Good example of how people can build identities through their brand choices and purchasing habits.

It’s a foreign concept for many of us who seek out the best product or deals for each purchase and will change brands in an instant if another company releases a better product. Yet the crossover between brands, identities, and lifestyles is deeply held by many people.

I know some will try to turn this into a criticism of Americans, but in my travels and international business experience I wouldn’t even rank Americans in the top 10 for integrating brands and identity. In some countries I had to make a conscious effort to try to wear clothes from acceptable brands and swap my functional laptop bag for something more stylish to avoid letting my purchasing habits become a point of judgment from others. It’s actually refreshing to come back to America where as long as you’ve made some effort to look more or less appropriate for the occasion few people care about the brand of your clothes, laptop bag, or car. Some people are proud of their Audi or designer bag, but I rarely run into situations where I’d be judged for arriving in a sensible Subaru instead of a Mercedes.

To me, that is a modern marvel. I don't want people to buy things that they don't need, and I also don't like the crowds, but I can't help but feel grateful for a stocked grocery store that is accessible to basically everyone—isn't that the dream?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koku

Yet, I keep going. I like the cranberry bread, the cheap chicken, the granola, I like not thinking about what to buy so much. I like that it's of an acceptable quality at an acceptable price. I like that I can return stuff easily without getting shit for it. I like "scoring" deals on stuff that seems like a good value.

We live in a small apartment. We drive a small car. The pantry has a good amount of dry bulk & canned food, but we largely shop one week at a time.

Sure, we could "lock in" on two or three foods, buy weeks worth of them at a time, and save some money. But like most people we like a bit of verity. It's just not possible to buy such massive quantities of things with nowhere to store them.

What I want is an anti-costco. More like a bodega. Still curated, maybe a larger mark-up, but smaller quantities of everything. Half loaves of bread, small bags of frozen veg, enough sugar or flour to bake just a couple batches.

> Revenue from membership fees accounts for the majority of the company's profits, accounting for over 72% of the company's net operating income in fiscal years 2022 and 2023, and 65.5% in fiscal year 2024.[115][a]

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costco#Business_model

Costco bakery muffins are HUGE. If they're smaller now than they used to be, I'd argue maybe that's a good thing.

> They’re always in far-off places

My Costco is only about 1 1/2 miles away. Literally walked there for lunch once.

> the building, an aircraft hangar–size warehouse spectacle operated very much in line with casino design: a place with no outside source of light

Odd, the author mentions living in Portland, and every Costco in the Portland metro area has skylights.

In a Costco, we are all equal. I could be shopping for the same set of beige slacks right next to the CEO of a multi-million dollar company and never know it. We'll own the same Waterpik. Identical towels. Our lawn furniture will look the same.

Everything is purchased at a fair price. And we know it's a fair price because it's Costco. The workers are happy because they are given a fair wage and respect by an executive team that doesn't think they're better than them.

Yes, you have to admit to yourself that a certain part of shopping at Costco is rejecting iconoclasm. You must be okay being part of a crowd. But the other side of that - are you able to surrender? Can you deny yourself when you find something that is legitimately good? Must you be different to the point of self-detrimental?

So yes, I will go to a store that has better olive oil or coffee or oranges. But how can you not love Costco?

- No aisle signs or labels anywhere. I understand the retail strategy here but the lack of efficiency in MY experience kills me. Clearly they can't move the bakery, or meat department. But after ~5 visits I still have no idea where some basic products can be found.

- Who is buying a kayak, or shed while shopping for groceries?

- I continually make the mistake of going during the weekend when it is the most packed store on Earth. There were no less than 3 Cybertrucks in the parking lot.

I don't have the "must-buy" item yet, but every time I go, I feel like I need to take a nap after.

Sent me to the shelf, but one has to appreciate the word choice. Evokes the peanut oil spilling everywhere, the reach for geologic terminology captures the lithic aspects of the peanut butter underneath.

I want to live like Costco people because apparently they don't work in the middle of the day!

In big adventure RPG games there’s always some kind of shop in every new area that is the same inside everywhere that you can reliably go to for whatever gear you need, to heal, to save your game, whatever. Costco is that but in real life.

I don't feel the need to demonstrate my unique personality through where I buy groceries.

Unfortunately, it sounds like the article's author is only on their first step of this realization.

I cannot recommend Kirkland Natural Creamy Peanut Butter highly enough. Ingredients: 100% roasted Valencia peanuts. Sold as a package of two 1kg jars.

My biggest complaint has always been the enormous size of perishable items. Yes, you can buy a 10 lb bag of apples for much less than other stores; but does it really save you if almost half of it goes bad before you eat it all.

Even when my four always-hungry children lived at home, we had trouble consuming many things we bought. I always thought that Costco would make a killing if they broke up their fruit bags and assembled assorted fruit baskets to sell. Buy 10 lbs, but get it as a mix of apples, oranges, grapes, and lemons.

Also cut their chocolate cakes in half. They would sell more than twice as many.

"every Costco shopper has a certain item or two they’re compelled to purchase on each visit"

Organic, single-serving guacamole and Magic Spoon cereal for me.

My toddler is obsessed with their mammoth two dollar slices of cheese pizza and talks constantly about wanting to go to Costco to have pizza with his little bestie.

I have a large family, so we buy almost everything at Costco.

When I was kid I was so mortified when my parents suggested to buy clothes at Costco.

Now I think half my clothes come from Costco.

You can pry the 2-lb bags of Mayorga Cafe Cubano dark roast coffee from my cold, dead hands.

Whole Foods: eye-bogglingly expensive (and no, I don't think it always was)

Wegmans: substantially more expensive than a few years ago, and a noticeable decline in produce quality

Trader Joes: incredible value on many prepared foods, but not the best source for staples like rice or paper products.

Costco is not inflation-proof by any means but they have pretty much 0 margins and they're reliably the best value on just about whatever they sell. The selection can be limited in some ways compared to a supermarket, and they can be a bad place to be health conscious (as it can be hard to resist massive containers of ultra cheap and delicious treats of various kinds) or to try to try to be an ethical consumer (and please spare me the HN cynical line on this, I get it, I have no real agency and I'm pathetically guilt-ridden): I've read bad things about their meat sourcing, they rarely have coffee with bona fides like fair trade or shade grown, I see controversial products like bird's nest soup, etc.

As a household of 1, it just doesn't make sense to buy that much of most things, unless I'm sure they're almost entirely non-perishable. Maybe it would be fine for my cereal or something, but not a lot of what I buy. And, by design, they limit their SKUs a fair amount.

So ultimately I end up in a situation where I can buy a couple things at Costco, but then still need to do regular grocery trips.

Now I need to drive to 2 separate stores, which is extra trips there and back.

The math just didn't work out. If I could truly do 100% of my grocery shopping there I would.

For some reason my wife likes taking more time there than other places we shop for food, and I get anxious to get it over with. You can bet most of the times I wander off to get things off our list that she's herself wandered off, and the Costco we go to doesn't have good cell coverage. So I then end up both anxious about spending all day shopping, and annoyed that I can't find my wife.

I am sure I'm not the only one. I try to go alone, or stay in the car this happens so often.

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I don't know what Costco parking lots in the PNW are like but in the NE, they're a nightmare. People racing around, lining up and jockeying for spots, enormous carts careening around and being left ... wherever because people can't be bothered to put them back. My family has a membership but I permanently opted out after one trip to the Danbury, CT location.

> otherwise you are rarely confronted by the staff here, and I like that.

That is, until they try to stop you from leaving the store with your property until you show them a receipt.

But yes, you can buy many different items there. Many come in large packages. The public can be found there shopping too. You are not required to purchase every item. Welcome to the 90s and holy shit thanks for the journalism.

I let my Costco membership lapse because it's cheaper, healthier and more pleasant to buy 1) small quantities, of 2) fresh foods, in a 3) nice store, that is preferably 4) nearby, and 5) quietly forget to buy all the other crap you don't need.

(1)https://boardwalkpuzzles.com/products/costco-treasure-hunt-1...

I can't imagine you could buy a pie of that shit to take home.

I happily pay more at places like Publix to -not- have to do that.

Notice how almost no one goes to Costco alone, and contrast it with the supermarket, where most people now go alone.

Costco is a theme park. So is Ikea.

They were talking about how they were admiring all the services offered to members, and said they considered buying a cruise vacation package, but then immediately realized “we’d just be on the ship with people from Costco”

-- this is me. I am seen.

If I'm grabbing an item or two and they haven't been moved I can be in and out in under 10 minutes.

Lethbridge AB, some of these other ones sound like an adventure.

Back in the Pepsi days there were always free cups around from people that didn't like Pepsi. Now - nada.

Because simply asking to see what it sells requires me to subscribe upfront.

It's not like I cannot buy without a membership card; that is perfectly understandable. But I cannot even see what's sold inside, which prevents me from knowing if I actually want to become a member. They do have a "catalogue" of sorts... showing the prices of about 30 products or so. That's all. And the website describing the general aisles, with a few pictures.

So, they want me to subscribe to something before I can even see what they have to offer? What the heck is with that?

On the other hand, you can just walk straight to the food court and buy pizza, soda, and cookies, without being a member.

Is this how things work in the US as well? If so, how is that justified?

Stay repeat indulge enjoy

Alternatively elsewhere, small shops, many locally owned, butchers, vendors convenience stores replace the existence of 'costco'

In these facts, I dont know if its necessarily a bad thing, but there is something empty, soulless and anti social about it.

Maybe a few grape tomatoes for thought between the world salad of this article, "cognitive pattern. It is a jarring thoughtscape, remarkably compelling and nondiscursive and utterly hard to shake." - That is what the author too is getting at?

Much of my wardrobe is from CostCo, effective suburban camouflage as well as being fine as clothes.

Or you just order from Costco as one more store on Instacart or similar, and don't make it part of your identity.

I have memories of a Costco similar to the author's, but I have no desire to ever go to a store again if I can help it.

If what food you buy is "brands", it's shit to begin with. Just that some of it is more expensive shit.

If you want to be uppity about it, buy mostly local, fresh produce and meats, not packaged brands, as much as you can.

Guys. Its a supermarket with a monthly fee. Based on your monthly expenses it might or might not be worthwhile to shop there. That's about all the philosophizing there is about it.

> And this is where we wait together, regardless of our age, our carts stocked with brightly colored goods. A slowly moving line, satisfying, giving us time to glance at the tabloids in the racks. Everything we need that is not food or love is here in the tabloid racks. The tales of the supernatural and the extraterrestrial. The miracle vitamins, the cures for cancer, the remedies for obesity. The cults of the famous and the dead.

It’s not out of snobbishness, their quality is excellent at excellent prices.

My problem is that I find I spend more at Costco than at conventional grocery stores like Trader Joe’s.

The paradox is, it’s cheaper, but I spend more. I buy things I wouldn’t normally buy, and ant higher quantities. Even worse, I somehow eat it all quite quickly.

I spend more and eat more when I shop at Costco.

Unfortunately that’s neither healthy for my wallet nor for my waistline.

I buy 95% of my food and most of my household items from Costco. I will blindly buy any item without reading reviews. Out of thousands of purchases I can count the failures on one hand.

Many ridicule Costco for being excessive. But frugal buyers can produce great value out of 25 lbs of flour, 10 lb bags of rice and so on. With proper home economics you can still eat like a king on a lower-middle-class budget. I'm very proud of the nutritious and luxurious meals I produce with what most people are paying for Doritos & Mountain Dew.

I will never live out of reach of a Costco. It's the second most important factor when I live somewhere.

Look at Richie Rich paying $200 plus prorated membership for his subsidence calories (in white rice, no less, which is a premium starch in some Asian countries)…

Is it just for like catering companies or families of 20 where the bigger size is kind of helpful?

They do some nice discounts on Macs online though (can't say I'm a fan of their customer service either though based on my experience returning a Macbook)

These past 2 years it has gotten significantly worse. Too crowded. Too many people who have no common decency of not blocking the lane. And way way way too many instacart delivery people FLOORING IT to get their next item pickup and leave. Looking at their phone and bumping into people/stuff. I don't like the vibes.

The one cool thing they have now is the 9am executive hours where you can go in earlier than normal. That feels more like the costco of 2016 to me.

Their staff felt a bit cultish, but they were always pretty friendly and helpful so from a customer perspective it was nice.

I tried Costco once and everything was too big. By the time we got to the end of anything we were absolutely sick of it.

There are no Costco people. There are no Whole Foods people. There are no Gus’s people. In San Francisco, I live a block from Whole Foods, a block from Safeway and a block past that is Gus’s. Costco is six blocks away. We go to all of these places at various times. My gym is near Gus’s. Whole Foods has the biggest selection. Safeway has Envy apples. Costco is where we get the base load of stuff when we do weekly shopping.

As commentary on consumerism has filtered down from philosophy to the masses it really has become incredibly middle-brow. Copy-paste opinions about shopping substitute for any intellectual examination of food availability. Like LLM text the language is sound but the ideas are incredibly shallow shadows of the ultimate concept.

It really brings home the idea that if you can’t appreciate living in an era of abundance where fruit of high quality is available throughout the year and it has been bred to high perfection and eggs, milk, and rice are practically costless compared to the past, that perhaps there is nothing that can bring you joy. All the “this is late stage capitalism where you consume consume consume without thought and reason” takes have the shape of meaning but carry nothing. They’re some kind of cargo cult mimicry of some concept.

We have solved food. Costco is the solved form. $2.99/lb of chicken.

"Something about the whole thing always registered to me as, like, lame—too normcore, too boring, perhaps even too cheugy to an informed and taste-driven millennial ur-consumer like me." -> What even is this? Get over yourself.

Remember that the CEO of Costco wears his name tag to work, and eats the Costco hotdog like everyone else. I'd buy that for a dollar!

Aesthetically-minded hipster writes a think piece on reluctantly aging out of high school fears of being "uncool," finally grows up and has a family, but 15 years too late.

Discovers the concept of economies of scale and also that families in the center of the country who spend their weekends at Costco instead of marching at pride events might not be nazis after all...and actually it's kind of convenient to go to a big warehouse full of curated bulk items and buy shit when you have kids.

I imagine its exactly the type of thing boomer hippies (the hipsters of their generation) wrote about in the 80s/90s after they realized dropping acid in nudist drum circles gets old after a while and that communes don't actually work. Just rewrite the title to "I want to live like Kmart people," and voila, you've got a New Yorker thinkpiece from 1986.