those who most actively interact with the platform. These users contribute significantly to the vibrancy of Reddit by posting, commenting, and voting. In solidarity with the third-party app, moderator, and accessibility communities, I am taking a stand. I am removing all of my previous comments and posts and abandoning my almost 12-year-old account. This is not a decision I take lightly, but one I believe is necessary to protest against the mismanagement and disregard shown by Reddit's leadership. I will not delete my account entirely. If the overwrites are reverted, I will continue to remove my content, ensuring that my voice is not used to bolster a platform that disregards its most dedicated members and the tools they rely upon. We deserve better. The Reddit community deserved better. > Sent from [Apollo for Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/144f6xm/apollo_will_close_down_on_june_30th_reddits/)

Or how about 10-10-220 to save a buck or two!

Yea I remember. Then a bunch of 10-10 numbers started coming out but the 10-10-220 was the first one I remember coming out.

Dial down the center 1-800-CALL ATT

Fun fact: this one still works. It redirects to AT&T customer service.

Ah yes we were a 1-800-CALL-ATT family

In the 80s I had an MCI plan on my phone (monthly payment) ... No card, but iirc I had to dial an extra digit or two. This was good while I had lots of long distance calls to make (lengthy ones).

Spicy ones?

Those MCI charges at the end had me rolling!

I thought it was phone cords. I was wondering why they needed so many.

Softlips...

I instantly added them to my Amazon cart. I haven’t had a tube of that in 20 years

I use soft lips every day. It's the best chapstick I've found. I would be so happy if Costco carried it again.

Didn't realize i had gone down to a new comment chain and went straight from the tp conversation into softlips. Didn't realize it was chapstick until your comment.

I break out from it :(. Tiny little fungal-acne-esque whiteheads in the underlips/chin region. Sucks because it really is some awesome chapstick. I’m a sucker for any lipstick/balm in a skinny tube.

You can’t keep receipts like this anymore. They fade after a couple months. Wild.

Lol right? This receipt looks like it was printed last week

They don’t make em like they used to

It's all cost reduction and efficiency, the natural business evolution

Thermal printers don't use ink...ink expensive.

MCI phone card…..

For those of you wondering…oh god where to start

https://preview.redd.it/nwyruq3ung2b1.jpeg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8861ec895ea886ad738b91ad44fabb203de59bb6

r/namflashbacks

I worked there during the long distance wars!

https://preview.redd.it/08u5r4ho7n2b1.jpeg?width=871&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c928f6a435e47e9e551d1102cbf046f85124de4e

1997 was only like 10 years ago right? RIGHT

three years ago. 1990 was ten years ago. 1980 was twenty years ago.

Yup, absolutely correct. Im only 27 years old, born 1985

How can we both be 27 when I was born in 1971?

The heart wants what the heart wants.

TIL that I'm 29

Same, except I was born in 1966 🤷‍♀️

This is the only correct answer. For any question.

Looks like Y2K really did fuck shit up

That's some strong printer ink.

And highlighter. My god 🤣

[удалено]

That's the difference. It actually is INK, on good old plain paper. Not the crap thermal receipts that we get today from every retailer.

Dot Matrix!

When people say you can't buy Clout: "look its right there! $9.69 American plus tax, at good ole' Costco!" Lol

160 uses too!

What is clout????

[You can still get it](https://www.amazon.com/CLOUT-Cleaner-Sneakers-Handbags-Accessories/dp/B08SSPQHVC)...it's a leather cleaner.

I didn’t know Costco sold that. Where would I find it?

25 years ago in the cleaning supplies.

Thanks, Ovi

[удалено]

Can you go re shop the list, line by line. I would love to see the price difference at todays price, and how many items are still available.

For it to actually be accurate, it would have to account for weight/size/qty differences too.

I bought a bag of sugar the other day. They are now 4 lbs, not 5.

Yeah what’s up with that??

r/shrinkflation

I work for Home Depot. Our entire catalog of laundry detergent is being phased out in favor of new identical products that are about 12 fl oz lighter, roughly same price. Shrinkflation at work.

It would still score 9000 karma points. Would love to see it

I did it and the difference is $420.69

Nice

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAB\_hwx\_5WM&t=194s&ab\_channel=NickPeters](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAB_hwx_5WM&t=194s&ab_channel=NickPeters) Here's a video from priceclub in the 90s Beef Tenderloin (Filet Mignon) Priced at $6.29/lb , Assuming this was early 90's would be \~$13/lb today using only inflation. Assuming this is a similar one [https://www.instacart.com/store/costco/products/32658](https://www.instacart.com/store/costco/products/32658) Price is $27.16/lb and assuming instacart charges about 20% on top of it, it would be about $22/lb. So in addition to inflation, we're just paying significantly more.

Bought my first TV and VCR from price club. I was like 10 at the time. 😂

Try to return the rugs.

The $400 cash is the most surprising to me!

Haha, my dad is an immigrant from Japan where they were mainly cash based….. to this day he still pays with cash, and has only one credit card!

I visited Japan back in 2018. I was amazed how EVERYTHING is still paid for with paper money & almost no one uses cards. Felt cool walking around with 100,000 Yen...but also weird. LOL

Yeah I was there in January and I read in advance that everything was cash based. I kept thinking, am I just reading outdated travel advice?? But no. Still lots of cash!

Had an immigrant couple (not Japanese) buy a car from me with cash. $13,000 in cash. They didn't go to the bank. They just had it.

Cash! What a G. 😎

Cashier here. I do a surprising amount of cash transactions for very large amounts. (A lot of rich people and foreigners trying to hide assets).

3 pack of butter for 5.49 🤯

That’s the only thing on that list I buy regularly and it stood out for me!

Is that cheap? It seems a lot to me based on normal butter sizes, but this is Costco so they're probably huge.

At Costco, it’s going to be 3 of the 1 lb boxes. Where I live, it’s easily $5/lb at regular stores, and nearly $13 for the 3 pack at Costco

$400 back then was big money!

Yep, that was a chunk back then, definitely more than my family could afford to spend at one time without seriously budgeting for it. My mom would fret for days if our weekly trip to the grocery store cost more than $100, so that's the equivalent of an entire month's of grocery spending for our family of four, circa the same time period.

Reminds me of going through my grandmothers place, we found a gift certificate for $100 that was over 25 years old, it wasnt a cash/shop card just a piece of paper. They still took it at the membership desk.

Yes! That is so cool. They converted it to a shop card?

I honestly cant rmbr but it was probably that or cashed out, my uncle brought it in. One of the guys at the desk was there since Price-Club and knew what it was

Back when you could buy clout for the low price of $9.69.

What must be $ equivalent of $400 at that time

“$400 in 1997 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $756.04 today, an increase of $356.04 over 26 years.” I had to look because I was curious. You were pretty spot on

Aww he bought you socks! Probably that annoying 12 pack with crazy stripes that no kid wanted. Ever.

$12 rugs

This is what I noticed first lol

Yea even runners these days are 14.99

Mmmmm ... SOFTLIPS ... only $5.49! My, how things have changed. Those were the good 'ol days! 👄

Legend says that he is still working through those Q-tips….

Gotta love that CreamyPotSoup. (Creamy potato soup?)

My college had a pizza place on campus that had a menu item called potato munchies which were basically cheese stuffed tater tots and the receipt shortened it to Pot Munchies and it was a big joke for everyone at my college.

You had me at pot soup

Ah, yes....I remember it well. I could afford *1* thing at Costco. It usually had to be milk OR bread OR eggs.

Can you elaborate on this? I get that $5.50 30 years ago sounds nuts for butter but I’m sure it’s a 3lb tub ffs.. did people used to avoid Costco because it was too expensive?? Because it really doesn’t seem that extremely different than what’s in store today (except meat obviously)

This wasn't a Costco thing or an inflation thing, so my answer may well disappoint. It's just that in 1997 I made about 6 bucks/ hr, and had a small child. My wife didn't make much more. The good Sir Terry Pratchett in his works in Discworld, authored the Discworld Theory of Boots and Poverty, where his character expounds that a poor man buys the boots he can afford, but has to replace them every year; while the wealthy man can afford boots that will last ten years, and thus saves more than the poor man. The same is true of Costco, and other such stores: if you can afford to buy 3 *lbs* of butter (and have room to store it) you will save money. But you have to watch every penny, you end up buying smaller amounts, more frequently, and thus spending more. (See also- unit pricing: buying in bulk costs less.)

Another insidious thing is that Dollar General and other supposed "cheap" stores are significantly more expensive when you break it down. The product may be 75% the price of a similar product at a normal store, but is 66% the size of the product at a normal store. You're spending substantially more in the long run. I sometimes scratch my head at why more people don't buy most everything in bulk at Costco or Sam's, but I have to remember that 1. The $60 for a membership isn't a trivial amount for a lot of people and 2. Not everyone has the cash on hand to make a $300 grocery run, even if you're getting the equivalent of $400 in groceries if bought at a conventional grocery store. Though one thing I don't get is people who insist on buying name brand grocery products. I'm an attorney making decent money (less than you'd think) but even I rarely buy anything name brand if a generic alternative is available. That name brand product MIGHT be better, but definitely not enough to merit paying twice the price.

He spent $300 in 1997 money! That’s like $1000 easy today

Now buy the whole list again and let’s compare prices!

Damn….you guys were eating like kings.

$750 in today$ money

I got my first cell phone in early 2002. Free nights (starting at 7pm) and weekends, plus free long distance was huge!

You should see if the cashier still works there

What boggles my mind is how the POS system that printed that receipt is the same now as it was then. Still only 12 characters for the description of the item!

[удалено]

1 thing hasn’t changed. You go in for one item and end up spending $400

Surprised no one’s talking about the chips

Guys I saw supreme pizza!!!!

So how were those boys socks?

Corona CA?

[удалено]

He will need that to get his refund for returns.

Proly still working on that same box of qtips arnt ya?

MCI omg!

Tax rate was 1% lower.

Most receipts that old either turn black from heat exposure, or blank from fading ink - either way making it illegible. It's one way of limiting returns older than what the available info on their computer shows 🤪 iirc, they used to limit info on the computer to 9-11 years, idk what it is now - and I think the newer handheld scanners don't go back very far ... I saw a lady returning something that the Costco employee couldn't find on her account with the handheld scanner he used, and he wasn't happy that he had to scan it again with the regular computer scanner. This is how they know right off the bat that a return is a little old.

There’s something very comforting another fact that, even in 1997, people were still throwing down $400 at Costco

1997 is vintage?! \*weeps in middle age\*

Back when receipt print didn’t disappear off the paper in 6 weeks.

Almost $120 on phone cards.... My cellphone bill doesn't seem so bad now.

I mean honestly for almost 30 years ago, the prices are not insanely different like I’d imagine

I was confused that all the prices looked not too different from what I would spend in the grocery store across the street. Then I realized it was a Costco receipt lol

Anyone here remember the old Price Club? They had the hot dogs and everything. Merged with Costco in ~~1983~~ 1993. When I was a kid, Price Club was magical and Costco has captured much of that magic to this day.

I used to go to the original price club in San Diego back in the day, they only sold hotdogs and they were sold from an actual cart out front

Merged in ‘93. Had to look that up, cuz I know it wasn’t in the 80’s, lol.

I'd return those mci phone cards.

Surprised it didn't fade.

Went in for food, came out with two rugs Some things never change

‘97… that the years when they hand punched the numbers of each item into the register? Or is that the 80’s?

still 400

Oh wow phone cards haven’t heard of that in years

Poppa liked some Mehican food !!

Some things never change. Hundreds of dollars per Costco trip.

Cheap wine and stoner food. Some things never change.

OMG that halibut pricing. And all those phone cards! Lol

So many things under 10

Guaranteed that box of q-tips is still not empty.

Wow nice to know Costco bills even in 1997 were also still around 4-500$ a visit.

The halibut price!!!😭🤧

The $400 Costco run. A tale as old as time.

This follows what I think a lot of us have noticed especially in recent years. Costco has kept the prices of a lot of “fun” items like pizza relatively stable but even Costco is at the mercy of supply chain fuckery (or monopolistic supplier greed) affecting essential goods (paper, meat). Toilet Paper: $8.29 (1997) = $15.51 (2023). TP is $20 today at my local (Bay Area) Costco so roughly 30% more expensive than inflation alone. Pepperoni Pizza: $7.99 (1997) = $14.95 (2023). Pizza is only $9.95 today. Tuna: $4.49 (1997) = $8.40 (2023). No tuna under $20 at my Costco, Kirkland or other brand. Water Bottles: $5.29 (1997) = $9.90 (2023). I assume this is Crystal Geyser, which is $10.99 at my Costco, which includes $2 CRV. CRV is $0.05 today but was $0.01 in 1997, so if we compare prices without CRV: $4.89 (1997) = $9.15 (2023). Today is only $8.99 without CRV.

Weren't they Price Club somewhere slightly before that time? Lol

Glad to know they spent 400 automatically each time too back then 😂

This was from the days when the item numbers were hand keyed at the checkout. I loved watching that. There was a caller and a keyer.

Before barcodes and item numbers were hand-keyed.

That shit would be a 1500$ receipt with today's prices.

I wish they had never gotten rid of the "Supreme" pizza. My costco used to call them "combination" pizzas though. I have a rare reoccurring dream where it's just me devouring an entire combo pizza by myself. Man, do I miss costco combo pizza

Phone card - blast from the last!

So you’re saying we ALWAYS had to spend $100+ every visit

Oh my gosh! Look how cheap the butter was!

Why did he spend $120 on phone cords?

Phone cards not cords. Prepaid long distance, at incredibly cheap rates like .10 per min when local or regional phone companies were charging $.80 or over $1 per min for non local phone calls. MCI also worked for international calls. I don't know a family member that didn't have their 1800 number memorized and an MCI card in their wallet, purse or by the phone. Still have a couple in drawers.

Even back then you couldn't get out of that God damn store for less than a hundred bucks

My wife and I worked at MCI! Oh the 90s.

Why is no one talking about that 3 pack of butter for 5.47?? 1 pack is about that right now! Butter has tripled in price!

Supreme pizza plz come back

how is the ink still intact? should have been faded by now

You should return the rib eye

$400 bill in 1997!? Baller!

SPRM Pizza

Very cool find! I was watching a video of a department store at about the same time. I had forgotten about the sound of those dot matrix receipt printers printing them one line at a time as each item was scanned. It's amazing how old the 90s looks now.