The thing is you can save a ton of money on a few non-food items to make it worth it. Just over-the-counter medicines save me a huge chunk of the membership fee. Then there are just random household goods: paper products, trash bags, dishwasher detergent, etc.
Their pharmacy is A+.
I get my dogs seizure meds there and they're about $10 a month but at a regular pharmacy they'd be $300+.
You can use the pharmacy without a membership.
Renting a car once a year through Costco Travel is worth the membership fee.
I've been seeing more and more of these "weird" membership perks. I had not seen the car rental until now. I've seen the vacations and other home repair/upgrade things. I'm in a perpetual disagreement with Enterprise that makes them not allow me to rent a car from them or their sub-brands (which is most of them now it seems). I might check into Costco's offerings for this summer. Thanks for the reminder.
It's great for canned goods and anything bulk for cooking, see: salmon.
We've been buying their "fresh" salmon (not freeze-packed) for years, until parasites started crawling out of one fillet. Statistically nothing, but the wife will never buy it again ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Glasses is another place where the savings are astounding