Costco gas is famously a loss leader, typically running 15 to 20 cents below surrounding stations.

Is this true? I always assumed that Costco just had better deals/longer horizon commitments so it could undercut local stations. Maybe they even own a refinery just to maintain the best margin.

They are selling 10000 gallons a day at some locations, so I find it hard to believe.

More like they don’t have a need to make a profit and they run the station in a barebones manner on real estate that they get as part of the larger site. So it would be a loss leader for anyone else.

It makes sense. The ~$10 someone saves pumping at Costco is easily made up in the >$100 shopping trip they are making, or compared to lifetime spend.

I started screenshotting my local Costco warehouse gas prices weekly since the week prior to Trump's inauguration, mostly so my Trump supporting brother inlaw couldn't just spew his Fox brainwashing on me without me hitting back with this data.

I've been tracking every fuel purchase I've made for 12 years now across 5 or 6 different cars. Not sure what I'll ever do with that information, but I suppose it may come in handy for a political argument.

I’d be amazed if it actually changed anything with him.

Oh it won't, doesn't mean I'm not planning to rub it in his face.

It's too bad there's no API to find the current wait time at the Costco gas station. I'm not going to spend an extra hour of my day to save $5.

If only they exposed this data!! Would have been so fun adding the display to the site

i go befoe costoco opens at 7am . they have different timings.

Or don't go at 9AM with the Executive rush. Wait 30m.

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.

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.

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.

There's no line in my garage.

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