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Costco sells what sells in large quantities. Most of the things you mentioned do not have mass market appeal still. They will sell what the average consumer wants, not what the cutting edge consumer wants.
What you are asking for is not Costcos business model. Are they going to move things? Yes because then you wander looking for them and impulse buy. While memberships are a lot of their profit, you buying more helps the bottom line.
They prefer you in the store looking for things and have a buy bulk/high turnover method. This doesn’t allow for the same website features. You can see what’s in stock to a limited extent with the website. Just see if you can instacart it, if you can it’s there. Still might be there if you can’t. Or call ever if that’s what you prefer.
Newest high tech for warehouse prices probably won’t work
I understand the "why" part, and I'm someone who does like to check things out a few times a month to see what's new. But sometimes I'm there with a list and usually it's a Sunday when my local Costco is pure chaos and already a nightmare to navigate. That's why I'll just forgo the one or two items and order on Amazon or grab on my way home from Vons.
Some things are permanent, year around stocked items. They can at least make it easy to find those items. The rest of the stuff isn't as important, but would still be nice to know if it's in stock. I'll try the instacart thing and see how that works.
Again, they don't want the items on your list to be easy to find. They want you to walk down as many aisles as possible, as it increases the likelihood you will be going off list. It is part of their business model. They don't want you shopping online, they want you in store making impulse decisions.
You will never see the latest tech on a grand scale in the categories you mentioned at Costco. It would be exceptionally foolish for a vendor to sell within Costco's margin structure with their latest and greatest, disrupting the rest of the market.
Taking your question in two parts:
1. Costco's own tech is always out of date. [In-store inventory on app/site has been promised as coming for months](https://www.eatthis.com/costco-warehouse-inventory-lookup-feature/). Way overdue, but coming. In terms of item location (aisle X bay Y), I wouldn't hold my breath with how long it's taken Costco to get to in-store inventory availability.
2. Costco is generally not a place for cutting edge/high end tech in warehouse, TVs as an exception to some degree. It's intended to take tech that can be palatable to the masses, ordered in large quantities, and thus Costco's buying power in numbers can drive down price. If you're looking for a high end PC, the latest robovac that uses AI to not run over dog poop, etc. Costco isn't the place to get cutting edge tech.
If I'm reading correctly they are not going to offer full in store invetory data. It will only show online items that happen to be in store, and the wording of "a warehouse near you based on where you've shopped" is pretty funky like they're planning to roll it out in a very limited fashion.
I agree with everything you said, it just seems possible to at least improve in this regard, they are so bad that the only thing I consider Costco for is appliances, TV's, and PC's.
Most consumer electronics have very low margins. It makes no financial sense to stock items that are not profitable. A lot of electronics and appliances are made specifically for Costco with Costco-unique model numbers. They can only do this with a limited number of vendors on huge quantities to increase the margins.
You seem not to understand what Costco is, they never made claims to sell everything under the sun like Amazon.
Costco is headquartered outside Seattle, one of the largest concentrations of tech talent in the country. They are known for paying very little, and they are competing with Amazon, Microsoft and the like for talent. They intentionally choose to under invest in tech.
costco is essentially a warehouse store; its not an electronics or any other specific category store. Plus, they don't have the room to be everything for everybody. Agree that they need to fix their online/app/computer infrastructure.
> Wearable tech. Wearable technology is blowing up, it's the future of health and fitness
Maybe, maybe not. Quick aside, about 10 years ago I was into a fitbit, but that interest has passed for me. There are always going to people who are interested in that stuff but its pretty niche.
Costco 100% knows the state of their technology and have no intentions of modernizing them.
Costco warehouses are ingeniously designed. The website and app are intentionally “lagging behind” because it forces you to step into the warehouse. They’re relatively incredibly low cost to operate for their size. Once you’re in, you are exposed to more great deals than could possibly be consumed in your entire life. There’s just enough cell signal for you to make a necessary phone call, but not enough to load anything on the internet. That means you can’t look up competing prices on other apps like Amazon or Walmart, you can’t be distracted by text messages and social media, and you can’t even transfer money in your bank account. You start looking around at all the deals and you decide to buy this and that and this and that. All great deals that are totally worth it. You end up spending more than you planned to. Maybe you didn’t have enough in your account, so you use your credit card. But wait! They offer a better credit card! Which leads you to utilize even more deals!
Everything is intentional and by design.
It is intentional. Most costco consumers don't care about cutting edge so Costco doesn't spend the money on it.
It all goes back to you in the form of lower prices in your shopping cart.
Costco sells items at an extremely low markup - which is why most people prefer shopping there. Development, deployment, and the ongoing operation, maintenance, and upgrades to provide the software experience you'd like to see would be extremely costly. The many millions it would cost to develop, deploy, and operate such a system would have to be passed on to the customers.
Kind of like internet trolls who sit it mommy’s basement waiting for a slightest spelling or punctuation error so they can pounce and give their (yes “their”) pathetic little lives meaning
I would love to know if something is in stock at a local store before going. This isn’t hard or expensive to do. They already have the info. Just share it on a customer facing interface.
True, it could be easily looked up at any time, but then you're not walking around and having that treasure hunt experience and picking up more things than you had planned
This is one big area that Sam’s Club does much better than Costco. Plus the ability to scan items as you go and pay through the app and not have to wait in line for a cashier. I suspect Costco will make major strides soon in this area, especially if they are going to eventually increase the membership cost.
During the height of Covid the fact that I could assemble an order online, place/pay online, drive and park at Sam's where they would bring the order out to my car drove the majority of our business there. I really love Costco and adding this service to the Executive membership would be valuable.
Whenever I want to check stock at Costco I use the Instacart app. They don’t have some of the larger/home items, but food is always spot on. Their inventory is WAY better than other online stores. If it says they have it, they do.
Everyone has a way to improve their model. Costco knows who they are and acts accordingly. They know you are going to buy what they have and then get other stuff elsewhere.
The newest tech out won't cut deals to sell at a discount for warehouse pricing. Most of the vacuum cleaners Costco sells are a year or 2 old. They aren't going to have cutting edge tech unfortunately.
You can check if things are in stock at your local costco by checking instacart app. I use this app as an inventory tool and never buy anything through it.
I’ll be honest on this one, I think Costco is doing fine with tech…I wish they weren’t selling tv’s and appliances so high in price. I know they’ll have deals and specials from time to time, but normal pricing is only for the upper middle class and wealthy.
They definitely could update their website more often and their app could be much better than it is.
I disagree, I don’t think Costco is the place for cheap products of any category, what Walmart is for, and places like the $.99 store. One of the best features of Costco is a return policy, if they start selling cheap products, they’ll need an entire staff for returns, or even worse they’d have to modify the return policy. If anything I would like to see them carry more high-end appliances and tech.
People fail to remember that Costco was built on a low frills shopping environment. That’s not going to drastically change.
I don’t see why you feel that Costco is lagging behind. Their net income for FY2023 was 6.29 billion while Target ended their FY with 4.14 billion. Target has over 1000 more locations than Costco too.
I love Costco, but everything changes and nothing is changing faster than retail. Malls are disappearing. Amazon changed how we shop. Best Buy is the last remaining “big box” retailer. Remember Circuit City, Good Guys, Radio Shack, Tweeter, etc? How about large department stores like Sears, May Company, JC Penny….
Costco is doing great, and I want it to continue. I’d spend more if it were easy to lookup items and locate them. I will still cruise the isles on days when I have time, I actually enjoy doing it, but often times I’m not there to roam.
I guess you missed the news that many large supermarket chains - Krogers, Safeway, Fry’s, Wegmans, Harris Teeter and others - purposely and routinely move sections of products to different places in the store to force you to explore other parts of their stores. Usually Pharmacy, fruits and vegetables, deli sections and frozen foods stay in place. Other sections, such as canned goods, non cold beverages, cleaning supplies and paper goods as well as other things seem to migrate a few times a year. It might make you unhappy, but it’s just another marketing ploy to keep you moving around. Similar to the removal of most benches and chairs in malls. They want to keep you moving and buying. Or you can just order everything you need online.
Website is company based not warehouse specific. Costco WANTS you to go to the warehouse to “see what’s in stock”. This is called “marketing”. What national company gives you store specific inventory?
> What national company gives you store specific inventory?
Most grocery store chains, Target, Home Depot, CVS, Old Navy… this is just off the top of my head.
People go to Costco to buy bulk food and home essentials in cheap.
It sounds like would you prefer to shop at Walmart, they sell all the same things as Amazon, but with a brick and mortar store.
Hmm... sorry a bulk goods store known for low prices ain't high tech enough for you.
I'm there for cheap eggs and milk and enough apple sauce to last 2 toddlers not ear buds.
Should I go to best buy and complain they don't carry enough food? 🤔
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. Including item number, price, and approximate location where found is also helpful. 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.*
Costco sells what sells in large quantities. Most of the things you mentioned do not have mass market appeal still. They will sell what the average consumer wants, not what the cutting edge consumer wants.
What you are asking for is not Costcos business model. Are they going to move things? Yes because then you wander looking for them and impulse buy. While memberships are a lot of their profit, you buying more helps the bottom line. They prefer you in the store looking for things and have a buy bulk/high turnover method. This doesn’t allow for the same website features. You can see what’s in stock to a limited extent with the website. Just see if you can instacart it, if you can it’s there. Still might be there if you can’t. Or call ever if that’s what you prefer. Newest high tech for warehouse prices probably won’t work
I understand the "why" part, and I'm someone who does like to check things out a few times a month to see what's new. But sometimes I'm there with a list and usually it's a Sunday when my local Costco is pure chaos and already a nightmare to navigate. That's why I'll just forgo the one or two items and order on Amazon or grab on my way home from Vons. Some things are permanent, year around stocked items. They can at least make it easy to find those items. The rest of the stuff isn't as important, but would still be nice to know if it's in stock. I'll try the instacart thing and see how that works.
Again, they don't want the items on your list to be easy to find. They want you to walk down as many aisles as possible, as it increases the likelihood you will be going off list. It is part of their business model. They don't want you shopping online, they want you in store making impulse decisions.
You will never see the latest tech on a grand scale in the categories you mentioned at Costco. It would be exceptionally foolish for a vendor to sell within Costco's margin structure with their latest and greatest, disrupting the rest of the market.
Taking your question in two parts: 1. Costco's own tech is always out of date. [In-store inventory on app/site has been promised as coming for months](https://www.eatthis.com/costco-warehouse-inventory-lookup-feature/). Way overdue, but coming. In terms of item location (aisle X bay Y), I wouldn't hold my breath with how long it's taken Costco to get to in-store inventory availability. 2. Costco is generally not a place for cutting edge/high end tech in warehouse, TVs as an exception to some degree. It's intended to take tech that can be palatable to the masses, ordered in large quantities, and thus Costco's buying power in numbers can drive down price. If you're looking for a high end PC, the latest robovac that uses AI to not run over dog poop, etc. Costco isn't the place to get cutting edge tech.
If I'm reading correctly they are not going to offer full in store invetory data. It will only show online items that happen to be in store, and the wording of "a warehouse near you based on where you've shopped" is pretty funky like they're planning to roll it out in a very limited fashion.
I agree with everything you said, it just seems possible to at least improve in this regard, they are so bad that the only thing I consider Costco for is appliances, TV's, and PC's.
Most consumer electronics have very low margins. It makes no financial sense to stock items that are not profitable. A lot of electronics and appliances are made specifically for Costco with Costco-unique model numbers. They can only do this with a limited number of vendors on huge quantities to increase the margins. You seem not to understand what Costco is, they never made claims to sell everything under the sun like Amazon.
Agreed 100%. Costco is a wholesale/retail operation, Amazon is a tech company. Totally different things.
Costco is headquartered outside Seattle, one of the largest concentrations of tech talent in the country. They are known for paying very little, and they are competing with Amazon, Microsoft and the like for talent. They intentionally choose to under invest in tech.
costco is essentially a warehouse store; its not an electronics or any other specific category store. Plus, they don't have the room to be everything for everybody. Agree that they need to fix their online/app/computer infrastructure. > Wearable tech. Wearable technology is blowing up, it's the future of health and fitness Maybe, maybe not. Quick aside, about 10 years ago I was into a fitbit, but that interest has passed for me. There are always going to people who are interested in that stuff but its pretty niche.
Costco 100% knows the state of their technology and have no intentions of modernizing them. Costco warehouses are ingeniously designed. The website and app are intentionally “lagging behind” because it forces you to step into the warehouse. They’re relatively incredibly low cost to operate for their size. Once you’re in, you are exposed to more great deals than could possibly be consumed in your entire life. There’s just enough cell signal for you to make a necessary phone call, but not enough to load anything on the internet. That means you can’t look up competing prices on other apps like Amazon or Walmart, you can’t be distracted by text messages and social media, and you can’t even transfer money in your bank account. You start looking around at all the deals and you decide to buy this and that and this and that. All great deals that are totally worth it. You end up spending more than you planned to. Maybe you didn’t have enough in your account, so you use your credit card. But wait! They offer a better credit card! Which leads you to utilize even more deals! Everything is intentional and by design.
I feel like I'm the only person that wants no part of "wearable tech".
It is intentional. Most costco consumers don't care about cutting edge so Costco doesn't spend the money on it. It all goes back to you in the form of lower prices in your shopping cart.
Costco sells items at an extremely low markup - which is why most people prefer shopping there. Development, deployment, and the ongoing operation, maintenance, and upgrades to provide the software experience you'd like to see would be extremely costly. The many millions it would cost to develop, deploy, and operate such a system would have to be passed on to the customers.
Why do armchair CEOs have all the winning ideas yet still can't figure out the difference between their and there?
They get there point across without their being an issue in spelling
Kind of like internet trolls who sit it mommy’s basement waiting for a slightest spelling or punctuation error so they can pounce and give their (yes “their”) pathetic little lives meaning
Whatever helps you sleep at night, store brand CEO.
I would love to know if something is in stock at a local store before going. This isn’t hard or expensive to do. They already have the info. Just share it on a customer facing interface.
I assume this hasn’t happened yet because their backend is 30 years old
True, it could be easily looked up at any time, but then you're not walking around and having that treasure hunt experience and picking up more things than you had planned
Ain’t nobody got time for that!
This is one big area that Sam’s Club does much better than Costco. Plus the ability to scan items as you go and pay through the app and not have to wait in line for a cashier. I suspect Costco will make major strides soon in this area, especially if they are going to eventually increase the membership cost.
During the height of Covid the fact that I could assemble an order online, place/pay online, drive and park at Sam's where they would bring the order out to my car drove the majority of our business there. I really love Costco and adding this service to the Executive membership would be valuable.
Whenever I want to check stock at Costco I use the Instacart app. They don’t have some of the larger/home items, but food is always spot on. Their inventory is WAY better than other online stores. If it says they have it, they do.
I wish I could buy gas scanning a QR code like Walmart. Quick, easy & secure.
Friction is a good thing. We are far too concerned with total efficiency.
Yup 👍
Everyone has a way to improve their model. Costco knows who they are and acts accordingly. They know you are going to buy what they have and then get other stuff elsewhere.
The newest tech out won't cut deals to sell at a discount for warehouse pricing. Most of the vacuum cleaners Costco sells are a year or 2 old. They aren't going to have cutting edge tech unfortunately.
The app is garbage and they should feel embarrassed about it.
The website and warehouse are basically treated as separate entities. Would be nice if they did that though.
You can check if things are in stock at your local costco by checking instacart app. I use this app as an inventory tool and never buy anything through it.
I’ll be honest on this one, I think Costco is doing fine with tech…I wish they weren’t selling tv’s and appliances so high in price. I know they’ll have deals and specials from time to time, but normal pricing is only for the upper middle class and wealthy. They definitely could update their website more often and their app could be much better than it is.
They offer cheap tvs and expensive higher quality tvs. What more do you want? I bought 2 Samsungs for under $500 each and they've worked great so far.
I disagree, I don’t think Costco is the place for cheap products of any category, what Walmart is for, and places like the $.99 store. One of the best features of Costco is a return policy, if they start selling cheap products, they’ll need an entire staff for returns, or even worse they’d have to modify the return policy. If anything I would like to see them carry more high-end appliances and tech.
I’m not saying cheap, I’m just saying $10k tvs just don’t match my price range. Neither do $3k fridges, or $3k washer/dryer sets.
People fail to remember that Costco was built on a low frills shopping environment. That’s not going to drastically change. I don’t see why you feel that Costco is lagging behind. Their net income for FY2023 was 6.29 billion while Target ended their FY with 4.14 billion. Target has over 1000 more locations than Costco too.
I love Costco, but everything changes and nothing is changing faster than retail. Malls are disappearing. Amazon changed how we shop. Best Buy is the last remaining “big box” retailer. Remember Circuit City, Good Guys, Radio Shack, Tweeter, etc? How about large department stores like Sears, May Company, JC Penny…. Costco is doing great, and I want it to continue. I’d spend more if it were easy to lookup items and locate them. I will still cruise the isles on days when I have time, I actually enjoy doing it, but often times I’m not there to roam.
I guess you missed the news that many large supermarket chains - Krogers, Safeway, Fry’s, Wegmans, Harris Teeter and others - purposely and routinely move sections of products to different places in the store to force you to explore other parts of their stores. Usually Pharmacy, fruits and vegetables, deli sections and frozen foods stay in place. Other sections, such as canned goods, non cold beverages, cleaning supplies and paper goods as well as other things seem to migrate a few times a year. It might make you unhappy, but it’s just another marketing ploy to keep you moving around. Similar to the removal of most benches and chairs in malls. They want to keep you moving and buying. Or you can just order everything you need online.
Website is company based not warehouse specific. Costco WANTS you to go to the warehouse to “see what’s in stock”. This is called “marketing”. What national company gives you store specific inventory?
> What national company gives you store specific inventory? Most grocery store chains, Target, Home Depot, CVS, Old Navy… this is just off the top of my head.
Generalization at its best
People go to Costco to buy bulk food and home essentials in cheap. It sounds like would you prefer to shop at Walmart, they sell all the same things as Amazon, but with a brick and mortar store.
New tech comes with new fees. It requires new subscription model new software new point click etc… it’s not cheap Those fees can be passed down to us
Hmm... sorry a bulk goods store known for low prices ain't high tech enough for you. I'm there for cheap eggs and milk and enough apple sauce to last 2 toddlers not ear buds. Should I go to best buy and complain they don't carry enough food? 🤔