51–60 of 280 posts
Amazing how much China has changed over the past 60 years. From backwards and famined to a global super power.
Also, do people in China get out of the city to go camping for the weekend?
These are honest questions I'd like to have answers for.
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
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By and large, the problem is unfortunately the reverse. If you have resources, your government ends up either an corrupt, nepotistic authoritarian hellhole or a corrupt, nepotistic socialist paradise (until the oil/gold/diamonds/gas run out, at which point it becomes a corrupt, nepotistic authoritarian hellhole) Most countries have the problem of corrupt, nepotistic governments that look after the insiders at the exp…
That didn't seem to happen in the Nordic countries.
Haven't read the piece yet, but I definitely will - for a long time I would like to understand why people are so enamored with Costco. I recently joined because they have some good food that is hard or more expensive to find elsewhere, but that's about it. To me it's just a store. Outside of the US/Canada I've never seen people evangelize a store so much.
Speaking more modern, it saves the mental effort of researching choices. Need something? Check Costco, buy if there, done.
Of course there are negatives associated with them, too.
My great grandfather moved to a different part of Asia and never went back. My grandfather moved elsewhere and never went back. My mother moved to another continent and then later, with my father, to a third, where I partially grew up. And I moved to yet another continent (with another emigrée), speaking a language that, like my mother, I had learned after growing up. Yet today I spoke English with a stranger, a woma…
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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…
Just buying gasoline at Costco is more than enough to pay back the membership fee in California. It’s about 50¢/gallon cheaper than other fuel in the same city.
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> 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
I just had my bike stolen from me in broad daylight. I said to myself "this is the kind of thing that happens in Brazil, not here".
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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…
I think the break even point for the upgrade is actually $3k/year, not $2k/year? The standard Gold Star Membership costs $60/year, and the Gold Star Executive Membership costs $120/year [0]. This is an additional $60/year (ignoring sales tax, etc.). In order to break even, you need to earn at least $60 using the 2% cash back from the Executive Membership in order to cover the upgrade. This works out to ($60/year) / 0…
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I used to think this. The Costco in Redwood City is a good deal compared to most stations, but the cheap station on Woodside Rd. (< 2 miles away) is basically the same price. It also never has long lines, which I often find at Costco.
I used to think it was false, and that the price drop wouldn’t pay for the extra distance to Costco, but times have changed since the invasion of Ukraine. It’s probably location dependent. I’m in Ventura County.
Haven't read the piece yet, but I definitely will - for a long time I would like to understand why people are so enamored with Costco. I recently joined because they have some good food that is hard or more expensive to find elsewhere, but that's about it. To me it's just a store. Outside of the US/Canada I've never seen people evangelize a store so much.
For me, it’s a modern equivalent of the soviet stores. There is no 10 kinds of everything, but the ones available are guaranteed to be fairly good quality and at an affordable price. Speaking more modern, it saves the mental effort of researching choices. Need something? Check Costco, buy if there, done. Of course there are negatives associated with them, too.
They research/test the products before selling them so that they comply with their quality standards. So once products are on the shelves its likely that they are good.
This make buying decisions easier. Which is a much better shopping experience than having to read a dozen product reviews while shopping online.