Costco Wholesale — Local services in Viera

Always helpful staff. Especially most of the floor staff. Great deals especially on coupon/sale items. People say costco and sams club are the same but the staff at costco is immensely more helpful. They always seem to be able to find what I need or someone that can help me find it quickly. Good luck doing that at Sam's.

Also costco features FAR more healthy foods than Sam's at bulk buy discounts. When you get instore coupons (read yellow tag sale) the prices are as good as if not better than publix buy one get one deals. I go to Sam's and virtually everything has artificial ingredients and high fructose cornsyrup plus bad produce (sometimes rotting). Costco is almost always fresh when I get it.

A couple downsides.

1. while a wide variety of products is there, you don't get many options within the same type also read as flavors and brands (tomato sauce, or yogurt). The upside is that whatever it is, 95% of the time it's high quality and/or tastes great! They definitely have plenty of coffee varieties.

Again though they definitely have a lot of products that you probably haven't seen or heard of which are good to try especially in the cheese, meat and frozen foods section.

2. at checkout, the policy changes mean you always have to show your costco photo ID at checkout. If no photo you need to show license too. Payment method must have the same name as the costco cardholder... otherwise it must be cash for non cardholders (except at food stand... that doesn't require a membership to order or pay). That policy change was severely irritating when it was implemented but have adjusted to it. It's still a major hassle if I want to get something expensive and let my mother get points for it on her executive membership. (I would have to pay her back after outside the store since she can't use my card to pay when she uses her membership. And yes I have a membership too... absolutely ridiculous)

Coming into the store you need to show your costco card, but you do that at other warehouse stores anyway so not a big deal.

Try to get there early enough for the samples. Ideally before 5pm.

EDIT: They have a pharmacy and an eyeglass center. Not sure if they do dilating vision tests, but I do know costco brings in specialists and also trains technicians to staff...

Update: 9-7-23

Everything Costco does is so far behind Sam's club. At the "self checkout" there are no handheld scanners!! What!! There is no scan-n-go ability in the app. By the way the Costco app sucks and so did their website. I can't find anything they sell in the store online. You can't order from the food court from the app either. I do not understand why this place is popular. I think it's because most people lack the ability to think for themselves and instead group think.

Edit 1/23/22:

2nd trip visiting Costco. The first trip I had purchased wings from the deli, and my wife and I did not like them at all. They have a 100% money back guarantee like Sam's, but the big difference is they want you to bring the leftover or partially eaten food back. I hadn't been there for 3 weeks, so I'm supposed to store bad food for 3 weeks! I specifically asked the return associate what if it's bad meat, she said throw it in the freezer. I said I don't think so, I'll leave it out in my yard and bring it back rotten. Sam's Club doesn't make you do this. They would rather keep their customers happy!

First time shopping at a Costco. Not very impressed. I was gifted a membership for Christmas so when I arrived I had to see one of the membership associates outside. That was pretty quick, but they couldn't print a membership card for you, so they have you enter through the exit to get to the customer service desk to have your card printed. This makes ZERO sense. There was a huge line waiting, which was a problem because people are obviously trying to leave the store through the exit! I can't believe a billion dollar company couldn't figure out how to have at least 1 card printer outside! Obviously, this is the normal process, which is pretty sad. AND why in the heck is customer service next to the exit, which is on the other side of the cash registers, in the first place! What kind of idiot came up with that design. It's completely illogical.

The store is nice, but it's no better than Sam's club, except Costco does carry a lot MORE organic products.

I'm not sure if I'll keep the...

If I could I would give them a negative rating. My daughter, my niece, and I went there on November 10th. My daughter had her medical alert service dog with her and as we walked through the door the greeter asked her if the dog was a service animal and then proceeded to ask her for what. I get it... they are allowed to ask those two questions. What I didn't think was appropriate was that they had an associate follow us through the entire store. My daughter didn't tell me about that until after we left, otherwise I would've addressed it right then and there. When we were done shopping we went to the self check out where we were told to go through a regular line because it would be easier... not sure why that was said because I have NO problem checking my own groceries out, I work full-time in a supermarket, so I'd rather do it myself anyway. One of the associates started unloading our groceries and my daughter and I were discussing how we were gonna split the payment. The cashier immediately started questioning who had the membership and who was on it. It was my membership, but my daughter was going to use her card because I was going to send her money via cash app... we live in the same household, didn't think it was an issue, and had not had a problem with this before. She told us my daughter would have to pay in cash because they didn't accept electronic payments from non members... what?? That was never mentioned when I signed up for this membership... they told my niece that she'd have to pay in cash as well. I told them that they could keep the groceries and I walked out with nothing. I feel we were singled out because of my daughter's service animal and the staff was incredibly rude. I called corporate immediately and they told me to expect a phone call from the store manager. As of 6 pm November 11th I haven't received any feedback from that store. I am NEVER shopping there again and I encourage other people to boycott them due to their discrimatory practices against...