Bookers / Makro / Costco..

Styles

Styles

Styles

Soldato
Joined
16 Mar 2005
Posts
2,889
Location
UK
Morning,

So it would seem every man and his dog has a card for one of these 'wholesalers' now. As these places are wholesalers and supposed to only sell to business how does this work? Do they not bill against a business?

Cheers
 
I think that's what he means, open to the public by membership rather than Makro which is membership but not open to the general public.
 
Costco membership is only for business owners/managers, people with selected qualifications and people who work in selected professions. How does that make it public membership?
 
I thought Costco was for anybody by membership too. I've had a look and it's for almost everybody :p Either you or your partner needs to work for the government in some way or a bank or finance, or insurance, or a qualified professional, or an airline.

I've mentally gone through everybody I can think of family and friends and I can't think of anybody that doesn't qualify, either themselves or through their partner.

It's like those "exclusive" insurance discounts that everybody qualifies for.

Edit : Holy raptor Jesus... you also qualify if you work for a small or medium sized company as a manager or director, or owner or if you're self employed. Everybody qualifies.
 
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That's what got me confused.

Costco membership is to selective professions but the range is so wide that basically the criteria is- if you can breathe, you are in!
 
What confuses me is I was in one these wholesalers with a friend that owns his own business, and it just seemed to be full of people that were doing personal shops.

I'm guessing these places don't actually care what you're doing as long as you're a paying customer...
 
Youstolemyname said:
That's what got me confused.

Costco membership is to selective professions but the range is so wide that basically the criteria is- if you can breathe, you are in!
Click to expand...

This...

Pretty sure if you work for the post office you get access... Why? I have no idea...
 
I've been to the Makro round here (it's very close to Overclockers actually) and it's nothing special. The only things I saw that would 'save' you a lot of money are buying big tubs of sweets etc. You get to the till and they add VAT onto anything you buy that isn't VAT exempt.
 
why do these shops limit their membership? surely if they let everyone in, they will get more money in?
 
ilcp said:
why do these shops limit their membership? surely if they let everyone in, they will get more money in?
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If they start putting local shops out of business then they'll lose all of their best customers and also they'll need to hire more staff and create an infrastructure to deal with people going in for a few items only.

I have a Booker card, a lot of the stuff there isn't even any cheaper than the supermarket and a lot of stuff is much more expensive! I use it regularly for things like cat litter or herbs and spices. Beer/spirits are cheaper in the supermarket/off license.
 
The Halk said:
I thought Costco was for anybody by membership too. I've had a look and it's for almost everybody :p Either you or your partner needs to work for the government in some way or a bank or finance, or insurance, or a qualified professional, or an airline.

I've mentally gone through everybody I can think of family and friends and I can't think of anybody that doesn't qualify, either themselves or through their partner.

It's like those "exclusive" insurance discounts that everybody qualifies for.

Edit : Holy raptor Jesus... you also qualify if you work for a small or medium sized company as a manager or director, or owner or if you're self employed. Everybody qualifies.
Click to expand...

I don't work for the government, nor a bank, nor in finance, nor in insurance, nor am I a qualified professional nor do I work for my airline and neither does my partner. I'm also not a manager or director, nor do I own a company.

Not everybody qualifies.
 
Not sure that Costco really is a 'wholesaler' per say - they buy wholesale themselves and mark up the products - its more a no frills retail space where you're expected to buy stuff in bulk - i.e. large families, small businesses stocking up. A friend of mine used to use these sorts of places to bulk buy things like coffee for his staff room, bog roll, kitchen roll and general office supplies etc..

I'd have thought that if you were a small retailer, looking at selling this stuff on, you'd be using a different company.

Supermarkets are pretty tough with suppliers these days so I wouldn't necessarily expect everything to be cheaper at the likes of costco, tesco might well be able to negotiate even bigger discounts with suppliers of some products.
 
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