Things haven't changed at all.

Went to a meeting about a year ago. The cost was extreme - over $1k if I remember, and the "savings" weren't that apparent, as they wouldn't allow you to look through any of the catalogs to see what you might be able to save.

In order to recover the investment of the membership, assuming an across-the-board average of 20% discount (they 'swear' it's MUCH higher), we figured we'd need to spend the equivalent $20,000 in stuff.

We don't need $20,000 in stuff you can buy from Direct Buy.

Having said that, if I was building a house, the membership would probably pay for itself several times over in plumbing fixtures, lighting, flooring, cabinetry and appliances.

But I'm not building a house. We figured with the amount of $ that we'd have to invest to join, we'd find ourselves in the position of trying to find stuff to buy in an attempt to recover our investment.

They don't allow it - but a cooperative might be the way to go. Get several families together and split the cost of the membership. However, they'd surely start asking questions when you purchased the 3rd refrigerator in a year.

The one thing that surprised me was that when we said "no thanks" and were actually able to walk out - they were very insistant we "think it over" - they said that they were prohibited from contacting us for 7 years to re-join.

I thought "yeah - sure - you'll be calling me next week with an 'even better deal'". I never heard a peep out of them again.

I do know/suspect that a large portion of the fee you pay to join goes to the staff in the form of commissions. The new DB near my home, at open/close times has lots of very nice luxury autos parked at the curb - and I assume those belong to the employees.