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Always found Costco's largest source of profits interesting: > Revenue from membership fees accounts for the majority of the company's profits, accounting for over 72% of the company's net operating income in fiscal years 2022 and 2023, and 65.5% in fiscal year 2024.[115][a] * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costco#Business_model
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Fair point. What about cars or houses?
A Tesla will out accelerate all but the most niche cars now. Even the cheapest cars can have giant screens and climate control. I don't think they are equal to a Rolls Royce, but extreme luxury has greater diminishing returns now than at any point in history. Where I live pretty much all new houses are being built with granite counter tops and hardwood floors. Whether that's a good thing is a whole other topic ...
Claims presented without evidence. My slightly modified Subaru Wagon from '05 "out-accelerated" base Teslas - dead even in 1st gear, started pulling once the shift to 2nd happened. (Most) EVs cannot shift gears to get torque multiplication, so they start fast, but fall off as speeds get higher. My Kia gas car will outrun all but the model 3 performance - which the average person is NOT driving. Neither of those cars are "niche".
Costco's gimmick is relieving you of choice and price shopping. They find the best stuff and don't mark it up. If Consumer is your identity yet you fear executing its labors, let Costco step in and become your denomination of consumerism, complete with tithe, proscribed usury, and communion hot dog.
Identifying as a rabid consumer is not a requirement of appreciating Costco. The end result of that gimmick is that it feels like they're looking out for their customers and offering them a valuable service as opposed to trying to suck them dry. Buy this blender; don't buy this blender; they don't care, just know that this is probably the one that will best meet your needs, it's the best deal you're going to find on…
The sabbath was always meant for man and that makes a lot of people very angry because whatever ideological or religious lip service someone gives their behavior demonstrate they hate man, or more subtly, love mankind like dollars in their pocket, stripping humans of their humanity.
This mendacious attitude is also a major driver of enshitification.
The internet and executive social distancing has made a huge swath of people lose touch with how unique individuals are, so they treat humanity with the bigotry and coldness that the law of large numbers has lead them to, which is ultimately very mean.
I think the most extreme hoi polloi, kings and paupers experience I've had in the U.S is at the DMV. No matter how rich you are, you have to show up in person with everyone else, from the poorest mentally ill welfare/SSDI recipient who has to get someone to help them because they can't read the forms in any language, to the extremely wealthy. Everyone has to sit there and wait on those generic plastic chairs.
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It sounds like you’ve just been around toxic and superficial people in your international travels and then extrapolated from them to their whole countries. Unfortunately, they have people like that everywhere.
Not necessarily. South Korea is one example that I have intimate knowledge of where one's consumer habits (the clothes one wears, the car one drives, the logo on one's handbag) is the ultimate signal of status. You're automatically pre-judged by complete strangers without having to say a single word. There are always exceptions to the rule, but it is in fact an unspoken rule over there.
Always found Costco's largest source of profits interesting: > Revenue from membership fees accounts for the majority of the company's profits, accounting for over 72% of the company's net operating income in fiscal years 2022 and 2023, and 65.5% in fiscal year 2024.[115][a] * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costco#Business_model
I will brave the downvotes and say: I don’t like Costco. It’s not out of snobbishness, their quality is excellent at excellent prices. My problem is that I find I spend more at Costco than at conventional grocery stores like Trader Joe’s. The paradox is, it’s cheaper, but I spend more. I buy things I wouldn’t normally buy, and ant higher quantities. Even worse, I somehow eat it all quite quickly. I spend more and eat…
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Not necessarily. South Korea is one example that I have intimate knowledge of where one's consumer habits (the clothes one wears, the car one drives, the logo on one's handbag) is the ultimate signal of status. You're automatically pre-judged by complete strangers without having to say a single word. There are always exceptions to the rule, but it is in fact an unspoken rule over there.
are you not describing "toxic and superficial" ? I specifically take issue with pre-judgement based on clothes, cars, and logos.
I'm saying that in the case of South Korea, that extrapolation is very much accurate.
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Costco is a store... where coffee, usually gas and most food + home goods are reliable in quality and priced well comparatively. Comparing the price of salmon fillets at Costco to Whole Foods or elsewhere is eye-opening. Would I buy clothes or furniture from Costco? No - because both are bland. The end. If the writer wants to make it anything more than that... They are a bit too obsessed with self-image vs wasting mo…
>> Would I buy clothes or furniture from Costco? Careful - even Gen-Z is looking at Kirkland clothing for certain pieces, and some furniture (like the Murphy bed I bought from them) is better when it's bland and greige
I grew up in a post soviet country. To me Costco, has perfected the soviet ideal of shopping more than any soviet economy ever could. In a Costco, we are all equal. I could be shopping for the same set of beige slacks right next to the CEO of a multi-million dollar company and never know it. We'll own the same Waterpik. Identical towels. Our lawn furniture will look the same. Everything is purchased at a fair price.…
Good comment, but IMHO the main reason to not love it so much is the annual membership fee. It sits well with cult cultivation. Other stores don't require it and they don't form a cult around them.
What it buys for me is, "not Walmart People". Totally worth the investment.