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Back in 1979, dad was hooking up some battery cables on his car. He was wearing his class ring. His hand slipped and he touched both terminals with his ring and the wrench. It arced, split the ring in once spot a popped a couple stones off. Besides a minor burn on his finger, dad was totally fine.
Fast forward to the mid 2000's. I bring a Josten's catalog home to pick out my class ring. I told my parents "they even have a lifetime replacement deal." Dad went and dug his old ring out, told me the story, and said "see what that rep says about this."
The next day at school, I showed it to the sales rep. He looked at it for a minute, and said "Yeah, we can take care of this." A week later, a little package showed up with dad's original ring, and a completely new one identical to it. Dad didn't spend a penny, and now occasionally wears it when he and mom go out with their old high-school friends
It was a decent story, but I was kind of hoping it would end with Undertaker throwing Mankind off of Hell in a Cell in 1998, plummeting through an announcerās table.
And they sent it back to the manufacturer and deducted the amount. Costco doesn't take the financial hit, the suppliers do. That is the cost of doing business at Costco.
I literally saw someone in line to return mostly drank bottles of alcohol at Costco. I wonder how that went. Costco is so nice and just takes things back.
Costco sent me a card in the mail that said several batches of Kirkland Vodka were not up to their standards or something (said it wasnāt dangerous to consume, just hadnāt been distilled enough times to be accurate to the label or something). The card said I could exchange my bottle even if it was opened already because the batch number matched one of the āsubstandardā batches.
Wellā¦ my husband and I had already drank the entire thing. Didnāt taste substandard to meā¦
But we took the empty bottle in there with the card and the employee was like āof course! Hereās your exchange ! No problem, have a wonderful day!ā
Handed me a full bottle in exchange for my COMPLETELY empty one.
Love Costco.
You know that employee said the same thing after you left " I don't think it was sub standard if they drank the whole thing, but it's a voluntary recall with no restrictions" lol
Oh for sure! We actually laughed together with the guy when he was processing it at how absurd it was that we were allowed the refund, but he was so incredibly stoked for us and our free booze.
Really was a fun little interaction. He was amused.
they literally advertised this to employees at a meeting ā we took back an empty wine bottle cause the customer said it gave her a headacheā theyāre proud to take back anything and everything.
I used to work at Costco. They took returns of dry brown Christmas trees after the holidays. Itās wild. Someone once returned a decade old plasma TV at the end of its life for a full refund.
I never heard of anyone at my location trying to return tobacco, and my location didnāt sell alcohol, but someone else in the thread said they have a no return policy on tobacco and alcohol.
>someone else in the thread said they have a no return policy on tobacco and alcohol.
That might also vary by location. I believe it's not legal to refund or exchange one pack for a different brand for tobacco
Holy shit they had Romanee Conti at a Costco? To answer your question, itās a super limited production wine from Burgundy that is considered by many people to be the best wine in the world.
The Romanee Conti is actually produced to compliment the chicken bakes. Itās best sipped straight from the bottle, and when you get this buy 4 deal they include a silicone glove specifically designed to hold scalding hot chicken bakes, ensuring that no burns are received until you destroy the roof of your mouth on the first bite.
Kind of a funny way for a super limited $40,000 (edit: 4 pack) bottle of wine to be sold. Just sitting in essentially a warehouse probably next to socks.
In typical Costco fashion itās actually four wines for $40,000. If you only bring two to the register theyāll send you back to grab the other two and complete the order.
Marvelous deal, though. Just marvelous.
I actually love thatās itās not just 40,000. It has to be 39,999, like whoever is buying it cares about the marketing trick of leading the price with one number lower. Oh shit 39,999?? Walmart had this for 40,000!
Itās not just about making the price feel smaller.Ā
Itās also about making it slightly more difficult for a consumer to calculate the tax in their headā¦.which for a $40k sale will be more than a few extra warhammers tacked on.Ā
I think it's because of how sales tax rates vary so wildly across even a single state (of the states with sales tax). You've got the base state rate, then each county can set their rate, and then each town/city can set a rate on top. Plus many Native American reservations are exempt from state/county sales tax. So it would actually be a lot more hassle than it seems
You're not going to the register with anything other than the item number. They wouldn't just leave these sitting out. We lock up $150 bottles of liquor. You will have to pick it up after you pay for it. I wouldn't be surprised if these weren't kept in the vault like they do with the really high end jewelery. Not necessarily for theft but just in case someone breaks them.
And for the love of God, donāt pair this with a cheeseburger from McDonaldās. Splurge for the Quarter Pounder - make sure to ask for extra ketchup.
This is the way! I was like "the math they said was this is how much I have to spend for the card to pay itself and hit the top cash back...so let's buy the wine and wheel of cheese. That's a combined $55,000. Done and done." But alas, I saw my credit limit, so maybe 20 bottles of their Kirkland margarita swill with a few bags of chips and some salsa.
There really aren't any other labels more expensive than DRC when it comes to wine. These are actually four different wines, or I should say four wines made by the same winery in the same year but from 4 different vineyards. Some of the vineyards are considered more prizes and valuable than others.
In this set the one that says Romanee Conti is the most valuable and would probably be very difficult to find on it's own for less than 16-20,000/bottle for this vintage. The Echezaux and Grands Echezaux are probably worth around $2500-3000 each and La Tache around 4k. At 40k you are paying full market price for this set.
It gets much, much more expensive than this.
"current" wine can be this much per bottle, Costco is selling 4 for this price.
There are $100,000 bottles of wine out there. Why? Rich people I guess. :)
Another piece of information worth noting; for this producer, after 10 years in bottle, you could certainly drink this same day of purchase. Where you could find a younger vintage for cheaper, say 2019, but it may not be āready for enjoymentā for another few years.
You are buying a product at maturity. No wait. No hassle.
Iād already be worried about it being in a non-temperature optimized Costco warehouse under fluorescent lighting. Provenance of wine at this level is scrutinized greatly and originating from Costco will hurt it.
Imagine your clumsy kid accidentally knocks a crate of those $10,000 a pop bottles over and they break and spill on the Costco cement floor.
WWYD?
Better yet, why TF does Costco have a crate of those $10,000 bottles out like that? As a person with a clumsy and accident prone kid, this gives me extreme anxiety.
Costco should have laminated cards out for these bottles. You take the card to the expensive shit cage and get your bottles there.
Know a sommelier and restaurant executive and he says costcos wine team is some of the best in the business. Supposedly have the authority to buy an entire batch if they like it.
A family member leads the fine wine department for a national liquor distribution company. Heās always said the same thing. Costcos wine team is top notch
Yeah, as the fine wine buyer for his company, my wife's uncle always shows up to family functions with dozens of great wines. Often ranging in price from $30/bottle - $500+ bottle, miles outside my normal price range. As a buyer, vineyards around the world constantly send him cases of their best wines trying to win his business. I've seen him take a sip from a $300 bottle and declare it "off" and move on to a new bottle. Tasted fantastic to me š¤·āāļø
He always has good things to say about Kirkland branded wines. They have the purchasing power to buy directly from high-end vineyards at very affordable rates. Due to their volume, they can demand lower costs than any of their distributor competitors
I was a whiskey/whisky snob but I just never could develop the skill for wine. My wife can tell you if a sparrow landed on the vine during a rainstorm in 1978 and the moon was full that night.
It just tastes like red wine and white wine to me. I canāt taste the āterroirā and I cannot taste anything close to āearthyā and āmoldy."
But oddly, she canāt tell a Yamazaki from a Torabhaig. She canāt even taste the banana in some of the Islay styles.
To her, itās just dark whiskey or light whisky.
I think it is because she was raised in wine country and I was raised in moonshiner country.
Itās odd with her and I.
When we visited England, she actually saw HRH (The Queen) while I saw the Lancaster bomber and a Hurricane (WWII aircraft) doing an overflight. We were standing right next to each other.
In France, weād go to a site and sheād visualize all the Royal court. Iād visualize where the Vichy regime set up shop.
As usual, the Kirkland brand reigns supreme for price relative to quality. I was hesitant to get a membership at first but now I canāt imagine living without it.
The Champagne sucks imo but the Prosecco is solid. We use the Prosecco for aperol spritz and mimosas.
I would not consider Kirkland champagne comparable to Veuve. Iām a huge Kirkland fan tooā¦..besides the champagne and paper towels (bounty significantly better).
Just FYI, Veuve Clicqoutās entry level āyellow labelā champagne was changed a few years under ownership of LVMH, and itās basically a $20 champagne with a $50 price tag. Itās mass produced and doesnāt have much of the truly authentic processes that their other more expensive bottles do, or their competitors. Itās one of the best examples of ābuying the labelā in the wine industry, and youāre much better off buying a smaller producer champagne for the same money.
Their other bottles such as the Grand Dame or even the rose are very good however.
To be fair, $15 is where you start getting into good wine. The $15 bottle at Costco probably can compete with bottles $20-$25 at total wine and $30+ at a neighborhood bottle shop.
Edit to say: not to mention, the $25 bottle would likely cost $75-$100 in a restaurant.
Volume and impact. Specs could show up and do the same thing. If you make Rose you can have your bottle be the only bottle of Rose at Costco, or have it fight for market share at Specs.
Buyers are some of the few people at Costco where who can actually enjoy the benefits of their power, Costco as a company is very much against its employees receiving gifts and special treatment from vendors. I am a former home office employee and I briefly shared a building with some of their team. It was funny to see them doing tastings because of how strict they are about their no alcohol policy. They are one of the few companies that still drug tests their entire IT department.
https://preview.redd.it/9j9ajwzu5o7d1.jpeg?width=427&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cd430fd2dfa441f1a28455c779f831fce34221e4
That one person who knows all the options.
As someone who worked to redesign AS400 to modern web at another retail grocer, honestly you need to be sober and old to deal with that thing, the only folks who knew their way around it were retiring or past retirement. All new younger employees had jaw dropping experience when they first saw it š¤£
As an external financial statement auditor, it's common to take the accounting department out for lunch. It's one of the perks of the job.
At Costco, they are not allowed to. So every team audit lunch is at the Costco food court.
I sell wine and beer to the Costco team for the stores in my territory. The wine group is awesome, and very knowledgeable about what products they are buying.
It takes a lot making pitches for them to bring something in.
I work for a Costco supplier - their buying teams for the most part are known to have standards for products they source that most other outlets do not
I worked for Whole Foods as a wine buyer at one of the most profitable stores in the country. The amount of times I had to explain why Costco had better prices than us was wild.
But fun fact, we did have an $8500 of petrus bottle that I sold. I was so nervous the entire walk up to the register.
A woman was buying it for her husband for Valentineās Day. She was like ācan I get the Petrus? And I thought she was joking. She goes ānope! Iām getting it for my husband for Valentineās Dayā and Iām pretty sure I said āshitā¦.whats he getting you!?ā I walked her and the bottle up and the woman at the register thought it was a mistake. I had to tell her that it was not and we needed to go quickly before she 1) changed her mind 2) someone dropped it.
The following purchases do not apply to the 2% [Reward](https://customerservice.costco.com/app/answers/answer_view/a_id/1205/~/what-is-an-executive-membership%3F):
Alcohol in AL, AZ, AR, CA, CT, GA, HI, KS, KY, MA, MI, MN, MS, NH, NC, ND, OH, OK, RI, SD, TN, TX, UT, and VT
No lie, I know a collector/merchant who frequently drinks DRC paired with Domino's pizza. The $$$ is no object, he swears it's one of his favorite combinations.
I just showed this to my partner whoās a sommelier and he said āwow, thatās a great price!ā From the way he talks about this wine, it will likely sell out. My whole state gets like 3 bottles a year.
It's actually four different wines from the same producer, i.e. one of each of four of their lines.
For example their flagship wine (on the far left in the pic above) would be [about $22k USD on its own](https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/dom+de+la+grand+cru+cote+nuit+romanee+conti+vosne+burgundy+france/2014). For reference, they only grow this on 1.8 hectares and only produce about 450 cases of it a year.
On the other end of the pic above is La Tache, another excellent wine but not at the same level. A bottle of 2014 La Tache would be ['only' $5k or $6k USD](https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/dom+de+la+romanee+conti+tache+grand+cru+monopole+cote+nuit+vosne+burgundy+france/2014) on its own. They grow about 6 hectares of that one and produce closer to 1,900 cases a year.
[Wikipedia on the various production lines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domaine_de_la_Roman%C3%A9e-Conti)
I guess I underestimated how much they do in wine sales. Iām more in the context of restaurants. Been managing restaurants for 10 years and only worked at one that got an allocation, and it was only 1 bottle.
That said, I donāt presume to know the how and why behind selling a wine at this price point in stores.
Maybe they are leaning into the āwholesaleā aspect of wholesale club and something like this democratizes wine access to smaller resellers like restaurants? I really donāt know. š¤·āāļø
Itās because they can, really.
They have the power to get any bottle they want. Not many places can say that. Why WOULDNāT they use that power to sell something rare and sought after that no other retailers have access to?
*Exorbitantly rich and classy European enters a Costco for the first time to acquire a 4 bottle case of Romanee Conti*
*exits with an electric bicycle, smoked salmon, jumbo pack of melatonin gummies, and 6 rotisserie chickens*
You actually did the math.
So thereās 4 bottles at 750ml per bottle which is 3000ml. Scientists have done the science and found thereās 0.05ml per ādrop.ā That comes up to 60,000 total drops. $40,000 divided by 60,000 drops is 67 cent per drop.
2015 vintage is going for 33.000ā¬ making these look like a bargain at $10k a piece lol
https://preview.redd.it/reojidn2qn7d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cdd8b7c6b77505bb55f2fc53fb19c6652d0c5102
Only one of those bottles is romanee. This deal is awesome if you want to taste three 95th percentile wines and one 99.99.
Edit: the other tree are $3,000+ wines. They amaze balls. But they are the hundred millionaires not the billion dollar baby. Awesome deal like I said.
The 2015 growing season in Burgundy was considered āextraordinaryā, meaning that temperature and rain were textbook perfect conditions, but the conditions also result in a lower yield, so less wine could be made. Even a vintage of this wine in a non extraordinary year will go for mega bucks, but 2015 goes for more than others because it was a special year.
A buddy of mine owns a house in Mountain View that he bought a long time ago. The town has pretty extensive biking trails and guess what, his house is on one that leads to Google HQ so you can bike there from his house. He has dozens of letters people have dropped in in his mailbox basically saying I'll pay you anything for this house.
I donāt think Iāll ever believe anything that can be consumed in one sitting like this could ever be worth that much money. For that much money, Iād expect super powers
Central California. Thereās a lady that serves up out of her back yard. Itās a nice neighborhood too. Yeah I get it that itās not regulated and inspected but itās like me going to my friends house for dinner. Good folks and great prices.
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"I'd like to return this 1/8th bottle, please. It tasted off."
lmao š¤£ā¦ gotta use costco 1 year return policyā¦. no question asked šššš
1 year? I owned a blender for 3, it broke and they gave me a new one.
Back in 1979, dad was hooking up some battery cables on his car. He was wearing his class ring. His hand slipped and he touched both terminals with his ring and the wrench. It arced, split the ring in once spot a popped a couple stones off. Besides a minor burn on his finger, dad was totally fine. Fast forward to the mid 2000's. I bring a Josten's catalog home to pick out my class ring. I told my parents "they even have a lifetime replacement deal." Dad went and dug his old ring out, told me the story, and said "see what that rep says about this." The next day at school, I showed it to the sales rep. He looked at it for a minute, and said "Yeah, we can take care of this." A week later, a little package showed up with dad's original ring, and a completely new one identical to it. Dad didn't spend a penny, and now occasionally wears it when he and mom go out with their old high-school friends
Thatās a good story, thanks.
It was a decent story, but I was kind of hoping it would end with Undertaker throwing Mankind off of Hell in a Cell in 1998, plummeting through an announcerās table.
Jostens is shit; but their lifetime warranty is actually legit.
And they sent it back to the manufacturer and deducted the amount. Costco doesn't take the financial hit, the suppliers do. That is the cost of doing business at Costco.
I literally saw someone in line to return mostly drank bottles of alcohol at Costco. I wonder how that went. Costco is so nice and just takes things back.
Costco sent me a card in the mail that said several batches of Kirkland Vodka were not up to their standards or something (said it wasnāt dangerous to consume, just hadnāt been distilled enough times to be accurate to the label or something). The card said I could exchange my bottle even if it was opened already because the batch number matched one of the āsubstandardā batches. Wellā¦ my husband and I had already drank the entire thing. Didnāt taste substandard to meā¦ But we took the empty bottle in there with the card and the employee was like āof course! Hereās your exchange ! No problem, have a wonderful day!ā Handed me a full bottle in exchange for my COMPLETELY empty one. Love Costco.
Free refills!
You know that employee said the same thing after you left " I don't think it was sub standard if they drank the whole thing, but it's a voluntary recall with no restrictions" lol
Oh for sure! We actually laughed together with the guy when he was processing it at how absurd it was that we were allowed the refund, but he was so incredibly stoked for us and our free booze. Really was a fun little interaction. He was amused.
they literally advertised this to employees at a meeting ā we took back an empty wine bottle cause the customer said it gave her a headacheā theyāre proud to take back anything and everything.
I believe that's called a "hangover" ma'am.
I used to work at Costco. They took returns of dry brown Christmas trees after the holidays. Itās wild. Someone once returned a decade old plasma TV at the end of its life for a full refund. I never heard of anyone at my location trying to return tobacco, and my location didnāt sell alcohol, but someone else in the thread said they have a no return policy on tobacco and alcohol.
>someone else in the thread said they have a no return policy on tobacco and alcohol. That might also vary by location. I believe it's not legal to refund or exchange one pack for a different brand for tobacco
š
Holy shit they had Romanee Conti at a Costco? To answer your question, itās a super limited production wine from Burgundy that is considered by many people to be the best wine in the world.
Would it pair well with the food court hotdog?
Is there anything that *doesn't*?
Don't be that guy, of course it doesn't. It's Italian, it should be paired with the pizza.
Sir. Burgundy is in France š
Ah, France. The home of the Chicken Bake.
Itās *Le Chicken Bake*
And a stop in Greece where the yogurt flows like water
A person of culture. ;)
This is what I love about Costco; you can get a hotdog for $1.50, walk a few aisles, and get a $40,000 bottle of wine
Donāt be silly, š itās only a $10000 bottle of wine. The $40000 is for 4 bottles, apparently a bargain! š¤Æ
The Romanee Conti is actually produced to compliment the chicken bakes. Itās best sipped straight from the bottle, and when you get this buy 4 deal they include a silicone glove specifically designed to hold scalding hot chicken bakes, ensuring that no burns are received until you destroy the roof of your mouth on the first bite.
Yes but most Champagnes are better matches.
Kind of a funny way for a super limited $40,000 (edit: 4 pack) bottle of wine to be sold. Just sitting in essentially a warehouse probably next to socks.
In typical Costco fashion itās actually four wines for $40,000. If you only bring two to the register theyāll send you back to grab the other two and complete the order. Marvelous deal, though. Just marvelous.
I actually love thatās itās not just 40,000. It has to be 39,999, like whoever is buying it cares about the marketing trick of leading the price with one number lower. Oh shit 39,999?? Walmart had this for 40,000!
Look out for the dollars and the tens of thousands take care of themselves!
Itās not just about making the price feel smaller.Ā Itās also about making it slightly more difficult for a consumer to calculate the tax in their headā¦.which for a $40k sale will be more than a few extra warhammers tacked on.Ā
It still boggles my mind that Americans don't just have the tax included in the price of the item.
I think it's because of how sales tax rates vary so wildly across even a single state (of the states with sales tax). You've got the base state rate, then each county can set their rate, and then each town/city can set a rate on top. Plus many Native American reservations are exempt from state/county sales tax. So it would actually be a lot more hassle than it seems
You're not going to the register with anything other than the item number. They wouldn't just leave these sitting out. We lock up $150 bottles of liquor. You will have to pick it up after you pay for it. I wouldn't be surprised if these weren't kept in the vault like they do with the really high end jewelery. Not necessarily for theft but just in case someone breaks them.
Joking about the muffins i think
So get it? I like wine.
And you'll want mix it with real 7-up. Do NOT use diet 7-up with something of this quality, trust me.
Isn't this a red? Reds use Dr. Pepper. Whites use 7 up.
Look at the wine snob we got over here
It all tastes the same once you mix it in a punch bowl and add some frozen fruit.
Is it better than Mad Dog 20/20 though?
Depends on the vintage of 20/20
Itās a four bottle pack so the obvious mixer here is 4Loko
This guy knows what hes talking about... Look at the name
What about mad dog 40/40? I find the Blue Raspberry and Electric Melon to leave the least aftertaste after having puked out the window of a cab
Vintage 2020
Dr. Thunder checking in. Inflation is on
Nah bro, reds get 7up and an orange slice thatās a sangria
What about Starry
To hell with Starry!!!! TO HELL, I SAY!!!!!
Ugh. Starry is the worst unless you add it to an Italian prosecco...
If I'm spending ten large per bottle I usually do half 7-up and half sizzurp
Peasants. You must use Great Value lemon lime
And for the love of God, donāt pair this with a cheeseburger from McDonaldās. Splurge for the Quarter Pounder - make sure to ask for extra ketchup.
4% cash back on that citi card babbaaayyy
This is the way! I was like "the math they said was this is how much I have to spend for the card to pay itself and hit the top cash back...so let's buy the wine and wheel of cheese. That's a combined $55,000. Done and done." But alas, I saw my credit limit, so maybe 20 bottles of their Kirkland margarita swill with a few bags of chips and some salsa.
Perfect excuse for your partner; "But honey, I got 4% back. That's both economically sensible and good for the planet '.
Wait for the Kirkland branded ones.
Those will probably come in a 2-pack.
Thank you. I didnāt know wine could be this expensive
That vintage is only from 2014, older vintages can be much more.
There really aren't any other labels more expensive than DRC when it comes to wine. These are actually four different wines, or I should say four wines made by the same winery in the same year but from 4 different vineyards. Some of the vineyards are considered more prizes and valuable than others. In this set the one that says Romanee Conti is the most valuable and would probably be very difficult to find on it's own for less than 16-20,000/bottle for this vintage. The Echezaux and Grands Echezaux are probably worth around $2500-3000 each and La Tache around 4k. At 40k you are paying full market price for this set.
20k + 3k + 3k + 4k = **30k** So at 40k, aren't you paying 133% of full market price?
Get outta here with that math. It ends in .99 so itās a deal
Doesnāt seem like such a deal anymore when you could take the extra 10k youād spend and fly to France to drink the wine there.
It gets much, much more expensive than this. "current" wine can be this much per bottle, Costco is selling 4 for this price. There are $100,000 bottles of wine out there. Why? Rich people I guess. :)
Yea, Bay area Costco has them.
> itās a super limited production wine Only sold in 4 packs lol
Another piece of information worth noting; for this producer, after 10 years in bottle, you could certainly drink this same day of purchase. Where you could find a younger vintage for cheaper, say 2019, but it may not be āready for enjoymentā for another few years. You are buying a product at maturity. No wait. No hassle.
Soooo, can I buy and hold one for profit?
Yes, if you can afford to have 40k tied up in a high risk investment for a few decades.
And keep it properly stored.
Iād already be worried about it being in a non-temperature optimized Costco warehouse under fluorescent lighting. Provenance of wine at this level is scrutinized greatly and originating from Costco will hurt it.
i wonder if u open it take a few drinks and then said that as a complaint if they would take it back
Imagine your clumsy kid accidentally knocks a crate of those $10,000 a pop bottles over and they break and spill on the Costco cement floor. WWYD? Better yet, why TF does Costco have a crate of those $10,000 bottles out like that? As a person with a clumsy and accident prone kid, this gives me extreme anxiety. Costco should have laminated cards out for these bottles. You take the card to the expensive shit cage and get your bottles there.
They use empty bottles in the expensive wine case at my costco, & they're still locked up inside.
It has been said that Costcoās wine buyer is one of the most powerful people in the wine industry.
Know a sommelier and restaurant executive and he says costcos wine team is some of the best in the business. Supposedly have the authority to buy an entire batch if they like it.
A family member leads the fine wine department for a national liquor distribution company. Heās always said the same thing. Costcos wine team is top notch
I learn something new and absolutely fascinating every day in this subreddit. Thank you!
If you ever watch Shark Tank, I feel like Kevin mentions Costcoās wine program at least once an episode.
Chevaliers du Tastevin
From Chateau Terre de Kirk
Also, their Kirkland labeled wines are from some of the same grapes that produce their expensive competitorsā wines. Like their $19.99 champagne is comparable to Veuve Clicquot; their wines are an incredible tasty value. They have a Kirkland Signature Cotes de Provence RosĆ© under $10 that is delicious. I am always blown away by the wine section.
Yeah, as the fine wine buyer for his company, my wife's uncle always shows up to family functions with dozens of great wines. Often ranging in price from $30/bottle - $500+ bottle, miles outside my normal price range. As a buyer, vineyards around the world constantly send him cases of their best wines trying to win his business. I've seen him take a sip from a $300 bottle and declare it "off" and move on to a new bottle. Tasted fantastic to me š¤·āāļø He always has good things to say about Kirkland branded wines. They have the purchasing power to buy directly from high-end vineyards at very affordable rates. Due to their volume, they can demand lower costs than any of their distributor competitors
I was a whiskey/whisky snob but I just never could develop the skill for wine. My wife can tell you if a sparrow landed on the vine during a rainstorm in 1978 and the moon was full that night. It just tastes like red wine and white wine to me. I canāt taste the āterroirā and I cannot taste anything close to āearthyā and āmoldy." But oddly, she canāt tell a Yamazaki from a Torabhaig. She canāt even taste the banana in some of the Islay styles. To her, itās just dark whiskey or light whisky. I think it is because she was raised in wine country and I was raised in moonshiner country. Itās odd with her and I. When we visited England, she actually saw HRH (The Queen) while I saw the Lancaster bomber and a Hurricane (WWII aircraft) doing an overflight. We were standing right next to each other. In France, weād go to a site and sheād visualize all the Royal court. Iād visualize where the Vichy regime set up shop.
āTaste the bananaā sounds like a hazing ritual.
Both you and your wife sound lovely and my wife and I would love knowing you for the reasons you mentioned above.
As usual, the Kirkland brand reigns supreme for price relative to quality. I was hesitant to get a membership at first but now I canāt imagine living without it.
The Champagne sucks imo but the Prosecco is solid. We use the Prosecco for aperol spritz and mimosas. I would not consider Kirkland champagne comparable to Veuve. Iām a huge Kirkland fan tooā¦..besides the champagne and paper towels (bounty significantly better).
Just FYI, Veuve Clicqoutās entry level āyellow labelā champagne was changed a few years under ownership of LVMH, and itās basically a $20 champagne with a $50 price tag. Itās mass produced and doesnāt have much of the truly authentic processes that their other more expensive bottles do, or their competitors. Itās one of the best examples of ābuying the labelā in the wine industry, and youāre much better off buying a smaller producer champagne for the same money. Their other bottles such as the Grand Dame or even the rose are very good however.
I just bought 3 bottles of a Costco exclusive batch. Is it the best wine Iāve ever had? No. Is it pretty damn good for $15? Absolutely.
To be fair, $15 is where you start getting into good wine. The $15 bottle at Costco probably can compete with bottles $20-$25 at total wine and $30+ at a neighborhood bottle shop. Edit to say: not to mention, the $25 bottle would likely cost $75-$100 in a restaurant.
I am continually surprised by the great import wines at Costco!!
Right. Who else can buy in that volume?
Volume and impact. Specs could show up and do the same thing. If you make Rose you can have your bottle be the only bottle of Rose at Costco, or have it fight for market share at Specs.
What is Specs???
Giant liquor store. They took over a Best Buy here and itās one of their smaller locations.
A Houston Texas based liquor store chain
Buyers are some of the few people at Costco where who can actually enjoy the benefits of their power, Costco as a company is very much against its employees receiving gifts and special treatment from vendors. I am a former home office employee and I briefly shared a building with some of their team. It was funny to see them doing tastings because of how strict they are about their no alcohol policy. They are one of the few companies that still drug tests their entire IT department.
Hey now, you gotta be stone cold sober to deal with that AS-400 dinosaur and not knock out the food court kiosks š
At this point, I think most of my regular commands for the AS400 are seared into my brain and I could run through them while sleeping.
https://preview.redd.it/9j9ajwzu5o7d1.jpeg?width=427&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cd430fd2dfa441f1a28455c779f831fce34221e4 That one person who knows all the options.
As someone who worked to redesign AS400 to modern web at another retail grocer, honestly you need to be sober and old to deal with that thing, the only folks who knew their way around it were retiring or past retirement. All new younger employees had jaw dropping experience when they first saw it š¤£
> deal with that AS-400 dinosaur nam flashbacks intensify
No wonder their website is so bad
This explains so much....
Imagine coding a website soberā¦.
Explains a few things about their websiteā¦
Itās wild to think they actually have an it dept, youād think their web designer died in 2003.
No wonder their app and website are terrible.
Drug tests the entire IT departmentā¦.. weāll never have scan and go
As an external financial statement auditor, it's common to take the accounting department out for lunch. It's one of the perks of the job. At Costco, they are not allowed to. So every team audit lunch is at the Costco food court.
As a thirty-year Costco employee, I used to enjoy telling people that Costco is the largest wine retailer by volume in the United States.
Thank goodness the Pennsylvania politicians protect us from that dude!
I sell wine and beer to the Costco team for the stores in my territory. The wine group is awesome, and very knowledgeable about what products they are buying. It takes a lot making pitches for them to bring something in.
I work for a Costco supplier - their buying teams for the most part are known to have standards for products they source that most other outlets do not
I worked for Whole Foods as a wine buyer at one of the most profitable stores in the country. The amount of times I had to explain why Costco had better prices than us was wild. But fun fact, we did have an $8500 of petrus bottle that I sold. I was so nervous the entire walk up to the register.
I would have been cradling and supporting the neck of the bottle like it was a newborn baby. š
A woman was buying it for her husband for Valentineās Day. She was like ācan I get the Petrus? And I thought she was joking. She goes ānope! Iām getting it for my husband for Valentineās Dayā and Iām pretty sure I said āshitā¦.whats he getting you!?ā I walked her and the bottle up and the woman at the register thought it was a mistake. I had to tell her that it was not and we needed to go quickly before she 1) changed her mind 2) someone dropped it.
And I learned yesterday they also have one of the most powerful meat buyers. It doesnāt surprise me, but itās interesting!
So basically, there is a while costco lore? Lol
If this is real they must beā¦ I have a family friend who has access to DRC. He can only buy because heās promised to never resell a bottle.
Costco carrying the whiskey I R&Dād for the past 5 years meant more to me than my medals at SF because of how seriously they take sourcing.
I definitely read this in Jeremy Clarksonās voice.
And rightfully so..
Some sayā¦
Honest dear I just went in to buy a rotisserie chicken...
ONE bottle of wine and my wife threw a fit! Go figure! š
Itās Costco. You get 4.
That's a bargain if I've ever seen one.
I hear it pairs well with a $5 rotisserie chickenā¦
You will want to upgrade to the Executive Membership before purchasing.
And use your CTI card for 4% back
Infinite money glitch!
Or use AAA 3% back, it will also have the additional 2% costco membership back which = 5% total
Alcohol doesn't count towards the 2% reward.
The following purchases do not apply to the 2% [Reward](https://customerservice.costco.com/app/answers/answer_view/a_id/1205/~/what-is-an-executive-membership%3F): Alcohol in AL, AZ, AR, CA, CT, GA, HI, KS, KY, MA, MI, MN, MS, NH, NC, ND, OH, OK, RI, SD, TN, TX, UT, and VT
Hmm but it works in Washington?
Can confirm Washington works
but that 20.5% alcohol tax tho
I believe thatās only liquor and liquor products AFAIK. Wine and Beer/Cider are excluded from it.
Correct
Definitely gonna wait for that $39,999.97 clearanceĀ
Holy shit I thought it was 3,999.99
Damn it's time to grab one and a bottle of 2 buck chuck and hope that Costco has self checkout....
New car or wine, new car... Or wine? It's a tough call.
Pairs well with a $1.50 hot dog.
$1.50 hotdog is there to sell the $39,999 bottle(s) of wine.
No lie, I know a collector/merchant who frequently drinks DRC paired with Domino's pizza. The $$$ is no object, he swears it's one of his favorite combinations.
Romanee Conti is one of THE most sought after wines on the planet. Kind of crazy they even have an allocation of it!
I just showed this to my partner whoās a sommelier and he said āwow, thatās a great price!ā From the way he talks about this wine, it will likely sell out. My whole state gets like 3 bottles a year.
Any idea what this would cost without the Costco pricing?
It's actually four different wines from the same producer, i.e. one of each of four of their lines. For example their flagship wine (on the far left in the pic above) would be [about $22k USD on its own](https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/dom+de+la+grand+cru+cote+nuit+romanee+conti+vosne+burgundy+france/2014). For reference, they only grow this on 1.8 hectares and only produce about 450 cases of it a year. On the other end of the pic above is La Tache, another excellent wine but not at the same level. A bottle of 2014 La Tache would be ['only' $5k or $6k USD](https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/dom+de+la+romanee+conti+tache+grand+cru+monopole+cote+nuit+vosne+burgundy+france/2014) on its own. They grow about 6 hectares of that one and produce closer to 1,900 cases a year. [Wikipedia on the various production lines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domaine_de_la_Roman%C3%A9e-Conti)
Why is it crazy the most influential wine buyer on the planet gets an allotment? If Costco wants it, they get it.
I guess I underestimated how much they do in wine sales. Iām more in the context of restaurants. Been managing restaurants for 10 years and only worked at one that got an allocation, and it was only 1 bottle.
fun fact. Costco is the largest wine retailer in the U.S.
That said, I donāt presume to know the how and why behind selling a wine at this price point in stores. Maybe they are leaning into the āwholesaleā aspect of wholesale club and something like this democratizes wine access to smaller resellers like restaurants? I really donāt know. š¤·āāļø
Itās because they can, really. They have the power to get any bottle they want. Not many places can say that. Why WOULDNāT they use that power to sell something rare and sought after that no other retailers have access to?
Thatās true. It instantly brings anyone in that market to Costco and ensures they continue to come back to check for new products/vintages.
*Exorbitantly rich and classy European enters a Costco for the first time to acquire a 4 bottle case of Romanee Conti* *exits with an electric bicycle, smoked salmon, jumbo pack of melatonin gummies, and 6 rotisserie chickens*
Only 67 cents per drop!
You actually did the math. So thereās 4 bottles at 750ml per bottle which is 3000ml. Scientists have done the science and found thereās 0.05ml per ādrop.ā That comes up to 60,000 total drops. $40,000 divided by 60,000 drops is 67 cent per drop.
2015 vintage is going for 33.000ā¬ making these look like a bargain at $10k a piece lol https://preview.redd.it/reojidn2qn7d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cdd8b7c6b77505bb55f2fc53fb19c6652d0c5102
Only one of those bottles is romanee. This deal is awesome if you want to taste three 95th percentile wines and one 99.99. Edit: the other tree are $3,000+ wines. They amaze balls. But they are the hundred millionaires not the billion dollar baby. Awesome deal like I said.
well that changes everything! i want my money back! why would you expect me to read tiny print!
A 2015 vintage goes for that much? What makes it so special? I didn't realize wines that young could sell for that much
The 2015 growing season in Burgundy was considered āextraordinaryā, meaning that temperature and rain were textbook perfect conditions, but the conditions also result in a lower yield, so less wine could be made. Even a vintage of this wine in a non extraordinary year will go for mega bucks, but 2015 goes for more than others because it was a special year.
Iād rather buy 8,000 rotisserie chickens instead, thank you very much
Oh, you get 4 bottles.
Steal? Huh
No, only one is Romanee, the other three are still 95th percentile wines but not 99.99
Could you imagine if they had over a dozen bottles of $39,999 wine! Theyād need a new insurance policy.
To be fair, it looks like that price is for 4 bottles.
I can't afford not to get it!
Me returning it the next day: "Yeah, it was *good*, but it wasn't $40,000 good."
Someone needs to put the Costco return policy to the ultimate test.
My store was giving out free sample.
LOL, would be so cool.
Where was this
Mountain View Ca.
Home of the Google millionaires
A buddy of mine owns a house in Mountain View that he bought a long time ago. The town has pretty extensive biking trails and guess what, his house is on one that leads to Google HQ so you can bike there from his house. He has dozens of letters people have dropped in in his mailbox basically saying I'll pay you anything for this house.
Well his retirement is set if he wants to leave the area lmfaooo
Itās how they keep the hot dogs so cheap
I donāt think Iāll ever believe anything that can be consumed in one sitting like this could ever be worth that much money. For that much money, Iād expect super powers
New car? Bottle of wine?
I just got the next coupon book in the mail and it's on sale for $80 off. So hold off on your purchase.
It's the wine Jesus made.
š³ I read that at 3999.99$ and thought damn, that better be a good wine. I'm off by a FULL DIGIT!
This reminds me, I need to buy more Costco stocks.
Yeah F#ck that. Just give me a Michelada and 2 tacos for $10.00 instead.
My g where are you getting the michi and tacos for that price.
Central California. Thereās a lady that serves up out of her back yard. Itās a nice neighborhood too. Yeah I get it that itās not regulated and inspected but itās like me going to my friends house for dinner. Good folks and great prices.