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Love Song to Costco

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Re: Love Song to Costco

#161

Post by DocTomoe »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #71
kvark wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> the ones available are guaranteed to be fairly good quality and at an affordable price I bought into the hype and got a Costco membership a few years back. One of the first things I went looking for was whole bean coffee (Peet's xmas roast). The local Costco had a bunch of coffee from Starbucks and Peets (meh quality to start) but only the painfully dark roasts and all of it was ground. Pre-ground coffee in bulk ha…

> I've never seen anyone say anything positive about Samsung, their service, or the serviceability of their appliances.

I've never had problems with Samsung appliances. Can't say the same for (supposedly high-quality) Bauknecht or Miele.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#162

Post by tristor »

wyldfire wrote: post #35
ortusdux wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

In Texas the Costcos have a liquor store that does not require a membership. But so far as I can tell, the alcohol sold in the Costco-proper likely does require a membership. Perhaps the presence of the liquor store satisfies the legal requirement.

In Texas, liquor (spirits) sales and non-spirits sales are different classes of licenses with different rules. Costco in Texas does NOT sell any spirits/liquor inside of the membership area, only beer, wine, and premixed cocktails (e.g. margarita in a bottle, which is made with agave wine not tequila anyway). The attached non-member liquor store is the only part which sells spirits, and as required by Texas law is open to the public without a membership.

Related to this, Texas also has "blue laws" which ended in 1985 other than the parts covering automotive dealers and liquor stores. So in Texas, liquor stores cannot be open on Sundays (nor can car lots). This is another reason Costco may be incentivized to not sell liquor within the member-only part of the store separately from the other requirements from TABC, because they are open on Sundays.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#163

Post by unixhero »

base698 wrote: post #149
gopalv wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would like to understand why people are so enamored with Costco The first thing someone told me when I got to the US was to go to Costco, pay the membership and get an AMEX charge card for Costco. If you are someone with zero credit history and want to buy groceries without having cash on you all the time, then Costco is a big part of the "welcome to America" package. What Costco lacks in variety, it made up in q…

Costco only takes Visa.

Wrong It takes American Express too.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#164

Post by rglullis »

ekianjo wrote: post #125

as usual most people react to the headline without reading the article :)

I am amused by how clear it is to spot those that didn't even bother to open the link. All of them, no exceptions, could be summarized as "I am completely ignorant of what's actually being talked about and I am not really inclined to dig deeper into it. Anyway, let me interject with my worthless opinion and find a way to make this about me."

But then again, perhaps this could be a meta-commentary about how American hyper-individualism makes everyone's worldview so small that they can not see anything but themselves, and yet this somehow "works"?

Re: Love Song to Costco

#166

Post by KillerRAK »

Costco is the best!

In addition to having a great curated product selection that one can trust, they appear to treat their employees well as they always have a great attitude and top-notch customer service.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#167

Post by lordgrenville »

slyall wrote: post #100
lbrito wrote: post #47

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.

New Zealand is getting our first store in a couple of months and people are obsessed with it. Stories in the media nearly every week. Long queues for membership. A lot of this is because the local Supermarket Duopoly avoids competing on price and makes great profits. People are looking forward to cutting their costs and also a flow-on as the supermarkets cut their prices a little to compete. Similar to IKEA which is…

I would guess that island conditions naturally lead to (at least tacit) price collusion, such that the entry of a multinational might not lead to prices going down. (In the US, the classic case is White vs. Packer, about gas prices in Martha's Vineyard.) IKEA prices vary a lot between countries. https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/latest/121925681/no...

Re: Love Song to Costco

#168

Post by anotherman554 »

base698 wrote: post #149
gopalv wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would like to understand why people are so enamored with Costco The first thing someone told me when I got to the US was to go to Costco, pay the membership and get an AMEX charge card for Costco. If you are someone with zero credit history and want to buy groceries without having cash on you all the time, then Costco is a big part of the "welcome to America" package. What Costco lacks in variety, it made up in q…

Costco only takes Visa.

Visa or Mastercard debit (not credit). They used to be American Express exclusive.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#169

Post by ianai »

ridgered4 wrote: post #153
chiyc wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to say that's a relatively recent change.

Yes, sometime within the last 5 years they broke their long partnership with AMEX. It seems to be Citibank now.

Have to wonder whether it’ll change in another 5 years.

Making 4% back on gas is mega killer though.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#170

Post by greenthrow »

kfrzcode wrote: post #101
inferiorhuman wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> when it comes to a $4,000 gazebo or some $2,000 appliance I have really come to trust Costco's vetting. How does that jive with selling Samsung (and LG) appliances? Samsung is easily the worst appliance manufacturer in North America across pretty much any appliance. LG's not too much better but supposedly their dryers and front load washers are decent.

I've been happy with my Samsung range, fridge, dishwasher and TV It's been 6months. When should I expect issues?

The TV will probably hold up just fine, other than the ads it will show if connected to the internet.

Samsung/LG appliances (washer/dryer, fridge, etc.) usually last 5 years or less. Whereas a quality appliance should last 10 years or more. My source on this is friends who work in the industry plus the experience of family members who bought LG/Samsung appliances anyway.

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