Live data from Hacker News

Love Song to Costco

longreads.com

181–190 of 280 posts

Re: Love Song to Costco

#181
post #98

Costco will open in Sweden soon. On the opposite part of Stockholm from where I live, so I don't think it will be useful for me. I don't know much about it but I am excited to see what it will bring, and if it will affect the general grocery market around here.

Stockholm is a horrible place to live long term. You are basically banned from owning a car, but there are no convenient connections to huge shopping centers like Kungens Kurva (and stores likes IKEA doesn't offer delivery for most items!) and huge retail/warehouse stores like Biltema.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#182
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.

Plenty of good points made already - gas is cheap, products are good - but what keeps me a Costco shopper is the consistent and frequent stories about them being a genuinely good employer. Maybe because I've spent my career in retail IT, but I hear all the time about how good of a place Costco is to work. Staff turnover is low, wages are good, and they close for most holidays. I may not need 48 AA batteries often, but when I do, I'd rather buy them at Costco.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#184
A lot of people I know in the tech space seem to love Costco. I've been. It's fine -- compared to a lot of other dingy, sad, depressing grocery stores, it is absolute MILES better. So I understand the fondness.

But for me, it can never compare to Wegmans. At Wegmans, the store brand is always a sensible default purchase in a category, and often the best option in a category. The employees all seem happy because Wegmans has been one of the best blue collar employers in the country for a couple of decades now. The hot bar, burger shop, and sub shop are all fantastic: relatively cheap, and often better than any fast/casual alternatives in the area. They have a great beer selection, if you live in a state that allows beer sales in grocery stores.

Caveat: if you've only ever visited the Brooklyn Wegmans, or honestly any Wegmans outside of the core central-western NY zone, you're missing out on the best qualities of Wegmans. For whatever reason, the stores they've started in new regions in the past few years just don't capture the same Wegmans spirit. The creme de la creme Platonic form Wegmans will forever be Rochester's Pittsford Plaza location. If you're ever in Rochester, it's worth the visit.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#185
post #181
post #98

Costco will open in Sweden soon. On the opposite part of Stockholm from where I live, so I don't think it will be useful for me. I don't know much about it but I am excited to see what it will bring, and if it will affect the general grocery market around here.

Stockholm is a horrible place to live long term. You are basically banned from owning a car, but there are no convenient connections to huge shopping centers like Kungens Kurva (and stores likes IKEA doesn't offer delivery for most items!) and huge retail/warehouse stores like Biltema.

I am curious if your perspective comes from someone that is swedish or not. The general consensus locally is the opposite sentiment ime and ofc you can easily rent cars for the day or a small trailer for very cheap. That coupled with the fact to for example Kungens Kurva it is somewhere you can get to within an hour from within even the city center is quite nice and the bus stop is literally next to the IKEA (ofc you go to Barkarby if more north and again the station for the bus is right next to center). The delivery is interesting that you note considering we have always been able to get things delivered to our apartment though maybe it depends where you live...

Re: Love Song to Costco

#186

A lot of people I know in the tech space seem to love Costco. I've been. It's fine -- compared to a lot of other dingy, sad, depressing grocery stores, it is absolute MILES better. So I understand the fondness. But for me, it can never compare to Wegmans. At Wegmans, the store brand is always a sensible default purchase in a category, and often the best option in a category. The employees all seem happy because Wegma…

Everything you said about Wegmans is true of Costco. Kirkland brand is usually the best option if they make it and Costco is known for their high starting wages, benefits, and treating their employees well. Their hot dog (1/4 lb all-beef) + drink deal has stayed at $1.50 for decades and is legitimately a solid lunch. Their beer selection is good (at least in NY) although I would recommend just going to a local brewery to buy beer in pretty much any state.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#187
post #98

Costco will open in Sweden soon. On the opposite part of Stockholm from where I live, so I don't think it will be useful for me. I don't know much about it but I am excited to see what it will bring, and if it will affect the general grocery market around here.

The thing that will be interesting to see as well is how they approach a market where delivery has been increasingly important over bulk availability. Thinking about prices of services like MatHem and picsmart etc and if they can shake it up

Re: Love Song to Costco

#188

A lot of people I know in the tech space seem to love Costco. I've been. It's fine -- compared to a lot of other dingy, sad, depressing grocery stores, it is absolute MILES better. So I understand the fondness. But for me, it can never compare to Wegmans. At Wegmans, the store brand is always a sensible default purchase in a category, and often the best option in a category. The employees all seem happy because Wegma…

Wegmans is just another overpriced grocery store with a huge wine selection going for it. Literally here in NC I'd rather go to Harris Teeter or Whole Foods than Wegmans. Some HT's have a bar to hang out at which I occasionally do before I do my shopping. I just don't see the appeal of Wegmans except the transplant northerners who are reminiscencing.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#189
Somewhere I read a quote from some cranky business analyst complaining about how the low prices, quality products and high wages impact profits. "It's better to be a Costco customer or Costco employee than it is to be a Costco shareholder."

To which I responded "That sounds like a well run company!"

Re: Love Song to Costco

#190
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.

Costco is generally clean, Costco doesn't have the corporate reputation for extreme exploitation of their workers that Walmart does, Costco's store brand is actually decent, there appears to be no overt cost-cutting in store operations, and for me the big deal was that Costco was the only place around here that attempted to actually enforce mask mandates after you were inside the store. I saw one lady getting escorte…

> Costco is generally clean

That makes it sound like cleanliness is not the norm in grocery stores in US.

Post reply on HN