Near my former home I would have the owners of a small shop order from Costco for me (small mark up).
Is it common for mom and pop shops to do this or did I just get lucky?
I am trying to find such a shop near my current home…near Taoyuan train station.
What kind of service they provide?
Just ordering for people who can’t/don’t want to buy from Costco or do they also offer options such as breaking a large package into smaller ones?
I know there’s a store in Kinmen called Luxcost (Chinese name: 樂多) right next to Carrefour that’s all Costco stuff, not even always at a mark-up (though sometimes hecka marked up). I imagine they could order stuff from Costco for someone that asked them to…I’ve asked restaurants that have access to suppliers with food brands that I haven’t been able to find elsewhere to do that for me. I imagine any store that has suppliers, Costco or otherwise, is willing to do that if you ask nicely.
The reality is that a Costco membership isn’t that expensive and they have a website (which is also marked up compared to the store…) that you can order from for delivery. Depending on what you want to buy, a lot of Costco stuff is available from Carrefour, though price differences vary greatly…
It is? How much? You have to have a Costco branded credit card or, I think, a regular Cathay Pacific card.
There are several sellers on Ruten that provide this service. I’ve seen as little as a $60 mark-up. That doesn’t include shipping.
I didn’t look carefully, but sometimes I go on the website before going to the store and most things seem to be 50-150NT cheaper in person. A cab ride back isn’t going to be more than a few hundred NT, so it’s quite a mark-up if you’re buying a lot at once, but I don’t blame anyone who’s willing to pay extra to avoid the insanity that is those stores on weekends (or just doesn’t want to trek out there)
I’ve never actually used the online shipping from Costco but the credit card is super easy to get. They wanted a picture of my bank book showing a balance of at least NT40,000 and sent it to me within a week. For all the hassle that credit cards are for foreigners, this one is the only one I’ve tried to get and it was no problem. I have a work-based ARC, if that matters.
Ruten might also be an option, but my understanding is that the Costco website mark-up is because of “free” shipping, so you’re basically paying 50-150 NT/item delivered and that’s that. But you’d have to do your own math based on what you’re buying.
Yeah, I got turned down for the credit card, probably because I had just started a new job. I’ll try again in 3 months. The problem with ordering online is that for a lot of everyday things, they have an order limit. It’s ok for dry goods, but not frozen. Like you can’t buy just one bag of fried chicken, you have to buy 3. Which is fine if that’s all you want to eat for the next month, but I like to order a lot of different things and my fridge isn’t that big.
Min purchases are complicated. A lot of Costco things are “need to buy more than one” like milk, yogurt, and muffins. The plus side is that the milk is ultra-pasteurized, so it lasts (unopened in the fridge) for a month or more. For other things, I try to find a friend who wants it and split with them. I’ve also been on the receiving end of people who bought too much (especially chicken…). When the pandemic started I thought of getting a freezer to stock up on Costco things, but I can’t really justify that. A lot of frozen stuff like broccoli and meatballs are smaller bags within the bigger ones, so freezer Tetris isn’t as difficult as you’d think 
you live in Kinmen or were just passing through?
I lived there once upon a time but there was no Luxcost or Carrefour back then.