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Love Song to Costco

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Re: Love Song to Costco

#191

Post by ecopoesis »

dont__panic wrote: post #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 Wegma…

Wegmans has recently come to New England. They are generally much nicer, cleaner, and organized then our big local chain, Stop & Shop.

However Wegmans has a weird inventory. Many things you could find in any New England grocery store like steak tips, salt-top rolls, or brown bread are simply missing.

It wasn't until I was perusing Wegmans' extensive cured meat department that I realized I was thinking of Wegmans the wrong way: it's not a grocery store, it's an ethnic food store, like a Super 88. But instead of being Chinese, Wegmans is a midwest ethnic food store.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#192

Post by wil421 »

ortusdux wrote: post #26
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…

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…

Georgia lets you buy liquor without a membership but it’s a separate store within a store that has its own entrance. Corporations and families are also limited to owning 2 liquor stores in the state so only 2 Costcos sell liquor.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#193

Post by Spivak »

dmos62 wrote: post #190
Suzuran wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That depends, are you the health inspector? But yeah, unless you live in an area where the average home is 400k+ and the average car is a Mercedes your local grocery stores will be "grimey". Not really dirty, but staffed by people who (rightfully) aren't paid enough to care. By comparison Costco is basically sterile.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#194

Post by wil421 »

tristor wrote: post #162
wyldfire wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 op…

We have similar liquor/beer/wine laws in Georgia. Recently they did away with no sales on Sunday and some local “mimosa” brunch laws that allow restaurants to sell alcohol before 12:30. Good forbid someone drinking watching sports before church gets out.

Anyway, grocery stores will turn off the beer cooler lights on Sunday morning and put a note with the time they will be able to sell it.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#195

Post by convFixb »

dmos62 wrote: post #190
Suzuran wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Thanks to our old friend Baumol [1], cleanliness is not the norm in any typical grocery store in the 1st world.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol's_cost_disease

Re: Love Song to Costco

#196

Post by AdmiralAsshat »

ianai wrote: post #169
ridgered4 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

My understanding is that they changed because Citi offered them a better deal.[0]

That said, I do kinda miss the Amex and its automatic extended warranty.

[0]https://money.cnn.com/2016/03/31/pf/costco-visa-american-exp...

Re: Love Song to Costco

#197

Post by [deleted] »

rexf wrote: post #91
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.

Shopping for appliances is not easy. For my recent purchase, I looked at wirecutter as a starting point and bought from Costco. Also I got a 3rd party extended warranty (since you never know with water-using appliances). According to Wirecutter (NYT): "If you’re a member, Costco offers the cheapest delivery and installation of the big national chains, you’ll get an additional year of warranty coverage for many produc…

[deleted]

Re: Love Song to Costco

#198

Post by adwi »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #76
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a Costco account and a Sam's Club (Walmart's Costco equivalent) account. Even though I do something like 98% of my bulk shopping at Sam's club (due to proximity, the Costco is ~ 15 min drive away vs 5 mins for the Sam's club), it's still worth it for me to hold the Costco membership for specific purchases. Notably I've purchased (because there's no better place to buy these things and the vendor vetting is ama…

> 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.

Tangential but have been buying appliances for the first time and have been deep in research of what to do with a small-moderate budget.

I had indeed heard the same about Samsung, and more generally designed service lives I elected to buy all used but (good condition) late-model Miele appliances. They’re rated at 20+ years, they focus on reliability and repairability, and if you’re patient you can get them for less than even the cheapest Samsung etc models, especially when taxes are taken into account.

Not to mention they’re the best quality appliances money can buy. I definitely don’t need a paella mode on my dishwasher, but it makes me smile every time (and remember I paid $200 for it)

Re: Love Song to Costco

#199

Post by Spivak »

noSyncCloud wrote: post #102
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.

> Samsung is easily the worst appliance manufacturer in North America > LG's not too much better Any sources for these blazing hot takes? Or are we supposed to take your hearsay at face value?

I'll pile on Samsung being absolute garbage. Same is true for GE and LG. Went through three fridges before the warranty ran out. Then just bit the bullet and bought a Bosch 800 and have had zero trouble since.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#200

Post by bloppe »

shp0ngle wrote: post #126
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.

The piece is not really about costco though. I mean it is, but not really .

ya lol it feels like 90% of the people on HN go straight to the comments without reading the pieces
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