Just recently, I walked into Costco to stock up on the essentials. As some of you may know, when you enter Costco, you are greeted with their seasonal items – sometimes it’s jackets, sometimes it’s socks, sometimes it’s snowblowers. This time, I saw a hardtop gazebo – well actually, I saw two of them.
The first was $1,499. Okay. Not cheap, but not too expensive.
The second was $1,999. Quite expensive. The same size as the $1,499 one.
The $1,499 offering did have a hard top, but the pillars were made of wood. When I went and felt the wood, it wasn’t a rich mahogany or oak – it felt like plywood, and it looked like it, too. Actually, the thing looked like a piece of junk.
The $1,999 one was a lot better, but still expensive. The legs were made of metal, but it was just a standard 10’ x 12’ gazebo for close to $2,000. If you’ve browsed the hardtops on this site, you know that price is quite expensive.
Why is everything so overpriced?
Here’s why. It boils down to three reasons.
- Costco only has two gazebos for sale. This means they can’t offer any good deals or anything of that nature. If they gave a good deal on one gazebo, no one would buy the other.
- Costco isn’t selling gazebos from popular manufacturers. They are making their own gazebos, and since they don’t make that many, it costs them a lot to do it. A company like Sojag can make gazebos for a fraction of the cost and sell them online for much, much less.
- Costco has overhead. It’s pretty simple – they need to pay for employees, rent, and all other overhead. No matter what they say, those costs are passed onto you.
Frankly, I was disappointed in Costco, but also happy that I have a site like this where I can help homeowners like you find good deals on good gazebos – not bad deals on bad gazebos! Head to the homepage and find a https://besthardtopgazebos.com to get started.