Buying granite from Costco is like buying a roof installation from Home Depot. They just act as a middle-man (or woman as the case may be) and take a slice of the pie.

Go to the source. Somewhere within an hours drive of your house there is an area with 5-10 granite sellers. They'll have slabs to look at, and they cut them. Skip the big fancy showrooms (they pay for those off the backs of their customers, just like the fancy kitchen designers do).

You want as few people involved as possible between you and what you're buying.

When I selected our cabinet maker, I picked the shop where the guys selling me the cabinets was also designing the layout, making the cabinets, delivering them and installing. Two guys - both of whom actually made the cabinets, delivered and installed. No 'designer' with a big diamond ring and a fancy car.

Oh, and the questions about installation price and picking your slab would easily be answered by the sales person standing there in the exit line at Costco. Probably bringing their granite in from China. Not a joke.

Ok, I agree with you on no middle man. But I have had good luck using Costco when buying a car--you just went to the car dealers that were working with Costco, and you got a great price with no haggling.

Costco is a fascinating business-phenomenon. On the strength of your post I just sent that company a picture for a quote. I called and talked with them too but that was a fairly pointless call; they just needed the pdf and I don't really have any questions. I still haven't gotten the quote back yet. I'm pretty curious too. Their offerings are very standard and not very artful, fwiw. I'm kind of wanting bamboo fronts for my next project which they don't do. OTOH, if they're really cheap, that can go a long way....

I'll keep you posted. Thanks for the link.

My neighbor ordered her countertop and when it was delivered she felt it wasn't what she ordered. We went to a granite yard, picked our slab and it was marked with our name. No switching around! Also, it is 50/50 for workmanship at HD. If you are lucky, you getgood craftsmanship. My cousin had a nightmare with her kitchen tiles.