Costco reveals petrol pricing as service station opens in West Auckland
The US giant will sell 91 for $2.50 per litre, 95 for $2.60 per litre and diesel for $2.10 per litre.
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The pricing is below the nearby Pak'nSave, whose service station is selling 91 for $2.69, 95 for $2.85 and diesel for $2.29 for the supermarket's shoppers. according to Gaspy.
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Another close by service station, the Mobil in Don Buck Rd, had 91 for $2.73 and 95 for $2.91 this morning, while another local station, Challenge Massey, had 91 for $2.66 and 95 for $3.06.
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An annual membership costs $60 or $55 for business.
So far, the only way to register is to join a queue of up to 90 minutes at Costco's temporary admin office at Westgate, but the retailer says an online option is on the way.
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The first wave of cars came through at 9.20am.
The service station is opposite the $100m Costco store at Westgate, which the retailer's Australia-NZ boss Patrick Noone says will open in late August.
While a membership card can be used straight away, the clock won't start on the 12-month membership term until the store opens.
As in Australia, Costco is partnering with Mobil for petrol distribution.
Noone would not say how many people had bought Costco memberships, but said the figure was in the thousands.
In its recent report into supermarket competition, the Commerce Commission said, "Woolworths NZ [owner of Countdown] also told us that Costco is seen as a "destination shop" and that they have seen analysis from Australia suggesting that Costco stores have in-person catchment areas of approximately 25km."
That's for general shopping. Across the Tasman, a report for the New South Wales state government found Costco influenced petrol prices in a 5km radius around its stores.
Costco also plans stores in Wellington and Christchurch, subject to the performance of its Auckland operation.
Costco's 2021 annual report says its 636 service stations account for 9 per cent of its US$163 billion revenue worldwide (as of December 2021, Costco had 828 stores or "warehouses" as it calls them, including 677 in North America, 29 in the UK and 13 in Australia).
In Sydney, where there are three Costcos, the retailer typically sells for 10 to 20 cents per litre cheaper than other service stations (before loyalty programmes), according to Pricespy data.
A 2020 Houston Chronicle report said the giant retailer at times uses fuel as a "loss-leader", selling at 20c to 30c cheaper per gallon (3.7 litres) than traditional service stations to attract customers to the rest of its business. And in a March 11 article on the Ukraine crisis highlighting "cheap gas" at Costco and other big retailers, the Wall Street Journal said, "Big box retailers are counting on drawing in consumers with cheaper gasoline and then having them leave with an armful of groceries too."
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www.nzherald.co.nz...
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Poll: Should drivers retake the theory test every 10 years?
Drivers get where they need to go, but sometimes it seems that we are all abiding by different road rules (for example, the varying ways drivers indicate around a roundabout).
Do you think drivers should be required to take a quick driving theory test every 10 years?
Vote in the poll and share any road rules that you've seen bent! 😱
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49.5% Yes
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48.6% No
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1.9% Other - I'll share below
Here's Thursday's thinker!
I am lighter than air, but a hundred people cannot lift me. What am I?
Do you think you know the answer to our daily riddle? Don't spoil it for your neighbours! Simply 'Like' this post and we'll post the answer in the comments below at 2pm.
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Head here and hover on the Following button on the top right of the page (and it will show Unfollow) and then click it. If it is giving you the option to Follow, then you've successfully unfollowed the Riddles page.
Why make picking up reserved library books harder? What do you think? Challenge: Write the last stanza for the first poem attached below.
Once books are reserved in Auckland Libraries books, when they are available no longer go alphabetically by customer but instead go into a Holds pickup shelf number based presumably somehow on when each book needs to be picked up by.
I had two books reserved that arrived on two different days in the Blockhouse Bay Library and hence each book has a different shelf number. Hard to find unless you knew the shelf number in the notification email. Even if you knew the shelf number I found myself three books by the same author on the two shelf numbers.
More recently yesterday a book I reserved was on a different shelf number than was specified in my notification email (see image below).
Sadly it is clear from library staff that a numerical system for reserves is here to stay.
I suggest that so that all books for each person has the same shelf number, the shelf number becomes the last digit of a person's library card (0-9).
Within each shelf number a book is found under the day the reserve arrives in the library (01 to 31, hopefully the same date the email is sent).
Since a customer appears to have 10 days to pick up a book, ten days of the month would appear to be required at any time (for each digit 0-9).
Once there are 10 days used the next day's reserves could go back at the beginning of the shelf number after any remaining books not collected (hopefully none) are removed (along with the old day number and the new day number (01 to 31) inserted) after the last day available and future days' books remaining moved forward to make room.
Each day number (01-31) would appear once for each shelf number (0-9) before the first book on that day- perhaps cover an old withdrawn book with paper with each day number on the spine?
When a reserved book arrives in the library the last digit of the library card could be placed on a piece of paper in the book to be removed when it is put on the shelf, to be recycled the next day.
What do you think?
See the image below and page 3 below for a letter appearing in the Western Leader on 9 September:
www.neighbourly.co.nz...
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