[HN Gopher] How Costco Won in Japan
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       How Costco Won in Japan
        
       Author : gmays
       Score  : 19 points
       Date   : 2026-04-08 17:38 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.readtrung.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.readtrung.com)
        
       | mrbluecoat wrote:
       | Perhaps add (2025) suffix to the title
        
       | doctorpangloss wrote:
       | Costco has become negative value for me compared to Amazon Fresh.
       | 
       | Amazon saves SO much time. Costco is SO slow, a preposterously
       | slow experience. Minutes of ordering and unpacking Amazon Fresh
       | takes hours for Costco. And the food is fresher.
       | 
       | It is dark patterns in retail embodied.
       | 
       | I hate their social media advertising. That is, they pay to tip
       | the scales on algorithmic recommenders, they don't pay
       | influencers or ads.
       | 
       | They really are the thing that Pixar mocks them to be.
       | 
       | Everyone has to stop going there and just buy this shit online.
        
         | tacomonstrous wrote:
         | FYI, Amazon Fresh is shutting down its physical stores.
        
         | free_bip wrote:
         | Why would I buy something from Amazon when it's twice the cost
         | of the same thing at Costco? I literally make up the cost of my
         | yearly membership in 2 months of shopping there compared to any
         | other grocery store.
        
           | doctorpangloss wrote:
           | it's not in california
        
             | free_bip wrote:
             | Yeah, that's valid. Don't they have sams club or something
             | similar though?
        
           | devilbunny wrote:
           | Costco is not for everyone, though. I really can't use it for
           | most of my shopping because it's just me and my wife and she
           | won't commit to eating something specific for a week, but
           | "meals for two, to be decided upon at 5 pm daily" doesn't fit
           | well. We don't eat a lot of the staples they do have that are
           | shelf-stable, and their freezer packages are big enough that
           | to have any variety I'd have to not only like what's on offer
           | but buy a chest freezer that I don't have a good location
           | for.
           | 
           | The stuff they have is nice, but unless I'm going to go buy a
           | bunch of steaks or something, it just barely pays for itself
           | if that. I've let my membership expire and renewed when I had
           | something significant to buy (in which case it's definitely
           | worth it). For my life, it's cheaper to buy smaller packages
           | of the things that will go bad like meat and produce, even at
           | a higher per-unit cost, and it's much closer.
           | 
           | Now, Walmart Plus? _THAT_ has been fantastic. It pays for
           | itself quickly because they will deliver the items to me for
           | the staples they have, and I only have to get one loaf of
           | bread, one small jelly, etc. I don 't have to drive out
           | there, walk to the back of the store, pick out one size of
           | paper towels, go pay for it, and drive home again. It's easy
           | to put together a $50 order to get free delivery because it's
           | all my staples in quantities I'll use, not only one or two in
           | family-of-four quantities.
        
             | parliament32 wrote:
             | We (the two of us) do fine with 95% Costco shopping, and I
             | have similar "she won't commit to eating something specific
             | for a week" restrictions. The only real tricks are get
             | better at storage[1], and get better at cooking[2]. FWIW,
             | the 2% rebate on the executive membership always covers my
             | membership renewal price plus $50-$100 off a shop.
             | 
             | [1] Yes, you need somewhere to stuff 24 rolls of paper
             | towels etc. I ended up building more shelves in the voids
             | at the top of closets and the like. Ladder-access only but
             | it works out.
             | 
             | [2] Stop doing 32-ingredient cooks with baby bok choy and
             | white tomatoes and whatever other exotic instagram reels
             | crap. Buy beef, chicken, fish, then portion and freeze (a
             | vacuum-sealer is not necessary but it helps). Buy a
             | standard 4-5 vegetables and a couple fruits. Potatoes and
             | rice for carbs. Then figure out a list of recipes you can
             | make from those ingredients -- I promise they can be
             | combined damn near indefinitely.
        
         | infotainment wrote:
         | Online shopping is a pox upon society
        
       | unixhero wrote:
       | Costco makes me want to be American
        
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       (page generated 2026-04-08 23:01 UTC)