Costco addiction

I empathize with Honolulu TV anchor Tannya Joaquin's blog today admitting that she can't resist buying extra stuff at Costco. She says she can't just get away with her shopping list or the bare essentials.

But, isn't this the whole idea of Costco? It's the treasure hunt. Gotta check out the wine bins to see if they got anything new. What about clothing? They've got cashmere sweaters, but they'll all be gone by tomorrow. And, of course, once they're out, they're out and they may never EVER get the same item in again.

The key to smart shopping at Costco is to make sure you don't overbuy on food items that won't last or can't be frozen. Most non-perishable items you'll eventually use as long as you have room to store them or you can divide them with someone else.

Time to buy Costco stock?

Despite a disappointing third quarter, analysts like Costco's prospects moving forward. They view it as a well run company that should benefit from a rebound in the economy that may come sooner that has been predicted. No one is predicting a rip roaring holiday season for 2009, but don't be surprised to see optimism creeping back into the holiday shopping mentality along about this fall if signs that the recovery could come ahead of schedule are more evident. And, don't forget that Motley Fool predicted Costco would be one of the best stocks of 2009.

HP notebook deal

If you're in the market for a new computer, Costco's got a terrific notebook on a $100 off coupon through the end of May. It's the HP dv4 1283CL. This is a 14-inch notebook that weights about five pounds. That's not super lightweight, but it's much more manageable than the the beast-like 17-inch displays, which in my opinion are just too big to put in your lap. These really aren't notebooks, but desktop replacements.

I was actually quite taken by the 13-inch HP dv2, but some of the reviews noted that it gets hot and the demo unit at Costco definitely was hot. But the real clincher was the $100 coupon. That takes the overall price of the dv4 down to $699 and you just aren't going to be able to beat that. I found the AMD version of the dv4 at Office Max for the same price, but this one has an Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 2.0GHz processor and a massive 500GB hard drive. That's half a terabyte! The other specs include Webcam, SuperMulti 8x DVD+/-R/RW,5-in-1 Card Reader,802.11a/b/g/n WLAN.

I've been looking around for a new notebook to replace the 17-inch HP beast and this one is looking pretty sweet. Was considering a Macbook, but maybe I'm being influenced by the Microsoft TV ads. At $700 the dv2 is about half the price of the Macbook. Ya, I know, it's not nearly as cool and it's not a Mac. But, I'm a big believer that with Windows 7, the PC is on the way back. Besides, down deep, I'm really a PC guy.

Love and LOVE for Costco

This is a pretty funny story about a couple who got a complete refund from Costco after breaking their couch. They were pretty surprised that Costco would give them a refund after using it for two years. Not sure what reason they really gave Costco for it breaking.

Doesn't get much better than this

Yesterday, we picked up a nice big piece of salmon at Costco and added a salad in a bag and bingo, instant (and great) dinner. When we picked out the salmon, we opted for the farm raised, which was priced at $9.99 per pound. They also had wild salmon and it looked great, but at about three times the price.

We barbecued the salmon on a cedar plank that we also bought at Costco. We put bay rub and some lime infused olive oil on it. The result was the moistest, most delicious salmon I think I've ever had. The cedar plank, which we soaked in water first, kept the salmon super moist and the bay rub gave it a nice crust on top and amazing flavor.

The salad was equally fantastic. Everything in it was incredibly fresh. For such a huge operation, I'm often amazed at how Costco can keep everything so fresh. I've always known that you can expect only the highest quality goods, but managing all of that is a real trick.

Goldman downgrades Costco to neutral

Seems that the retail sector is now starting to feel more of the pain of the economic recession again. Costco has been one of the best performers, but today it was downgraded by Goldman Sachs. The stock is now at $46.37, down $0.23 (-0.50%) on volume of 2,636,162 shares traded.

The brokerage reduced the stock to Neutral from Buy. Over the last 52 weeks the stock has ranged from a low of $38.17 to a high of $75.23. The stock has been trading in a very narrow band from $45.02 to $47.60.

HP MediaSmart Server is a deal at $548

Costco Online is offering a Hewlett Packard MediaSmart Home Server with 1.25TB of storage for $548. As Costco often does, it took the 750GB model and threw in an extra 500GB hard drive (the server will hold four drives) for the same price that Fry's Electronics charges for the 750GB model.

I did a bunch of research on this home server. It's the second generation and gets good reviews. I would buy it myself, but I want to put it in my living room and I'm worried about the fan being too noisy. Check out the link above for more information and a full review.

April sales drop 6%

Costco reported that it's April sales were down 6 percent from the same period a year ago. Sales were $5.18 billion, down from $5.54 billion a year earlier. This year's four-week month included 27 days of sales compared to 28 last year, reflecting the timing of Easter. The company said the calendar shift is estimated to have negatively impacted this year's total and comparable sales by approximately two to three percent.