Bulk buying: Big savings — for big purchases
The Weekend Herald visited Costco this week for a look at what was on offer and a price comparison of popular grocery items. Here’s what we found:
Cleaning products
If you have the pantry, freezer and storage space — or a friend to split goods with — Costco has some great buys.
There is a wide variety of wellknown cleaning products, laundry powder, and dishwashing tablets, and most were cheaper at Costco than at other retailers.
This week Costco had three 4kg boxes of Persil Sensitive for $54.99.
Or, as shown on the price tag, $4.48 per kilo. The same product is on sale for $6/kg at Countdown.
You could also pick up multipacks of cleaning sprays.
A pack of four 500ml bottles of Ajax glass cleaner for $12.98 works out at $3.25 a bottle. The same product is $4.09 at New World.
Depending on your household circumstance and shopping habits the supersized products can be tricky to get your head around.
It’s hard to justify spending $55 on six months worth of laundry powder for the many households living week to week despite the sizeable saving in the long run.
The other issue is often there is only one fragrance or product on offer — if lemon Spray’n’Wipe isn’t your favourite then the multi-buy deal might not appeal.
Pet food
It’s the same problem if cat food is on your shopping list. This week Whiskas wet food was on offer with 60 pouches priced at $49.99. But if your cat doesn’t like the fishy flavour you are out of luck. The same item was $14 for 15 pouches on sale at Countdown.
Tins of Dine were also on offer but packs include two flavours. If your fussy feline loves lamb with gravy but isn’t keen on tuna morsels you might have to find a friend with a fish-loving cat or stick to the supermarket range. Because suppliers to Costco have to supersize their offering and redesign packaging to sit well on the pallet they often only offer one flavour or product from their range.
Snacks
Giant bags of New Zealand-made Ruffles chips are only available in sour cream and chives, Pringles in multi-packs but only in Masala flavour, and huge sharing bags of Doritos are only in cheese supreme.
If you can resist the temptation of having bulk snacks and treattype food in your house you can save on biscuits, muesli bars and chips.
Oreos, Tim Tams and Natures Valley bars were all cheaper at Costco.
Staples
White sugar was $4.89 for a 3kg pack at Costco this week. This week Countdown had it on special for $4.90 — down $3.60 from its usual price of $8.50.
A tray of 12 cans of Mutti peeled tomatoes was $17.99 or $1.49 a can compared with $2.79 at New World.
Fruit and veges
Fresh fruit and vegetables on offer at the superstore were about the same price as elsewhere, with a 1kg box of gourmet tomatoes $19.99 and a bunch of bananas at $2.99. Big 800g bags of green beans were $14.98 which is $2 cheaper than 800g at New World and a four pack of cos lettuce was $5.99.
Meat and Seafood
Meat, chicken and seafood were also available in bulk packs with 1.5kg packs of top-quality Black Angus steaks for around $50 and large lamb packs for $164, or about $19 a kg.
A large pack of six cage-free chicken breasts was $19.99.
Kirkland-brand rotisserie chickens at $7.99 are a big drawcard to get people in the door and sold out many times this week.
The seafood section is well stocked with lobsters, crab legs, octopus and New Zealand wildcaught pa¯ua — an unusual find in a supermarket chiller.
A four pack of the delicacy is $119, or $89.99 a kg, the same price as specialty online prices.
Freezer snacks
There is also a vast range of freezer snacks such as curry puffs, corn fritters, samosas, chicken tenders, cauliflower bites and prawn dumplings.
A 30-piece 1.2kg box of King of King’s curry puffs was $21.99, or $3.66 for 200 grams. A similar style curry puff currently retails for $8 for a 200-gram pack.