I really meant my Tesco store is amazing as its so large with a great range of items, 10s of thousands and a completely free car park despite being close to high street shopping. I've been to other Tesco's that are definitely far less amazing. Who cares if they have your data on what you spend in Tesco its not like that means they have control of my mind and choices, its not like I'm spending all my money on newsagent porn magazines or the ingredients for making bombs or something I'm just Mr Average buying normal stuff. I've got all the loyalty schemes going for all supermarkets pretty much except M&S. The benefit is often discounts and vouchers to get me back to those shops which I will use to lower my shopping costs. In the last 6 months I've benefitted from vouchers and discounts from
Morrisons, Asda, Tesco, Lidl and Sainsburys and I will not pay for stuff that is dearer in those shops typically. I tend to keep to offers, value items and price matches or short life promotions.
Costco sounds great but sadly none where I live but if I had one locally and it made sense to shop there to save money I would however again you can't compare a free loyalty scheme to a charged one. It has cost me nothing to join Clubcard and I have benefited hugely from it especially in the past when they did the 4x points boost for purchases like longleat tickets or even
Tesco Direct purchases when that existed.
Generally the UK gets some very decent pricing for food shopping, the lack of VAT and the population density etc plus being an island with ports means less costs than going huge miles inland. I watched a video recently where some US people felt Waitrose was cheap!! and they typically have lower wages but perhaps lower taxation and housing costs. I don't think the UK does too badly for food shopping. The US also has much lower quality food with more dangerous additives and chemicals which are illegal in many countries especially Europe.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z29cVLYkWcM