Costco Kirkland Signature, their homebrand

[patfagan]

when are Costco “homebrands” going to be included in testing reports?

[PhilT]

@patfagan

Costco “homebrands”

There is only one I am aware of, Kirkland. Some Kirkland labelled product is also sold outside Costco in the US. In my experience the products have been as good as any similar product and there is a no questions quality guarantee for return at Costco.

Yours is a good question. I asked a similar question that probably answers it –

Modem and router issues

Hi TheBBG, we employ a team of market researchers. Depending on the product type, we might decide to attempt to cover the entire market and buy all models that are readily available around Australia. We also check whether the products will still be available to buy at the time our review will be published. For other product types, where we can’t afford to cover the entire range of models available, we will buy a representative sample of products that we predict will be of most interest to our …

[kim]

Yes, the reply from @ScottOKeefe is the reason we don’t include CostCo as a rule. We have mentioned them where there is interest; for example, we featured them in our DIY funeral feature as they sell coffins! https://www.choice.com.au/health-and-body/healthy-ageing/ageing-and-retirement/articles/diy-funerals-and-coffins

[Luked86]

You guys really need to start including Costco Kurland products in your tests

[meltam]

Welcome to the forum.

Thanks for your suggestion, but Choice only has a limited budget funded by member subscriptions. Consequently Choice can only review products that are widely available, and of interest to a large number of people.

As Costco only has ten locations in Australia at the moment, and their home brand Kirkland signature products being a subset of what they sell, their products can’t be considered widely available. Consequently it is unlikely that Choice will include too many of their products.

That being said, Choice did look at the Kirkland hot cross buns.

[Wiki]

Suggestion: ask businesses to contribute towards the cost of reviewing products. If they believe in their products then they should be happy to. Also get feedback for them to help improve their products.

[grahroll]

This could be seen as using reward to get good reviews, something CHOICE avoids doing so they not only are impartial (and remain so) but appear impartial as well. It has been suggested in the past such as having the items donated for testing to cut the costs, the answer has been no, except in very rare cases. Where an item has particular qualities such that the item has special public appeal or uniqueness it may be excepted from the normal rules and even then it is made very clear that the product is a special case and has been donated due to that.

[PhilT]

In addition to @grahroll 's post,

How CHOICE is funded

@Wiki

Also get feedback for them to help improve their products.

If you are not aware, Choice’s lab services are available to manufacturers.

Product Testing Services | NATA accredited labs - CHOICE