- Today, 10 huge insider
saving secrets for Costco. Welcome back to the channel. If you guys like this series
and you like saving money at all these big box retail
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if you wanted to save money at Walmart and I've covered
that and now I'm doing Costco and I've done Target. If there's other stores where you want these insider saving
secrets drop me a line in the comments section. Quick reminder, before we get
to the huge insider savings that many employees don't
even know, everything that you could save money on right now to help you throughout your life is
alive on MATTSDAILYDEALS.COM. The best deals, the biggest coupons. Feel free to sign up
for my email newsletter. I do use affiliate links,
which means I benefit, if you are kind enough
to use one of my links. MATTSDAILYDEALS.COM. The big strategy to saving huge at Costco is understanding their pricing structure. For saving secret number
one, it's all a numbers game when you are shopping at Costco. You need to pay very specific attention to the numbers that I'm going to show you where not all deals are created equal. If you aren't a Costco
member, I'm going to show you why you might become one
and also how to still shop at Costco if you aren't. For saving secret number
one and the information I'm gonna impart works
for Costcos throughout the United States, as well as Canada. If you go to Costco and
you are shopping online, and this is also going to
help with in store information in a moment, you're going to see a section that's called hot buys and, in many cases, a lot of the deals you see in store look very similar to this. If you see a deal that ends in 99, even though it's classified as a hot buy and this works for deals in store as well this means regularly priced merchandise, means it's not necessarily a great deal. I'm going to tell you which
number you want to pay attention to in a moment to know if
something is an amazing deal or if something is on clearance, but I just wanna show you an
example of how this works. If you look in their hot buys
section right now, it's $189 for this Nespresso VertuoPlus
Deluxe Coffee system. If you were to go right now to the Nespresso website
directly you're going to notice that even if you aren't
buying it as a bundle the VertuoPlus prices are
30% off select machines and 20% off select accessories. This would be not necessarily
a hot buy in my opinion and just seeing that it ends
in 99 means Costco's trying to advertise it to you. It's not necessarily at its lowest price. Let me call up a couple of images of different Costco price tags to try and demonstrate my point. So when something ends in a
99, saving secret number one, it's not necessarily its lowest price. If it ends in a 97, and we'll get to what this asterisk signifies in a moment it is at its clearance price. If you see something that ends in an 88, that means a local Costco
is looking to liquidate that product and that's
typically something that you would see on a local level and that means that store might have more of that merchandise that they're trying to then get rid of it, but
it spells huge savings, so that 88 is key and you're more likely to see that in store. Saving secret number two,
those delectable samples you see in store often correspond with a very high priced product. You see the samples,
you know you want them and then they try to
interest you and entice you to buy something that is, in fact, at its highest price. So reminder, samples are
fun, but it's to entice you to buy something that would otherwise be at its full price. For saving secret number three, and this will actually
help you if you're not a Costco member and if you
aren't looking to become one. Memberships are around
60 bucks and it depends if that's right for
your family and there's an executive membership for
almost double the price, which has more savings
and perks attached to it, but the pharmacy at
Costco is open to anyone. So if you are looking to
enjoy prescriptions by mail or if you want to take advantage of many of the discounts available
at Costco pharmacy you do not need to be a member to shop at a Costco pharmacy. And for saving secret number four, if you just want to see whether or not a Costco membership is right for you, I highly recommend getting
a Costco Shop Card. Now here's the caveat, Costco Cash Cards can only be purchased by members, but they can be used by anyone. If you have a Costco Shop
Card you can use this in store and a reminder, you do not
need to be a member to use it, you only need to be a member to buy it. So if you have a friend or family member, someone who could get you
this or if you could buy one of these online that
might be worth your while as a consideration. That will also help you
shop for other products which might be on discount without having to go through the whole
membership experience. For saving secret number five, watch for Costco warehouse days. A lot of us shop on the weekends, that's when Costco's the busiest, but there are warehouse days
that happen during the week which bring even bigger discounts and they're staggered either
every month or every six weeks. And these warehouse days
give you even greater savings on top of the regular sale prices, so make sure you stay on
top of the Costco calendar if you are looking to enjoy
greater savings and deals. Saving secret number six. I look like a moron every time I do this. I should have some big fancy graphic, but this is a frugal YouTube channel. Thank you again, if you want to subscribe. The Costco coupons are very valuable. But you might wanna know, Costco doesn't accept
manufacturer coupons. So two ways to get the coupons. First is make sure your
address is up-to-date. Costco will mail you coupons, which it does for its members every month. In addition to the coupons
and member only savings you will do very well
if you can incorporate an additional coupon on a sale price. I'm going to share with you
another big secret right now. If you approach the customer service or the member services
desk you can actually ask for coupons, to find out if
there are any coupons available. So if you think you might've
missed one or you missed the flyer or your address wasn't correct or you just don't like
clipping coupons, ask them, before you complete a purchase
or if you're considering a purchase on a specific
product, what type of coupons they have available, for a big screen TV, a patio set, whatever it
is you're shopping for. I have found that in half my tests, many customer service representatives were more than willing
to dish out coupons. That's really important
before you finally check out and pay for that final bill. Saving secret number
seven is tied to where the best deals are placed
physically inside the store. And if you look at your
typical Costco map layout, you're going to find
lots of flashy displays right around the front, in
the sides and the end caps and these look like they're full of deals, but if you actually do your
math and you cross compare and you have no life and
few friends like I do, you're going to find the least
expensive Costco products are right smack in the
middle of the store, so make a beeline, right on
over to the middle of the store. I always recommend you
start your shopping there, that's where the best
deals are and that's also where the most frequently depleted, high stock items are centered. If that just sounded
like a bunch of big words and mumbo jumbo to you,
remember flashy displays on the sides, not great, and the items that everyone is trying
to buy and shop for right in the middle of your Costco. The layout's obviously different, but that middle of the store
wherever it is you're going is where you're going to find
some of the largest savings. That's different from
the Walmart approach. In a lot of the physical Walmart stores that I've surveyed, you
go all the way to the back and sometimes the back right
is where you're going to find many of the better
deals, which is strange. Target has a different approach. And, by the way, if you do
like this type of information, I've done breakdowns for Target, Walmart and will continue to do
so, so you can save money. Saving secret number eight. Remember when I said not too long ago, that if a price tag ends in
99, either online or in store, it's not at its lowest price? Well, obviously if you find things in a 97 or even that 88 you're doing really well. But what happens when you
see a 97 and something like this asterisk in
the top right-hand side of the screen? That means this product
will not be restocked. It usually means one of two things. It means that this is a
highly sought after product that is in its liquidation
phase and the store's not going to make any move to buy more, but it also means that
the product is being faced with a discontinuation. So that doesn't really
affect you on something like a waffle mix that you're
likely just going to consume and not return or fish
sticks or things like that. But what about when you're
buying a home theater system? Maybe you do want some type of follow up, maybe you do need a
manufacturer's warranty from a company that will support
it and maybe the company, in fact, is just getting
rid of everything. So these are things to keep in mind when you are reading the prices. An asterisk could be your
best friend because it means you're locking in a really
good, clearance, closeout price, especially if you see
the 88 and the asterisk. That's like the best thing ever. Strange gesture. But if you do see a 97 or
a 99 it just simply means they're getting rid of it and it might be for another reason. The number nine saving secret is throw out all of the coupon rules
and all of the asterisks and the 97s when you're dealing
with my friend, special K, and that's Kirkland. Now, I know I gave you a lot
of information tied to prices. That all applies on everything except for Costco's in house brand, Kirkland. Couple of things that I want to tell you. When you do see a so-called
huge deal on Kirkland products, please keep in mind that
Costco controls this. So the list price and the
sale price are all things that they can manipulate. I'm not trying to say that
they do so vindictively, but I am trying to tell
you that a lot of it is just mumbo jumbo garbage. A Kirkland product, in my
experience as a consumer reporter, is a very good store brand. I love the Kirkland batteries, I like many of the food
products that I featured. I found that in many cases
that very high-end brand, is just as good as Kirkland. Kirkland automatically has
around 60% savings built into the fact that you're at Costco,
you're getting a discount as a member and you're able to buy in bulk from a very well-made brand. But with that being said,
don't get overly excited if Costco tells you that
there's a sale on it or they start doing limit one per member or things like that. It simply means they just
might not have enough stock or they're trying to get rid of something because they've repackaged or
they're bringing in new deals. So while I highly support
shopping the Kirkland brand and I like many of the
products tied to it, don't get overly fixated
on sales and blowouts and clearance when you're
shopping under this umbrella. If anyone right now has recommendations from the Kirkland brand, if
you're a frequent Costco shopper and there's something you love,
like some type of olive oil or kitty litter, drop
me a line, let me know, and, in fact, leave a
comment so other people can read from it. I found that the subscribers
of this channel are brilliant, the viewers, I'm so
lucky to have you guys. But you're very helpful to each other and you're also helpful to me. So point that out, drop someone a line in the comments section and
we will all read your advice. And for saving secret number
10, before I get to a bonus, shop for candy at least
two months before Halloween and at least two months before Christmas. I know that sounds like crazy advice. But if you actually look
at the candy pricing, the bulk pricing tied to candy
is unbelievable throughout the year and seems to undergo some type of weird clearance phase, about two months before each holiday. I'm not quite sure if that's when Costco stores regularly
restock their candy. I'm not sure if it's tied
to just an overall rotation that happens throughout the
retailer with their distributors but that golden eight-week
mark, prior to Halloween, prior to Christmas, will
have you saving significantly more cash than if you shop
anytime within the month or within the couple
of days in the vicinity of that holiday. For your bonus, if you do want to consider the Costco Anywhere Visa, not
only do you save a lot on gas, 4% on eligible gas,
including gas at Costco for the first $7,000 per year
and then a percent thereafter, 3% on restaurants, all
right, whatever that's fine. But you get an additional
cashback of 2% on all purchases from Costco and Costco.com. The 1% on all other purchases is lame, but if you are a frequent Costco shopper there is no annual fee with
your paid Costco membership for this card. And this is great because there's also decent customer service
with this card in my tests. If you are interested, all
of the links to make this a reality on MATTSDAILYDEALS.COM. I hope you like what you saw. If you did like this, please
again leave me a thumbs up. Feel free to subscribe,
turn your notifications on, so you'll know when I do the
next upload in this series 'cause this information
hopefully was worthwhile to you and thank you so much for
making time for me today. I love you, stay safe, stay healthy and I'll be back soon.
