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Love Song to Costco

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Re: Love Song to Costco

#251

Post by calvano915 »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #196
ianai wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

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

The Costco Visa also include an automatic warranty extension of 2 years beyond manufacturer.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#252

Post by rglullis »

skinnymuch wrote: post #250
rglullis wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you taking literally something that I wrote just for rhetorical effect? Let me try in another way: I don't think that wading through tens of comments saying "I like/love/dislike Costco" or "I prefer Wegmans/Kirkland/whatever" is the type of thing that hits the mark for being a place that "gratifies one's intellectual curiosity". This would be for boring conversation already if the topic at hand was a discussion a…

I was trying to make the point that not reading an article doesn’t mean shallow comment or a tendency for more shallow comments on its own. I am a first generation person, but I didn’t find the article interesting. I skipped all comment threads about the story once I saw they were similarly uninteresting to me. I enjoyed the Costco comment threads. A Costco opened up near me this year so I care about that. I don’t be…

> I am a first generation person

> they were similarly uninteresting to me

> A Costco opened up near me

Me. Me. Meeeeeeeeeeee.

I do not want to sound (too) rude, but I hope you realize how shallow this whole exchange sounds?

Re: Love Song to Costco

#253

Post by RainaRelanah »

wil421 wrote: post #194
tristor wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Most liquor stores are actually opposed to repealing Sunday sale blue laws. They still sell the same volume, but have to stay open an extra day.

It's annoying, but I deal with it because my local liquor store only has two employees, and the wife is behind the register 12 hours a day 6 days a week. Sunday is the only time she gets off.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#254

Post by frakkingcylons »

I guess everyone else read Costco in the title and stopped. But my parents are from the same generation (also from Fuzhou, no less) and this was heartbreaking to read. Mine never explicitly mentioned going hungry, it was just implied. I also have an aunt (the eldest) who lost years of her life working on a farm in the countryside. It was forced by the state, not a decision made by her parents. She only returned home after she had a very severe case of malaria.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#255

Post by generj »

lowercased wrote: post #171
DocTomoe wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is always interesting to read how different such brands are perceived in different countries. Over here in Germany, Lidl is considered "the better discount store" as compared to Aldi (especially Aldi Nord), and has made a push to more high-level products (which often are better than name-brand stuff that they also carry). When I talk to British friends, the idea of shopping at a Lidl seems to be sacrilegious to th…

We got a Lidl near us - one of the first when they were planning their US East Coast invasion. Apparently, they're scaling back new stores, and ours is one of a handful of 'large' footprint stores, and almost everything after that is (or will be) probably half the size. We love Lidl mostly because of the price. Almost everything was/is around 20-30% less than the stores around it. Much of this is from 'store brand' i…

The US stigma is interesting, because Lidl stocks more high quality goods than many other stores. E.g. the jelly is from Germany, the chocolate is inexpensive yet fair trade.

I don’t know if I eat cheaper at Lidl but I eat better. The cheese and meat sections alone - I have probably twice as many charcuterie boards now that a Lidl moved in.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#257

Post by slyall »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #249
slyall wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Where will the stores be located? Auckland or greater Wellington perhaps?

Westgate in West Auckland.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#258

Post by anyyw »

I’m glad that I’m not the only one who shares the distinct memory of helping my dad pack up piles of Costco joint support vitamins and chocolate for when he went back to China. This article really hit me with nostalgia.

I also remember hearing stories about the first opening of a Costco in Shanghai. Given the rest of the comments here about initial openings in new countries, it’s funny to see how much of a cultural impact the brand has.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#259

Post by inferiorhuman »

anonAndOn wrote: post #230
inferiorhuman wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Costco.com is where to look for coffee and other foodstuffs. You may have to buy the coffee in 5 lb bags, but the selection is superior and the quality is generally very good.

Looks about the same to me. They have Peets Nespresso cups, K-cups, bags of ground coffee, and whole beans (conveniently filed under "ground coffee"). K-Cups are offered in hazelnut mocha (yikes), house, french roast, maj. dickason, and decaf maj. dickason. The ground beans are available in Colombian, Big Bang, Decaf Maj. Dickason (+ decaf), and Organic Alameda Morning.

Whole bean? Just Major Dicakson in various quantities.

You could make an argument that the disposable cups will have a decent shelf life. 10 ounce bags of grounds won't though – that's kind of the antithesis of quality right there.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#260

Post by noltncy »

ghufran_syed wrote: post #107
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…

It's also worth knowing that you don't have to spend the "Cashback" voucher in the store, you can go to customer services and they'll give you actual cash instead! I just learned this after being a member for 14 years...

They don’t do this anymore. It used to be the case. Last year, I tried and I was asked to use it at the checkout station to buy stuff.
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