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Sometimes, you go to Costco for groceries and come home with a $250 purchase you regret later. Here’s my story. [[{“value”:”
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Shopping at Costco can be a bit of an adventure in that you never know what you’re going to get. And growing up, adventures were typically billed as a good thing — as in, “we’re going on an adventure to the library” so that my siblings and I wouldn’t complain about the same old outing week after week.
But while I love the idea of a shopping adventure in theory, sometimes, it’s not so great for my savings account. I learned that the hard way a few years back when I spent about $250 on a Costco purchase that wound up collecting mold in my garage and eventually being given away.
When temptation gets the better of you
I’ve been a Costco member for about 18 years — basically, as long as I’ve lived out in suburbia. And my usual Costco routine involves me loading a shopping cart with groceries, household supplies like paper towels, and bulk medications, vitamins, or supplements.
Sometimes, an extra item will make an appearance on my shopping list. I often turn to Costco for low-cost winter accessories because my family members (myself included) are constantly losing gloves. And not so long ago, my husband researched TVs and came to the conclusion that Costco had the best deal on the type he wanted, so we specifically added that item to our shopping list that week.
But often, the non-standard items I buy from Costco aren’t planned purchases — they’re impulse purchases I make on the spot. And years ago, I basically threw my money away on an unplanned purchase that cost around $250: an inflatable kayak.
The purchase made sense in theory. My husband and I love to kayak, so we figured an inflatable one would be easy enough to lug around. That way, we could avoid having to constantly rent kayaks from different outlets.
The problem, though, is that we didn’t research our purchase at all. I saw inflatable kayaks on sale at Costco, so we bought one. It wound up being a complete waste of money. And to make matters worse, we sat on that purchase for so long that we weren’t even able to take it back for a refund.
An impulse purchase gone wrong
I have my fair share of experience paddling in a traditional kayak. I have much less experience paddling in a flimsy inflatable kayak. And our Costco purchase didn’t meet our needs because I didn’t feel steady out on the water.
Also, we decided to be cheap and buy a tandem kayak, thinking we’d just share it. That, too, was a mistake. Up until that point, my husband and I had each always taken our own kayak out on the water. And we realized very quickly that we preferred things that way.
Now we technically had recourse after realizing that our kayak wasn’t going to work out — we could return it thanks to Costco’s generous policy. Costco will basically take anything back, with few exceptions. Only we neglected to properly dry out our kayak, and we left it to grow mold in our garage all summer long. By the time we got back from an extended vacation and were ready to tackle the return, we felt there was no way we could reasonably bring the kayak back. (I mean, Costco probably would’ve given us our money back, but it felt like the wrong thing to do.)
In the end, we wound up giving the kayak to a local friend who was up to the task of cleaning and using it. But I learned an important lesson — never buy expensive things on a whim. It’s much better to take the time to do your research than jump into a decision and regret it.
Of course, I won’t take 100% of the blame for the kayak incident. I also blame Costco for enticing me with its competitive price point. Oh, who am I kidding? Of course it’s all my fault. But I will say, I haven’t made a large Costco impulse purchase since the kayak incident.
Sure, I’ve brought home a giant seasonal cheesecake on a whim. And I’ve definitely bought my fair share of snacks I didn’t need. But the saving grace is that these were items with a $20ish-dollar price point or less, and they largely all got eaten. It’s been a long time since I made a multi-hundred-dollar Costco purchase out of the blue — because thankfully, I learned my lesson all those years ago.
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The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.Maurie Backman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Costco Wholesale. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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