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Love Song to Costco

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Re: Love Song to Costco

#261
post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Curious if being swedish national has to do with perspectives. From what I heard, perspectives of swedish nationals usually involves leaving Sweden. I'm living on Kungsholmen for several years already if that matters. Getting to Kungens Kurva from Thorildsplan involves one change and realistically takes a bit more than an hour to get there. Of course, you can't bring a huge box with your new sofa to a bus or metro an…

I think in many ways it does because - and this is not meant to be a criticism but a statement of experience - I have really only heard complaints from those that are used to a culture of being able to drive somewhere, get their items of choice and bring them back. Maybe it is more of a Stockholm thing to plan days around this sort of thing, but when you say you only change once from Thorildsplan that is to me initially thinking an amazing setup. But I can see where if you come from a place where you just hop into the car and drive 5 minutes you get to your destination why it would be annoying. And yeah ofc it's just expected that for somethings you need to plan 3rd party services around things. For the garbage collection prime example, TipTapp is our goto since it works wonders for us (but ofc can't technically do "garbage" with it but great for sofas and such), we accept that without a car and trailer this is what we must do. That or plan around a neighbor's trip. As for not renting, I mean it's stockholm, parking will be expensive and not everyone likes the idea of paying 1100kr per month for parking I get it. Sometimes we rent a car but that's more for longer trips (read: to Romme Alpin or the like). I guess it's part of living in the city. You make a lot of tradeoffs. I do remember hearing how frustrating it was though for some expat colleagues that everything had to be planned for summer by like April/May and they liked to be more spontaneous. It makes me wonder that maybe it is just expected of people to plan too much here :P. If you try to just be spontaneous it doesn't work out well for many

Re: Love Song to Costco

#262
post #7

In 2005 my wife and I lived in a part of the USA that had no Costco within a half day's drive. We soon secured jobs in a part of the USA that had two (two!) Costcos in the same city that we would live. True story - before we even looked for housing, I went online and joined Costco. Years later my diabetic cat even had a Costco pharmacy account (best place to buy insulin by far) and received a discount for being witho…

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…

> (due to proximity, the Costco is ~ 15 min drive away vs 5 mins for the Sam's club)

this kinda makes me... sad, I guess? Just how embedded the need to drive is for america. (As in, having to drive, rather than being able to)

Just such a different culture from what I know.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#263
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…

No post body was provided.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#264
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.

Trader Joe's customers enter the chat...

I see a few stores have their evangelists, but TJ's are the most evangelical IME. Other places that seem to have their cults are Menard's and Buc-ees. I've never been to a Menards, living in the southern US, but I get the love for all the others.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#265
post #83

My favorite Costco is in Iceland: a place where things are normally absurdly expensive, and Costco Iceland is merely somewhat expensive. Arrive, stock up on food for a week (to supplement with restaurants, but some savings). Costco Japan would be really fun to visit too (haven't yet). Also Costco + Internet (Amazon, B+H, etc.) are essentially 99% of my shopping here in Puerto Rico. Visiting Costco, Walmart, etc. imme…

How's the Internet in Puerto Rico?

I have 2Gbps symmetric fiber at home for $100/mo. There are a couple fiber vendors, cable Internet (although low upload speeds, but better than Comcast in the US), fixed wireless, and now Starlink. Internet, cell, telecommunications are all great after deregulation/privatization back in 2000; the problems are power and water (which are more government run, or monopolies selected by the government).

Re: Love Song to Costco

#267
post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How's the Internet in Puerto Rico?

I have 2Gbps symmetric fiber at home for $100/mo. There are a couple fiber vendors, cable Internet (although low upload speeds, but better than Comcast in the US), fixed wireless, and now Starlink. Internet, cell, telecommunications are all great after deregulation/privatization back in 2000; the problems are power and water (which are more government run, or monopolies selected by the government).

(er, sorry, it's 2Gbps down and 1Gbps up for $100/mo)

Re: Love Song to Costco

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's also much easier for anyone to shop at Costco with a spouse's/friend's membership card now that they have self-checkout. You used to have to worry about the cashier flagging you if the cardholder wasn't there, but now there's no one who even looks at your card. Or how about don't be a liar/cheater and buy your own membership. It's not expensive and it pays for itself fast. Shame on whoever does this.

Yes. This is what people should be ashamed about. Good for you for shitting on people! /s

Thank you

Re: Love Song to Costco

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

You want the site to revolve around your preferences. Not using a certain word doesn’t change the meaning and intent behind what you’re saying. A pretty shallow way of seeing things.

You appear to have a consistent attitude that you are not only always correct, but every one not like you is intellectually beneath you. You have been rude through this entire conversation putting people down.

I could have an identical conversation with any one on a Jordan Peterson thread. With every single one of those fans similarly believing in their own uniqueness and superiority. The smugness. None of them are shallow ofc either.

Re: Love Song to Costco

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 quan…

Your store(s) must have better coffee selections than the ones I frequent. Ruta Maya, Mayorga, some Kirkland varieties and others are much better than what I can get locally and only available to me online.
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