Costco Australia Has ‘Unadvertised Specials’

If you visit Costco often enough and pay attention, you will find that some items go ‘on special’ but are not advertised. Don’t get me wrong, Costco has specials that are either advertised through their coupon books or as in-store specials as ‘Instant Savings’ on the ticket (see the image below), but this seems to be a sneaky ploy on the chain’s part.

Here are some examples of unadvertised specials that I picked up on last week that had a regular Costco shelf price tag:

• The ‘First Act Discovery Junior Drum Set’ that we noted as $116.99 in one of out ‘Christmas Toys’ posts. The price last weekend was down to $79.97.
• Also as a part of the ‘Christmas Toys’ post series, we saw that the Hasbro Mr. Potato Head 60th Birthday Container was $25.78. Last weekend Costco had the shelf price as $19.97.
• The Techno Gears Marble Mania Mine Shaft Set was $52.99, but last weekend we saw it at $49.98.
• The Morey Boogie Mach 9TR body board that we saw come out with the summer product range was $34.49 when we first reported on it, but it was down to $29.99 last weekend. This example is shown below.

Original Price on Morey Boogie Board

Latest Price on Morey Boogie Board

Now I say this is a sneaky ploy as I believe Costco don’t want people to complain or return low volume or slow moving products for a refund at the higher price and buy them back at the new lower price when they are trying to run out the product. If they don’t advertise these specials, it limits the risk for Costco. Just my thoughts on this practice. What do our readers think? Feel free to comment below.