RetireJapan

Hi all.
My wife and I don’t live within easy convenient distance to a Costco but there is one we have been to a few times.
However we can only go when a friend is able to drive us there. It’s massively inconvenient for all of us and unfair to them to have to drive us there and back to our apartment.
So we were thinking about getting our own membership and ordering online. A few years ago when we last checked, I believe you couldn’t order everything that was available in the shop so…effectively pointless.

Is this still the case? If I make a membership today, will I be able to order basically everything within the physical store? Is there any site that shows what is and isn’t available if this isn’t the case?
What about delivery costs and times?

Thanks in advance.

TheFlyingPig is a Costco shipping service. They don't have everything but do have a lot of the food. The prices are marked up and you pay for shipping: https://www.theflyingpig.com/

Used to use it a lot to get coffee, but I can use Amazon now or get my daughter to pick it up when she goes to our local Costco.

RetireJapan wrote: ↑Fri Aug 06, 2021 9:24 am TheFlyingPig is a Costco shipping service. They don't have everything but do have a lot of the food. The prices are marked up and you pay for shipping: https://www.theflyingpig.com/

Used to use it a lot to get coffee, but I can use Amazon now or get my daughter to pick it up when she goes to our local Costco.

Thanks for the reply.
That’s marked up and not direct though right?
If Costco has their own delivery service I don’t really see the benefit.

KCLenny wrote: ↑Fri Aug 06, 2021 9:29 am

RetireJapan wrote: ↑Fri Aug 06, 2021 9:24 am TheFlyingPig is a Costco shipping service. They don't have everything but do have a lot of the food. The prices are marked up and you pay for shipping: https://www.theflyingpig.com/

Used to use it a lot to get coffee, but I can use Amazon now or get my daughter to pick it up when she goes to our local Costco.

Thanks for the reply.
That’s marked up and not direct though right?
If Costco has their own delivery service I don’t really see the benefit.

Yeah, they've been around since way before Costco started shipping stuff. Might have stuff you can't get from the official channel.

Wow. Just had a look at the flying pig website. A little expensive, no?
How about renting a car once a month to visit Costco?

The whole point of Costco is to spend 5000 yen a year for the right to get a 180 yen hotdog every couple of months

Going with friends and getting the hotdog without the annual fee is cheating.

(less facetiously, I tried to log in to their site to check, but it told me to contact customer support, so I'll probably get around to that 6 months from now)

adamu wrote: ↑Fri Aug 06, 2021 11:33 am The whole point of Costco is to spend 5000 yen a year for the right to get a 180 yen hotdog every couple of months

Going with friends and getting the hotdog without the annual fee is cheating.

(less facetiously, I tried to log in to their site to check, but it told me to contact customer support, so I'll probably get around to that 6 months from now)

OP、5000 Yen might be better spent on an Amazon Prime membership, depending on what you usually buy at Costco.

The value through scale approach of Costco shopping is not always a good fit for Japanese households with smaller freezers and fridges and less overall storage.

Costco actually has their own online shopping and delivery service now that's works well. Not 100% of their items are available, maybe around 70-80%. Their Japan website is completely bilingual as well. I only use Flying Pig for must-need items that are out of stock at Costco because as mentioned above, they're expensive.

You can see the prices online without signing up. I'm pretty sure that online is more expensive than in store. Also, the prices quoted on the site are exclusive of sales tax so you need to add another 8-10%

I go to Costco now and again but I don't think it saves me any money. Any savings are more than outweighed by all the extra stuff that somehow finds its way into the shopping cart.

The Costco online site has things priced 5-10% higher (to cover shipping). They also sometimes have portion size differences. Some things that are not in stores, some things in stores are not online.

Some item prices can only be seen after you sign in.

Flying Pig is 15% or so more. Not a bad service.

Stuff sold on Amazon.jp often has a 20-50% markup.

I found the coffee prices (¥160-200/100g, half of what coffee shops charge) alone justify my membership.