Costco blog/discussion forum

If you haven't bought a picnic table in a few decades, you are in for a surprise. Wood picnic tables, which need be painted/stained, and gave thousands of kids splinters are being replaced by all plastic tables.

Costco Warehouses are currently selling a 44 inch round picnic table (Costco item number 956027 priced at $114.99 in June 2008). This table is manufactured by Lifetime Products. It seats six adults comfortably, and the attached benches can swing in to minimize the table's footprint in storage. In fact, the table folds flat, so that you can stack these in storage.

The Costco price offers a great value. Amazon was at one time selling these tables for $199 plus shipping. They are now out of stock. You can buy it directly from the manufacturer for $220, or you can get an 8 pack of these tables for $1267 or about $158 each. Costco beats all these prices by over 40%.

Lifetime Products manufactures these tables with a blow molded process using polyethylene spiked with UV inhibitors. Compared to wood, this table won't need painting. It won't split, chip, or peel like wood tends to do, when it is left exposed to the sun for years.

Glancing through the other Lifetime products, I see they make basketball standards, banquet tables and chairs and a fold trailer. This fold up trailer looks like a great product, unfortunately Costco doesn't sell it. It unfolds to the size of a pickup truck's bed, but you can fold it in half for storage.