I buy a great deal of stuff at Amazon, but Costco still represents the largest proportion of our shopping budget. I don't really think they are comparable and I don't envision a world where Amazon really competes enough with Costco to end the company.
think costco also has a lot of member benefits that are hard to match by amz. Gas, tires, glasses, travel, car wash, phrma/flu shots, just to name a few.
AMZ is a platform...quality is sometimes not guranteed. Costco, i know the product went through the buyers and QA and 'won' the limited shelf space costco has to offer and made it to the store, that makes me at least trust it somewhat.
Plus...at least now grocery is still mostly in physical stores.
One thing I've noticed about Costco is that the products they carry are always decent quality. Since Amazon carries everything it falls on you to do the research to sort the good from the bad. You can't always rely on the ratings because the ratings get gamed.
I don't see why not. I am a consumer of both and I think there's space for both. I know Amazon owns Whole Foods now, but Costco and Whole foods are in different market niches, and I think Costco has a great business which so far is not seriously threatened by Whole Foods.
I don't see why it wouldn't. Others already pointed out its curation and B&M qualities, but you can also order online without a membership which is what I've done a few times (I like their protein bars). I hope Costco survives Costco.
It sells a lot of large things in its warehouses that are expensive to ship. I'm sure you can buy a 50 pound bag of dog food or a giant pack of paper towels online, but will you beat Costco's price? Doubtful.
mostly because we value our own time below the market price to have someone else do it for us. If shipping cost ever plummets then this upend warehouse style stores.
Not just that - if you can get an entire shopping trip worth of stuff in one trip to a big warehouse-store, toss it all in your trunk, you don't need to fit it all in standardized boxes with bubble-plastic padding, and the distance from warehouse to your house will be covered in the most direct route. Even if you valued your own time at market rates, it would probably take less of your time than it would of someone else's, because shipping has more intermediate steps.
