I don't know about Costco, but do your research online first. Find a brand or two that you like, then go to Home Depot, Lowe's, and a couple of local appliance stores. The local stores may have more room to negotiate than the big stores, so know what price you can get by ordering online, going to a big store, or elsewhere, and use that to negotiate with the smaller stores.

The local stores will probably (not always) be better with delivery and installation. The big box stores and Costco outsource those, and some will be good and some less than good. So ask about delivery and installation when you shop.

Most places will price match. Another thing to consider is how you will pay for it. Good salespeople will also do their best to find you the best deals. They sometimes have inside info on promotions and sales that are coming up and sometimes they may be an unadvertised perk that they can dig up. Some times you will find one of these jewels at the local big box store. It's not the store. It's the employee. Sometimes you may be able to stack in store promos with manufacturer's promos. Negotiation can work also. Asking for free delivery and hauling off of old appliances for example, Even if there is a charge for the service it can vary from one dealer to another. If you don't ask you will never know. Stores offer some nice zero interest promos with their store cards but you should also factor in how some major credit cards offered automatic extended warranties at no cost if you make the purchase with their card. If you have a good CC rating and you know you can pay off the amount in a timely manner. you might also considering opening a new account with zero intro interest rates and take advantage of the extended warranty at the same time. AMEX has one of the best warranty perks around but all the major credit card issuers are not far behind. Several issuers will allow you to open a second new account even if you have an account with them already.

Your appliances are only as good as the service you'll receive. That's IF you'll ever receive any. Locally (Chicago area) I prefer to buy appliances from Abt Appliances. Their repair staff will come out and service appliances bought from them.

With online purchases, HD, Lowes, Costco, you're pretty much on your own. There aren't anywhere near enough appliance repairmen to service appliances still under warranty, much less if your appliance is past the warranty phase. If you can't fix it yourself, you might as well toss it.

Craigslist can have great bargains, buyer beware of course.

Depends on if you’re talking a 2K apartment grade budget or a 20K semi upper end package. You first need to figure out what level your neighbors have and then factor in a budget that reflects a similar level. Lots of products are UMRP, and there are no price negotiations happening. Figure out what that budget has to buy. Then figure out which piece is going to get the most use, and allocate appropriately.