Americans React to US vs UK Costco
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Reacting To My Roots
P.O. Box 439
Jasper, Indiana 47547
USA
In this video we react to the differences between US vs UK Costco. We love Costco, we've had a Costco membership for years. While the food court items seem to be similar, much of the foods seem to be different. Of course both the US and UK Costco have the low price hotdogs and pizza, but it seems like a lot of our food brands may be different.
I think the most surprising thing we learned is that Costco UK limits who can become a member. We were shocked at the fact you have to be employed or retired from specific fields of employment in order to qualify for an individual membership. While anyone can shop online, this really limits a lot of people. As much as we love Costco, if the same rules applied here we wouldn't be able to shop there. I hope Costco UK changes those rules and opens up Costco membership for anyone, as it is here.
Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this reaction please give this video a thumbs up, share your thoughts in the comments and click the subscribe button to follow my journey to learn about my British and Irish ancestry.
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Costco is treated as "Trade" not "Retail" in the UK. It is NOT a "grocery store" here. The restrictions on Costco membership go back to when they first opened in the UK. They had to act like a trade "cash and carry" partly to get planning permission - a total absolute nightmare in the UK - and partly because of very severe anti-competitive attacks by suppliers and established retailers. Even then, suppliers were badly threatened by major high street retailers. I worked for a household electricals manufacturer, and several high street retailers stated that if we supplied similar products to Costco then they would expect pricing that would enable them to continue to make their 35%-ish margins, but to be able to retail still at the same price as Costco who were operating on around 15% margin. (Illegal) resale price maintenance by the back door. I have member ship because of my professional body, and my wife through working for the NHS. One feature of Costco still having to pretend still that it is a "trade" outlet, is that - unlike UK retail - all displayed headline prices are BEFORE VAT. The VAT-inclusive price is also shown, but smaller.
These videos never remember to mention that the UK prices include 20% VAT and the US ones havent added on sales tax yet.
Wxactly, as U.S and it's states have different taxes than the UK's fixed 20% VAT on all sales!
Hence the UK pound has more weight behind it than the U.S dollar, so for each Dollar, your looking around 1.2 Dollars roughly to the British Pound!
Not to mention measuring systems, UK uses Imperial while the U.S uses the metric system.
@@capastianluna8896other way around
Cosco prices in the uk don’t include VAT it is added to your bill at the till
In the UK, VAT is zero rated on food items, other than sweets (including chocolate-coated biscuits) and sugared or alcoholic drinks. VAT is also charged on food items consumed on the premises.
Stodgy means full of carbohydrates, so filling and heavy
Its used as a quality complaint though. eg. you can have a 'stodgy cake' and a 'not stodgy cake', one is 'done badly' one 'done well'.
@@wobagukmaybe it’s a north and south thing in Uk? I’ve always known stodgy as in food terms of something filling and heavy, I was raised on an island though
Yeah it does mean full of carbs, filling and heavy, but it is often used as a negative more than a positive description.
You need the warming foods like shepherd's pie up in the north of scotland
In Scotland we would call something stodgy if it was dense and moist at same time, sometimes considered underdone.
Yes you can get a free refill. I don't think most people stick around long enough to make use of it. I always fill it before I leave and take it with me
When Costco first opened in the UK they were in direct competition with companies like Makro. These companies were selling principally to trade like small corner shops. These shops found it difficult to compete with the major supermarkets because they couldn't buy in the same quantities. If they had opened to anybody then in effect they would be potentially putting their main customer base at risk. They then expanded to allow key workers (police, nurses, doctors, etc) to shop there to cut their cost of living.
Then they expanded allowable membership to people who worked for companies that might potentially benefit Costco as a business. So employees of banks, insurance companies. Or certain qualified professions like architects, surveyors, solicitors. In this way they could potentially approach those people/companies and ask for discounts on the grounds that they were allowing their staff to shop there. I was a member because I worked for a software company and they saw the possibility that they might need to change their systems at some point in the future.
At that time there was a substantial difference in the prices that you could get goods from there compared to the price you would pay in the major supermarkets, so it was worth paying the membership fee. Once when on vacation in Orlando we went to the Costco there thinking if the prices differences were the same in the US as to the UK they would almost be giving you the stuff. Sadly we discovered that the price differences were not that significant and it was more to do with buying in bulk.
When Aldi and Lidl came to the UK the price difference between Costco and them was not that great and shopping at Aldi and Lidl doesn't requires you to fork out a membership fee, so I dropped my membership.
I had a Makro membership (no membership fee) simply because I was a trade union rep. It was purely for my private use and no questions were asked other than what "company" I represented, which I most certainly did not have any authority to do from my employer or the trade union. I let it lapse after a year because it just wasn't worth it for me. No-one ever questioned it and I didn't know there were any restrictions other than being an employee. It seems a very grey area on who is allowed to be a member and I suspect that most employers couldn't care less as long as it doesn't cost them anything or adversely affect them.
I used to havea macro card for church for catering purpose. Then I hot an NHS costco card, never went back to macro
One of the reasons for limiting who could be a member in the UK, was because in the early days you could buy up to £1,000 and pay by cheque - Costco needed some leverage if the customer's cheque bounced.
I originally had a US membership (I'm a Brit who was working in the US at that time) and then joined in the UK when a Costco opened up near my home - I was surprised at the amount of business paperwork I had to supply in the UK to get a membership card (I think this also included a letter from my accountant).
Cottage pie does not normally have cheese on top.
Cumberland pie is the minced beef pie with the potato and cheese on top.
Some people do add cheese, I think we were taught to do that in school, but it tastes gross with cheese on top.
@@jessieb7290 i agree, i never put cheese on mine either..
I never had a pie with cheese on it. It never occurred to me. I looked at that and thought, yea, not a bad idea.
I've only ever referred (and seen referred) to the one with cheese on as Cumberland Pie. I can't eat cheese and if I ordered one and it arrived with cheese on I'd be shocked as it wouldn't even occur to me to be a thing on a cottage pie.
I always put cheese on top of the tatties
Costco in the UK is registered as a wholesaler. They gives them certain tax benefits and they can build there warehouses where a normal retail store would not be allowed and a few other things from the government
However as part of being classed as a wholesaler means you have to sell in bulk to businesses, not to the general public.
The rules do allow wholesaler to sell to the general public however only a certain percentage of sales can be to the general public
30% is the number
Which means they have to restrict membership and doing it by profession means you are not at risk of breaking discrimination laws
Ah, okay. This explanation makes more sense! :)
@@reactingtomyroots Yeah but bear in mind that anyone who is self employed can also be a member, it's not hard to be able to shop at Costco if you really want to LOL.
I go to one in Birmingham uk . We get free refills, but one drink is enough . If i remember, we got a beef hotdog drink, including refills for £1.50.
When we refer to so.ething as a cookie in the UK, it specifically means it is made with cookie dough.
Biscuits covers pretty much everything else.
According to the Costco U.K. website, memberships to those stores are only available to certain groups of people. Since the store is classified as a wholesaler, this complies with the U.K.'s wholesale store laws. These dictate that wholesale stores are only accessible to those working for select business sectors.
I work for a water company and I can get membership using my work's employee badge ...we even have a Costco near my office about 10 mins walk away...we sometimes get Costco pizzas 🍕
Banking / Finance
Local Government
Fire / Rescue Service
Post Office
Airlines
Education
Police Force
Civil Service / Armed Forces
Medical / Health Service
Insurance are the only ones who can get a membership, there is one open to the public it's called Rogers wholesale my nearest one is in Stockport manchester.
Costco comes into walkers once or twice a year, offering memberships
Alot more people actually qualify than you would think. There is a list of approved companies and it includes unions etc too. There is also an online only membership that anyone can buy.
The Milton Keynes Costco recruited members in the shopping centre. They claimed they couldn't use their computers so couldn't check your claim to be self employed so lots of people signed. I claimed to be a self employedvwriter.
In the uk, we have a some of the supermarkets that are as cheap as Cosco
USA has Aldis too.
I live close to a Uk Costco and have also went to a US Costco and can say they are very similar. Going to Costco in the UK is like a teleport experience to the USA with the portion sizes etc.
I could definitely see that 😂
Cookies are softer than biscuits which are hard. Quite different, don’t get them mixed up.
Maryland cookies are hard like biscuits though!
@@AndrewAHayesyeah because Maryland is in America. So although made in England, they used the name of an American state, and called them "cookies" as Americans would. But they are, biscuits.
That's quite obvious, same is applied with cookies, is it a hard baked cookie or soft baked? Americans use similar ways to describe what the Britisy for biscuit, is it a hard biscuit or soft baked?
Cookie can mean a lot of things for Ameeicans, only 1 thing for us Brits, busicuits too can be soft, depends on recipe used and how long they got baked for lol
I see cookies as a category of biscuit
@@capastianluna8896 the difference between cakes and biscuits was determined in UK Law when Mcvities challenged the tax claim on their Jaffa Cakes, the law now says that cakes are soft and biscuits are hard, I wonder where soft baked cookies fall in this?
Peanut butter is common in the UK, but it is mostly seen as a kid's food. There are probably a dozen or so sandwich fillings that someone would use before they used peanut butter. It is also usually just peanuts and maybe some salt. It is much thicker than US peanut butter and usually doesn't have oil added to it (or molasses, like some US PBs do).
I find with peanut butter the traditional UK Sunpat is inedible garbage, but most own brand supermarket peanut butters these days are similar to US peanut butter such as Skippy or Jif, not as good but similar, I hate the so-called healthy peanut butters like Meridian, they're not good, Skippy and Jif are my favourite, I eat REALLY healthy and clean but US peanut butter is the one thing I allow myself, I lived with 5 American exchange students for a year when I was 18 so have been hooked on PB&J ever since! 🤣
I don’t know why people think peanut butter is a kids thing. I’ve had it since childhood and I was born in the UK.
You can also get peanut butter powder it’s really expensive but it’s just powdered peanuts and then you add water to make it into a paste. Tastes better then it sounds and clearly healthier then having peanut butter.
@@jessieb7290 I know, and I agree, but that is how it is seen. The PB section is very small in the UK, and the powdered variety is harder to come by.
@@markjones127 I think the "healthy" brands use raw nuts and the regular brands use cooked peanuts. The raw ones are much more bitter.
Love the marmite peanut butter.
We do get free refills in Costco in the UK but we aren't as obsessed with Ice over here..lol.. Also, "Stodgeyness" means thick and dense and moist and filling.. Enjoy the videos guys...
I've never seen free refills. Where have you seem that?
@@strawberrysunshinelover Costco in Sheffield is free refills..you pay for the cup and away you go...
@waynegro68 ah I missed you saying Costco I thought you just wrote uk
UK. Closest Costco to me is about 10 miles away. But 2 miles away we have a bulk buy called Booker. You have to prove you have a business to become a member. Booker used to be independent but is now owned by Tesco.
a lot of these types of warehouse places are where the small retail 'corner shops' purchase their supplies, this allows them to sell at the reccomended retail price and still make a profit.
Lindsay was bang on with her definition of the word stodgy and you were also correct Steve, biscuits are crunchier than what we would refer to as cookies 👍🏻
At Christmas, Costco UK makes mince pies. They are really good. They actually use like a sponge for the lid, which is not normal, but it helps cut through the rich fruit more being more stodgy
Like that cottage pie, which would not normally have cheese on top. In fact the crust on the top of the baked mashed potato is usually the best bit.
I was addicted to Costco mince pies over Christmas, so delicious
The frangipane ones?
@@Bellabambina123 not sure what it is, its just like a sponge top
I've never heard of Costco!
Stodgy means food that is heavy on the stomach so to speak.
There’s one in Cardiff.
@@TanyaRando I didn't know that! Thank you 😊
@@stevenburgess2856 it’s not far from the football stadium, and right next to a newer shopping area, with Next, Hobbycraft, Greggs, Starbucks, Card shop, Asda etc, and in fairness it’s not that hard to find parking there.
@stevenburgess2856 ..... They have had stores in the UK for 31 years. Since 1993.
There's one near where I live but I was told you have to pay just to become a member so I decided not to join it.
There is also a bulk buy store called Makro in the UK, nearest one to me is in Reading , Berkshire. My nearest Costco is about 5 miles away in Farnborough, Hampshire.These places were raided during Covid for their bulk toilet rolls etc.
Cookies are hybrid between cakes and biscuits. We have cookies here too and they are quite popular now. Biscuits are cut using cutters before they are baked and cookies are slopped onto a tray to bake. biscuits are more of a pastry before baking and cookies are a dough so they are different really.
I love Food Wars videos and watch them regularly but seeing you guys react to them is even better! Please do more!
The limitations on membership is due to UK law as to the difference between a retailer and a wholesaler.
As a wholesaler they must sell at least 70% of their volume (by value) to other businesses (trade memebers)
This allows them to pay a much lower amount of Buisiness rates (property tax for comercial buildings) for their warehouses (as they are classified as warehouses and not shops which have been much higher tax rate)
They are also subject to less restrictive planning laws (think zoning requirements). You could build a Costco warehouse in the middle of an industrial estate (and many are) where you would never get permission to build a conventional supermarket
And several similar issues
As the only way they can attempt to restrict it to less than 30% direct to consumer sales is to restrict who they sell to
A Cookie is a type of Biscuit. They are generally soft but with a harder/crispy out to them (when cooked correctly :) They usually contain either Choc Chips or Raisins. That is what we would call a Cookie, An Oreo wouldn't never be classed as a Cookie in the UK as it doesn't fit that profile......SO yes we have Cookies, but its a specific thing not a generalised term.
Love the cookie/ biscuit part Steve
I've just now realised where the phrase: That's the way the cookie crumbles comes from.
Being British, I prefer the phrase, "That's the way the biscuit disintegrates".
Our costco is predominantly aimed at trade services and not the general public thats why only people who work in certain professions but most people just make up a trade so they can get a memebership and costs around £100 a year membership
😮
£100 a year? Mine was £34.
Mine wasn’t that much either. Think it was around £50 for you and your partner. X
£100 must be the executive membership
I've never heard of Costco, I'm from UK and I didn't know we had them. There's none where I live.
We have one in Glasgow. It's right next to a Tesco Extra and a huge Lidl. So I've never gone in.
Same here. I knew they existed in the US but I've never seen one in the the UK and I didn't even know they had stores over here.
After hearing they do I presumed they would mostly be located in our cities so I looked it up on Google maps and to no surprise to myself, the nearest one to me is 35 miles away in Sheffield.
No wonder I didn't know we had them here in the UK. It has been many years since I've had reason to visit any of our cities here in the UK.
@@stuartfitch7093 ... They have had stores over here for years, I used to go to the big one at West Thurrock in Essex back in the 1990s. They have 29 stores now across the UK and are looking to open a further 14. The first Costco opened in West Thurrock, Essex back in 1993
The nearest one to me is in Thurrock in Essex, I live in Thanet which is 65 miles away, as far as I could see there are no Costco in Kent
They're a wholesaler, like Booker.
My friends family shop at a cost co near Watford and are very delighted with the cost and quality on offer there!
This is so weird - I've watched a few of your videos recently, so I see why you guys popped up on my page, but I was literally about to leave my office at lunch time to go to Costco (Chingford branch! About 3 mins drive from where I work) and quickly refreshed the page and this video came up lol
Yes we say cookies too, but for a specific type of biscuit, usually soft baked with chocolate chips (except for a few exceptions)
We definitely have costco in the UK! I believe our fl oz are different to yours, even our imperial measures differ to the American equivalents with liquids. Im pretty sure costco uk do do free refills on drinks too
I think our British Imperial🇬🇧 pint is _20_ounces, but the American Standard is only _16_ounces...🇺🇸 (and, though often called American Imperial, actually has a different name, but I forget what it's name is!) 🤔😏🏴🧡🖖
The reason the US fl oz is slightly different from the imperial fl oz goes back to the Americans using the gallon that was used in England in the 1700s. This was known as the Queen Anne gallon and was based on 8lbs of wine. This is the gallon the US still use. In 1820, we standardized our measures and the imperial gallon was redefined as 10lbs of fresh water at 60°F. The pint is still 1/8th of a gallon in both gallons but due to the increased 10lbs vs 8lbs, this meant our pint is 20oz as oppose to 16 in the Queen Anne gallon. As there is a slight difference in density between wine and water, the fluid ounce is marginally different too. So the Amercians are using a much older archaic unit that we later dropped after they got indepndance.
Interestingly, they decided to drop the stone (1/8th of a hundrewdweight or 14lbs) and simplifly the ton to only 2000lbs as oppose to our 2240lbs. The UK hundredweight (cwt) was renamed to a cental and is only 100lbs as oppose to our 112lb hundredweight or 8stone or 4 quarters.
Yes, I have only ever heard of Costco as being somewhere where only certain professionals are allowed to use. The only people I have ever known to use one, were people who owned a professional catering business, and a bakery.
I'm surprised to learn that they sell things like pizza! I thought, as they were wholesalers, it was big bags of sugar, and other big, multi pack things like that 😅
One of my favourite things to do there, is to try everything (mostly) that they have on the little stalls lol
Lindsay, I love no bake cheesecakes, but NY cheesecake is baked which makes it very stodgy to me. Yes, thick, heavy, dense, horrible texture all equal stodgy. I love lemon cheesecake made from Philadelphia Cream Cheese, whipped with lemon juice and cream, poured into a crushed biscuit base and chilled in the fridge. It’s lemony, light and fluffy and melt in your mouth! So NOT stodgy!
Ginger and lime for me (crushed ginger biscuits for a base, marscarpone with lime, sprinkled with dark chocolate flakes and grated lime peel). It's less "sharp" than lemon. Raspberry (or blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, etc.) and mint is a good combination too. Overly sweet cheesecake is just sickly to me.
I live in England and the fact that Costco membership is restricted to certain professions is news to me too, I have had Costco membership a few times and was never asked my profession.
Did you join as someone's friend? When I joined I had to give them my pay slip
@@johncox6101 They seem to have come across a way around this now by having a guy stand in a shopping centre with a stand who will sign you up with an "individual" account... for some reason they don't care about profession or self-employed status... I don't know what the work around is but whatever it is works lol
My granson has a Costo card, and he does not work as he looks after his disabled wife
We call American style cookies/biscuits, cookies, and British style cookies/biscuits, biscuits. Likewise we call American style fried potato strips fries and British style ones chips
Costco is expanding exponentially over here, they are planning 2 stores here in Sussex, Crawley (Our town😊) & Brighton.
Our current nearest in around 25 miles away in Purley.
In Europe and South America I shopped at Makro, kinda the same as Costco. I was filling a truckfull of food for an offshore fishing boat for 7 or 8 crew when 10 days/2 weeks away at sea. It worked out about $25/30 a week per crewman to eat.
We get refills in Bristol Costco. Our usual plan is we grab some food first drink the drink as we shop then refill before we leave.
We go to the Lakeside store in West Thurrock. It’s our nearest also about an hour away. But we have to be careful and check prices against other stores li me Tesco as it can be more expensive. Lovely the bakery items but have never tried the in store cafe. We have the dearer executive membership, but have been assured that if the savings we have made do not exceed the cost of this we will get this back. Don’t think that’s going to happen as we always come away with so much!!
You should definitely react to more Food Wars videos. They are great. 👍 The video about the fast food price differences is one I would recommend.
Cookie is just the name given to a biscuit that has choc chips in it, it is still a biscuit though
Never seen a Costco in the UK. According to their website, there are only 29 branches in the UK. I wondered about the Kirkland brand as I had seen it mentioned in South Park, but never knew that it was a Costco own brand.
Had one behind my house
Hotdog refill drink £1.50
Chicken bake £3 with re fill drink
Pizza £8.99 , cheese - chicken feast n another
Jacket and chilli or other options £3 again
All there meats top quality, Aberdeen Angus sausages square ones came in pack of 30
A lot of stuff wasn’t as cheap tbf and cheapest fuel u can get was here
I live within an hour to an hour and a half of 4 costco. But I live down south.
Mainly bigger city like london and Birmingham
It is essentially THE Costco own brand.
Been to the one in Milton Keynes. I think if you go to somewhere that’s a city or a well developed area you should be able to find one.
There are workarounds to get membership. I know my parents have a Costco account and you can add people to your account, for a joining fee, and they get their own card then
I’m a member of Makro in Charlton south London, similar kind of place, my makro card also gives me entry to Bookers which I use the Sidcup and Crayford branches. I’ve been to Costco in Thurrock before with my mate who’s a member, only good thing is cheap petrol ⛽️
They've been able to sell the hotdogs for £1.50 or $1.50 for years as loss-makers, as it brings in the consumers buying their own branded stuff like Kirkland, to make up for it ,if they'd ever put up the price, they'd get no-one through their doors.
Cookies are cooked from a dough and biscuits from a batter, they are different things, we have both cookies and biscuits in the uk
Biscuit is an umbrella term, and under it, you have things like sandwich, shortbread, cookies, and so on.
We dont have a Costco in our city or any nearby city, plus yes unless you have a certain type of job you cant get a membership, No one in my family qualifies for a Costco membership anyway, so we stick to Aldi or the other stores like Tesco or Sainsburys
costco in the UK:
- is membership only, you can't shop there if you're not a member, there are different types of membership but in the main you need to work for a specific SECTOR, in order to get a membership, you also need to have an already existing member vouch for you (or you did when I got mine 20something years ago, dunno if that's still a thing or not), so to answer your question, no, not just anybody can walk in and get a membership to Costco here in the UK.
- I haven't been in a little while, but there's also set times and days you can't shop there because certain times and days are reserved for 'wholesale shoppers' aka small businesses buying bulk amounts of product and staff need time to refill the shop for general sales, you can still access the food court during this period as a general member but you can't go and do any shopping in the warehouse itself.
- as a result of Covid and the major import struggles as a result of 'Brexit', some of the food options that used to be sold in the food court are no longer sold now, however there are a small number of 'secret menu' items if you ask for them you can still buy, it's just you need to know about them to begin with :).
- the soda drinks are all free refill, you can't get ice with self serve drinks USUALLY, it might depend on location, most costco locations where I live don't have an ice machine so it's just the ice you get from the initial first drink you buy.
- the fruit smoothy that is claimed to be a 'US exclusive' is not, it's just that it's only available in the summer months at Costco in the UK, so judging by when this was filmed it wouldn't have been available at that time, my local Costco also has some other seasonal/regional variations but it's not common as far as I can tell.
- regarding peanut butter, it's not a 'thing' in terms of national craze level like it is in the US, however it is sold in widespread forms all across the UK, where I work it's sold in: smooth,chunky,vegan,wholenut,smooth with bits,chunky with bits, and sold from many different manufacturers, it's not this impossible to find item that people make it out to be, although it will usually be more expensive PER SERVING than say a Nutella (or derivative of) for example.
- in relation to the 'baked goods' potion of the video, the UK has MORE selections than the US, for example we have 5 different types of muffins whereas the US only has a couple, the 'breakfast' type items come in a variety of forms also, with the favourites being obviously the all butter croissants but also the pain-au-choclat too, and lastly, because Lindsay(ey?) was confused: we have baked goods called 'cookies' that are a very specific type of product, they are usually a large slightly softer biscuit that's got a bit of chew to it, normally made with chocolate chips or other similar things as a way to differentiate them, you can also buy 'cookies' that are smaller and hard/brittle, but instead of being a term used to describe ALL items in the biscuit category, it's used as a name to describe a very specific KIND of biscuit product, the same way you guys call one specific product 'pudding' whereas we use the word to describe MANY different things from sweet to savoury items.
- in regards to the calroie content of the food, and I say this with no malice or anything, but the US doesn't use 'proper cheese', a lot of the cheese we eat here in the UK is very 'fatty' and rich, which is why it's not smothered on everything, also as a result of the US 'cheese problem' from the 60's70's, you guys have so much cheese you're almost drowning in it so the cheese you do have is literally smothered on everything to try and get rid of it all, if you want a fun topic to look into try looking at the 'US government bought all the milk' and similar topics regarding post war US economics and such, but essentially it's down to what the FDA allows products to be named despite being very low % content in said items whereas in the UK and Europe generally, if something is less than say 70% of a product make up, it can't legally be called that product, that's why here in the UK, ASDA has changed the wording on their custard doughnuts to 'custard style' doughnuts because legally the custard cream filling in the doughnuts is less than the legal % allowed for them to be considered actual custard, there's probably a lot of other examples if you go looking but I hope that's enough to give you an idea of what is meant in this regard.
another thing to make a big note of that wasn't mentioned in the video, which is something that affects 'general shoppers', is that thanks to the massive import problems caused by Brexit, Costco in the UK struggles to keep certain things in stock (such as noodle cups/pots) and you will usually find either none, or a derivative brand that is different to what you may have been previously used to buying, Brexit has had a SEVERE and ongoing really bad knockon effect to things here in the UK which is part of the reason the cost of living is so astronomically high compared with the rest of the world, I would avoid looking into it unless you really want to go down a rabbit hole as it's a very complex issue and not something you can really understand just from a surface level look at things, suffice to say I have grown to hate the morons who voted leave because they fell for the lies they were sold by the 'remain' campaign, that's the last I'll say on the matter before I say something I might regret.
anyway, it would be interesting if you could find an actual tour video of a UK Costco to see the differences in person so to speak, because I suspect it's very different to how it is in the US, I don't know if this is a thing in the US, but here at my local Costso they have a car mechanic/garage on site where you can get most maintenance work done, new wheels and tyres/oil change/light bodywork repaired etc.
You can join costco in the UK for a fee.
you need to be referred by an already existing member, you can't just waltz in and ask for a membership, at least that was the case I dunno if that's been changed/loosened in recent years.
You can join for a fee, if you belong to one of certain professions. But if you don’t qualify you can’t.
I think it’s also a marketing ploy. Like the more exclusive something is, the more people will be drawn to it.
My aunt has a card cause her husband had a business. But I think now you have to be a nurse, doctor, teacher etc.
No it’s a tax thing, if they limit membership they are a wholesaler and pay less taxes. If anyone can come in then they are a supermarket like Tesco, Morrison or Aldo and pay more.@@jessieb7290
I grew up in Chingford, the place that he mentioned!! I went to school there!
Before Costco’s came to the UK, we use to have and still have places called Cash &Carry’s. (Trade Only) Only people that have businesses/company’s can register and shop at these places. It’s where you buy bulk and catering packs of food and it should be cheaper than buying in a normal supermarket as your paying wholesale prices.
Then Costco came along so similar to cash &carrys,
to join, you have to be a registered business, be VAT registered, or be in certain professions such as teacher, front-line worker, lawyer or accountant.
If your none of the above then you can’t shop at a cash & carry or Costco.
Costco has an approved list of occupations. Such as Emergency services or NHS staff.
Stodgy means heavy, dense, filling food. Hefty is another word used for stodgy food.
Really enjoying your videos.
I think their is some levels of membership. Some allows morning visits to retail membership and all others afternoon and evenings.
Over here it’s classed as a Wholesaler so the restricted membership complies with UK wholesale store laws. For most it’s not a supermarket per se, it’s more what used to be called a ‘cash & carry’, a store associated with bulk buying for business use rather than personal grocery shopping.
cookies in the uk are the specific chocolate chip cookies, everything else are biscuits
Not used Costco in many many years, since they became so lame in the type of foods they use to have.
Weather Spoons here in the UK you can get FREE Refills of Coffee, Tea and I think Coke, at least here in the South West of the UK.
Aye b7t its a spoons ... awful owner
Anyone can now get a Cosco membership as there are three types of membership, ordernery, Business and executive, there are two differences between the ordinary and Business, first is the cost of the membership fee, Business is cheaper and Business members are allowed in to the store 1 hour before the Ordinary members. getting a hotdog at the end of the shop is my little treat for going to Cosco
In the UK, deep pan (maybe similar to Chicago style) is the default and thin crust is the alternate style. It is kind of expected to get the thicker base unless it is stated that it is thin crust.
Yes those thin crust are dreadful.
Rich tea pizza😂
Deep pan is closer to Detroit style pizza. Chicago pizza we confused over here
Well great upload as always , nearest costco to me is 70 miles ! , do B and M , much love from Scarborough !
I use to love shopping at Costco. I live near one of the first in the UK and when it was quiet, it was great. Now everyone seems to have a card and the 3 weeks running up to Christmas the place is chaos with traffic queuing on the road to get in.
Yeah me too, I used to live literally a 5 minute drive away. But as you say sometimes the queues were ridiculous. Since we moved some years back I haven't used Costco as the nearest one is now 40 miles away in the next county.
Some UK food prices include VAT others don't. To help here is the info:"UK gov rules on VAT for food :"Food and drink for human consumption is usually zero-rated but some items are always standard-rated. These include catering, alcoholic drinks, confectionery, crisps and savoury snacks, hot food, sports drinks, hot takeaways, ice cream, soft drinks and mineral water."
"Restaurants must always charge VAT on everything eaten either on their premises or in communal areas designated for their customers to use, such as shared tables in a shopping centre or airport food courts.
In addition, restaurants and takeaway vendors must charge VAT on all hot takeaways and home deliveries, but do not need to charge VAT on cold takeaway food unless it’s to be eaten in a designated area."
Greggs and similar places let their sausage rolls cool a bit then sell them tax free!
"
We go every month or so, usually to the Leeds warehouse, and our experience has been pretty good. In our experience: a lot of the fresh food is excellent and good value, especially where prepared in store as a lot is. Meat and fish are good - not quite as good as our local butcher, but cheaper, and (unlike some on here!) we really like the Cottage pies! Wine is not cheap, and you can do much better in Majestic, or in many supermarkets. Bulk general groceries are usually very good value, which would help if you had a big family to feed and plenty of storage. Much less suitable for those who prefer smaller, weekly or more shops (like us) - we usually do not need enough to justify bulk-buying. They really score on non-food - a lot of clothing is excellent price, and things like bulk loo and kitchen rolls - and on appliances etc especially where they can buy in bulk lots of recently-superseded items. There are usually a lot of "special deals" on what are clearly job-lots bought in. Bad news place, if you are susceptible to impulse-buys! One feature of Costco having to pretend still that it is a "trade" outlet, is that - unlike UK retail - all displayed headline prices are BEFORE VAT. The VAT-inclusive price is also shown, but smaller.
I love the Kirkland muffins. There is nothing to beat a Costco birthday cake. The frosting is amazing. My local Costco is in Glasgow and I am not a member as it's 40 minutes away and when I want something I can go with a friend on their card as a guest.
Good on them for sticking to the amounts we are meant to get, especially with after cooked weights, everywhere should be like that, otherwise the consumer can never prove if they being scammed unless they ask for the frozen or chilled item to weigh then cook themselves
One thing I've noticed about Costco UK is while non-trade membership is only open to certain professions and employees when you join, they don't seem to check that you still qualify when you renew your membership.
23:18 At least part of the reason he said cookie is because those biscuits contain chocolate chips, therefore they are a cookie. Those are also bigger and softer than a regular biscuit
I live on the outskirts of Glasgow and we do have a Costco and I’ve been a member for about 15yrs or so maybe more, We’re married 15 yers so it must be slightly more, I got my membership because my friend added me as a third member on hers so I paid half the full membership for the year then after the year got my own membership straigjt away because I had been a part member. We have bought loads over the years, we usually buy a lot of meats and we share with my older sister so it saves her money as we don’t take anything from because we would be buying anyway. We save on somethings but obviously times have changed and we now shop around but Costco is still a winner in our eyes. My grandkids love going because of the books, 4 kids aged 6-14 who love the books and would stand all day reading them, thank you for that Costco, so when they go they don’t go about the place crying, arguing with each other, having tantrums wanting sweets etc, they stand at the books and pick one each for their treat not saying that certain ones don’t argue & fight other places because they do but Costco is bookland & they also love normal bookshops also.
Stodgy - heavy, filling and basically lots of carbs!
Yeh the needing to have a certain job to get a card is true, I had to prove I was a teacher to get mine. We only have 29 costco stores across the UK, compared to your 600. That might have something to do with it. Our stores are always so busy, even when limiting who gets membership. Weirdly appreciated the strict membership during the lockdown because it was the only place we could find items like handsanitiser and toilet paper for weeks 😂
Thank you for another great video! I am going to google cost co now. I have heard if them, but as an American store, I didnt know we had it over here, but i am interested to look. I think Lindsey is right, exclusive membership likely has something to do with population concentration. It could also be something to do with laws around retail monopolising, too
Has nothing to do with population, Costco in the UK is an wholesaler not a supermarket. So to keep within the law they have to restrict access and allow only a certain amount of occupations to gain a membership.
@@martinwebb1681 Interesting to know
Steve cheese on cottage pie is a fairly recent addition..minced beef and onions in gravy as a base with crisped mashed potato on top is the benchmark. Peas & carrots on the side for me growing up as a 55+ Yr old. A side of baked beans is usually too. The combination of what goes where has been muddied over the years of my life..anything goes ;) peas carrots and baked beans can go inside and cheese ie added to the top, more gravy on the outside? whatever you like wihin reason..comfort food for sure
Stodgy means dense sticks to your ribs type of food but often still delicious xx
We have Kirkland brand Items most of the US exclusive is also in the UK, Must be a UK North/ South difference in Costco Stores.
I used to be a product developer and worked for US Costco a few times, I've never been in a Costco though as their just aren't any stores near me, I knew we had Costco in the UK but thought it was like half a dozen stores in the biggest cities, but I just checked and there's actually 29, I really didn't think there was that many.
Hi, Usually we call biscuits what u would call like oreos because they are small, cookies are just a bigger biscuit like the one in the video some people might base it on double baked but where I live no one does.
The only UK membership open to all is their online shopping membership. It's roughly $20 a year to shop on their website.
Never been to a costco although I do get their offers email.
23:22
Cookies in the UK are specifically the kind with chocolate chips in them, and maybe Oreos depending on who you ask. Everything else is a biscuit.
There is a version of pasta sauce let's call it 'lady of the night' sauce. Nigella Lawson has a quick version which is basically marmite stirred through hot slightly buttered pasta and it's good (strong and salty).
We have no Costco stores in Northern Ireland 🇬🇧
However on visiting my son in Vancouver , I went into Costco and it amazed me prices and sizes ❤️
It use to be you could only go in cosco wearhouse if you were in the catering business, I don't know if that's still the same all over the United Kingdom as I haven't been in one for a few years. We do have jars of striped peanut butter and marshmallow, and I'm positive iv seen jars of peanut butter and jam in together as well, I love peanut butter always had it when I was a kid it has to be crunchy don't like the smooth ,peanut butter and chocolate spread together is Yes !! We now also have peanut butter and marmite.
Cottage pie rarely has cheese n top. Butter is left to melt on the potato and put back in the oven to crisp up.
When Costco first opened near me in the UK i was able to get membership because of the type of job I had as in the video but im seem to know lots of members im sure its not that hard to get in!
As a Brit I can say cookies are a TYPE of biscuit which is why he said cookies instead of biscuits and in the USA the word cookie is used almost exclusively to describe any individual item in that category but we would almost always NAME the type of biscuit and hardly say the word biscuit at all for example cookies, Digestives, Hob Nobs, Custard Creams, Bourbon's and Shortbread etc.... to name a few that we regularly eat. and what you see there is cookies they are biscuits usually large but can be small and are in most cases baked with some sort of chocolate chips or dried fruits or whole nut pieces etc...
ALSO I have never been to Costco BUT would like to and the reason is because of the strict membership requirements to get in to the store. My nearest branch is probably like 20-30 minutes away
I’m a member of Costco but I don’t go that often. You have to be careful with the prices, as the advertised price, large print, has another price underneath in small print, which has the tax added! I think VAT (value added tax - daylight robbery!) is about 17.5% right now.
20%, has been since the 2008 recession
@@hayee I had a senior moment 😂😜
@@TanyaRando wishful thinking I suspect! I remember when it briefly dropped to 15%, i was so excited! Then the tories got in and George Osborne raised it 😩
@@TanyaRando which means 2010, i was wrong too 😂
@hayee I remember when there was 2 levels, some things were 10%, others were 12.5%.
Also I don’t mind the cooked chicken from Costco. Prices are fab. Our membership is shared. Fuel prices are awesome as well.
We have one here in NZ (Auckland). It has a $60 annual fee to be a member.
From the uk, LOVE PEANUT BUTTER TOO!! My favourite snack is a pack of carrot sticks and peanut butter, and just dip and scoop peanut butter onto the carrot sticks, kind of bad, as if someone doesn't stop me, I can eat the WHOLE JAR! which is so bad. but so good. my guilty food haha
Hi we have been to Costco when my dad had a card for the office, AND I have been offered a Costco card as I work in a school in coventry UK. And that means YOU can get discount food or goods for school and home .Take care both. From sue in coventry uk 👍👍👍
I live in Scotland and love peanut butter, there's a British brand called "Pip & Nut" which is crazy good. It's the tastiest peanut butter I've ever had. Here's one to try - cheese and peanut butter sandwiches. Sounds weird, but it works.
There's a Costco near me - I used to have a membership but l I let it lapse as I found the prices were no different to anywhere else . The thing I didn't like was the sales tax added when you come to pay - we are used to having that included with the price on the ticket in the UK.They were begging people to join them a few years ago - I don't know if anything has changed recently .
The costco in cardiff has stopped doing the family bundle. My kids are gutted. The garlic bread was lush.
It’s believe to my knowledge but I maybe wrong…it’s something to do with trading laws and land laws, In the UK Costco is classed as a ‘wholesaler’ if they sell primarily to other businesses, This gives them a different, less stringent planning permission class (meaning they can build warehouses in places ‘retail stores’ wouldn’t be allowed, and pay less money for the land or lease), and I think may also affect business rates/taxes. With training laws your ‘retail’ shop isn’t alowed to, restrict people from shopping in store by charging a membership hence why it’s a cash and carry or wholesaler
Peanut butter is pretty popular in the UK, if not as popular as the US and we generally don't do all the filthy things with it that the US does, like mix it with jam (jelly). It's mostly just used on toast, in sandwiches, or as I did for my supper, on a pair of crumpets. Aldi do my favourite one in smooth or crunchy, in small jars, or large 1kg (2.2lbs) tubs. It's 100% peanuts, no added oils, no salt, no sugar, which can be common in other brands. You still have to carefully stir in the peanut oil, when you first open it though and be careful not to spill it, when opening.
Also a Swedish company offer free refills in the UK. How much sugar is in the peanut butter? You are correct about the UK definition of a cookie.
In UK we call cookies the ones with chocolate chips in and biscuits are like what we dunk in tea or have as a snack
We have Kirkland brand here in the UK, quite a few Golfers have reviewed Kirkland equipment here on TH-cam and they come out pretty well for the low to middle end of the market. The membeship scheme they have, is a bit of a throwback, we have a store in the UK that used to run the same membership system called Matalan, where years ago you could join if you were something like a Civil Servant or another professional. I would guess it was something to do with having a regular income if you wanted to buy things on credit?
Regarding free refills, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Nando’s do free refills they’re the only ones I can think of from the top of my head