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There was a blog post around 10 years ago where someone did the math and found the extra wait wasn't worth the savings if you value your time.

For me, locally, there's a grocery store chain that also has gas stations. If you are a member (which is free), you get a discounted rate on gas - usually only 3-5 cents more per gallon than Costco. And if you do enough groceries in a 3 month period, you occasionally get an additional 10-20 cents off your next filling, which makes it cheaper than Costco.

They're also open a lot more hours than Costco gas. And their lines are shorter.

I don't see the point of going to Costco to get gas.

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Costco seems to be a rare responsible organization, treat people decently, don’t gouge customers (they aim for a pretty standard not too high margin), etc. So I know that is definitely a factor for some in terms of choosing Costco as much as possible
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Oh, I'm happy to do my shopping there. Just not gas and tires.
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I understand your argument on gas. But I find the comment about tires to be curious. I literally will not buy tires anywhere else.

Costco:

- Often has a lower price on tires than other stores (particularly when they run a brand specific sale)

- Includes free installation

- Properly torques lug nuts/bolts

- Includes road hazard warranty

- Properly patches tires when you do have a service issue

Those are the highlights...

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If only they exposed this data!! Would have been so fun adding the display to the site
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Does it routinely take an hour to get gas at Costco near you?

Even when the lines are at capacity the Costco I go to (north of Seattle in Shoreline), I never wait more than like five minutes.

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i go befoe costoco opens at 7am . they have different timings.
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Or don't go at 9AM with the Executive rush. Wait 30m.
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Doesn’t matter at all for my local Costco. It’s busy open to close with very little variance.

The only times I’ve seen it relatively empty were during bad storms.

That said, it’s not an hour wait. Around 20 minutes is average, but I rarely fill up there since I value my time much more than that.

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I don't live at Costco so it's going to be 30 minutes just back and forth. My Costco does have quieter times, but then I have to plan around it. It never made the slightest bit of sense to make a separate trip for $5.
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Just wait until you have an EV! Then you will get to wait in line for an outlet, and then wait while the electrons trickle into your tank! Good times.
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There's no line in my garage.

Also most of the public chargers are networked, so you know when they are busy.

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90% of my EV sessions are at home, at a personal time commitment of 5 seconds to open the charging hatch and plug-in. Maybe 5% of my EV charges take 30 minutes while I'm enjoying a meal or ... wasting time waiting in the car for it to complete at a fast 200 kW charge rate.
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Let's nevermind this nonsense about waiting in lines.. I want to know more about what is happening to electrons after they trickle into your tank. Where do they end up when you go for a drive? Are we pumping them back into the air?
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