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Love Song to Costco

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Re: Love Song to Costco

#21

Post by gnicholas »

W-Stool wrote: post #7

In 2005 my wife and I lived in a part of the USA that had no Costco within a half day's drive. We soon secured jobs in a part of the USA that had two (two!) Costcos in the same city that we would live. True story - before we even looked for housing, I went online and joined Costco. Years later my diabetic cat even had a Costco pharmacy account (best place to buy insulin by far) and received a discount for being witho…

> Years later my diabetic cat even had a Costco pharmacy account (best place to buy insulin by far) and received a discount for being without health insurance.

IIRC, you don't need a membership to:

• shop at the pharmacy

• buy alcohol

• eat at the food court

I believe the first two are due to govt regulations, and may only apply in certain states.

It's also much easier for anyone to shop at Costco with a spouse's/friend's membership card now that they have self-checkout. You used to have to worry about the cashier flagging you if the cardholder wasn't there, but now there's no one who even looks at your card.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#23

Post by legalcorrection »

gnicholas wrote: post #21
W-Stool wrote: post #7

In 2005 my wife and I lived in a part of the USA that had no Costco within a half day's drive. We soon secured jobs in a part of the USA that had two (two!) Costcos in the same city that we would live. True story - before we even looked for housing, I went online and joined Costco. Years later my diabetic cat even had a Costco pharmacy account (best place to buy insulin by far) and received a discount for being witho…

> Years later my diabetic cat even had a Costco pharmacy account (best place to buy insulin by far) and received a discount for being without health insurance. IIRC, you don't need a membership to: • shop at the pharmacy • buy alcohol • eat at the food court I believe the first two are due to govt regulations, and may only apply in certain states. It's also much easier for anyone to shop at Costco with a spouse's/fri…

>It's also much easier for anyone to shop at Costco with a spouse's/friend's membership card now that they have self-checkout. You used to have to worry about the cashier flagging you if the cardholder wasn't there, but now there's no one who even looks at your card.

Or how about don't be a liar/cheater and buy your own membership. It's not expensive and it pays for itself fast. Shame on whoever does this.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#24

Post by dominotw »

elbigbad wrote: post #11
lotsofpulp wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they are higher trust societies with less low level corruption, allowing one to have more peace of mind in day to day life. Simply going out in a vehicle is magnitudes riskier in the country my parents come from. My whole extended family can afford maids, cooks, and drivers, yet they all moved because they wanted a lower volatility life for their children, even if it meant doing your own laundry, cleaning, co…

Can you say more? My spouses family was same, I go visit them in their country and they have lavish wealth (comparatively to others in the country) and maids and cooks and such. But they moved to developed nations like AUS, US, and UK.

better air quality.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#26

Post by ortusdux »

gnicholas wrote: post #21
W-Stool wrote: post #7

In 2005 my wife and I lived in a part of the USA that had no Costco within a half day's drive. We soon secured jobs in a part of the USA that had two (two!) Costcos in the same city that we would live. True story - before we even looked for housing, I went online and joined Costco. Years later my diabetic cat even had a Costco pharmacy account (best place to buy insulin by far) and received a discount for being witho…

> Years later my diabetic cat even had a Costco pharmacy account (best place to buy insulin by far) and received a discount for being without health insurance. IIRC, you don't need a membership to: • shop at the pharmacy • buy alcohol • eat at the food court I believe the first two are due to govt regulations, and may only apply in certain states. It's also much easier for anyone to shop at Costco with a spouse's/fri…

The alcohol restriction is at the state level, so some stores do require a membership.

Namely : Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Texas, & Vermont have laws that ban requiring memberships for the purchase of alcohol.

IIRC, Costco's lobbiests played a large role in Washington's privatization of liquor sales, and the final law did not include such a restriction.

For those interested, the break even on a 2% cash back membership is at the $2k/year.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#27

Post by throwamon »

edmcnulty101 wrote: post #4

As a native born and poor American without any parents I feel the same way going to Costco. Its miraculous. After being homeless a few times as a native born American I still feel like showers are the ultimate luxury. I'm always happy to see immigrants with jobs in America and Europe but I can't help but wonder what can we do to make other countries as desirable as America? Theres billions of people. Why aren't their…

> Why aren't their countries desirable as well?

Yup, that would be pretty nice. If only America would let them.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_war_crimes

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent

Re: Love Song to Costco

#28

Post by nwatson »

legalcorrection wrote: post #23
gnicholas wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Years later my diabetic cat even had a Costco pharmacy account (best place to buy insulin by far) and received a discount for being without health insurance. IIRC, you don't need a membership to: • shop at the pharmacy • buy alcohol • eat at the food court I believe the first two are due to govt regulations, and may only apply in certain states. It's also much easier for anyone to shop at Costco with a spouse's/fri…

> It's also much easier for anyone to shop at Costco with a spouse's/friend's membership card now that they have self-checkout. You used to have to worry about the cashier flagging you if the cardholder wasn't there, but now there's no one who even looks at your card. Or how about don't be a liar/cheater and buy your own membership. It's not expensive and it pays for itself fast. Shame on whoever does this.

Yeah. I almost think of Costco as a privatized utopian socialist mini-state. One should pay to be a good citizen. ... But then I've also thought it would be cool to build an app to help people organize trips to Costco from "food deserts" to split memberships and bulk-sized items and the bill.

Also, once on a trip to Hawaii with my wife and extended family I had my arm around my wife in the Costco checkout line. I mentioned that "it feels so good and so right." My wife was at first flattered and then realized I was talking about the universality of the Costco experience.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#29

Post by foogazi »

pm90 wrote: post #15
edmcnulty101 wrote: post #4

As a native born and poor American without any parents I feel the same way going to Costco. Its miraculous. After being homeless a few times as a native born American I still feel like showers are the ultimate luxury. I'm always happy to see immigrants with jobs in America and Europe but I can't help but wonder what can we do to make other countries as desirable as America? Theres billions of people. Why aren't their…

> Theres billions of people. Why aren't their countries desirable as well? Because whenever they have political systems that promote stability or justice, those leaders are overthrown in favor of those who will obey diktaks of the IMF/World Bank/WTO which generally promote privatization and wealth concentration. So other countries are desirable but have low social/economic mobility.

> Because whenever they have political systems that promote stability or justice, those leaders are overthrown in favor of those who will obey diktaks of the IMF/World Bank/WTO

simplistic reasoning, but IMF was funded in 1945 - what’s your explanation for the previous 20 centuries?

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