Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I want to live like Costco people

tastecooking.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–340 of 760 posts

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#331

Post by RHSeeger »

beloch wrote: post #303
Aurornis wrote: post #8

> Something about the whole thing always registered to me as, like, lame—too normcore, too boring, perhaps even too cheugy to an informed and taste-driven millennial ur-consumer like me. The kinds of brands I like to buy aren’t what they sell at Costco Good example of how people can build identities through their brand choices and purchasing habits. It’s a foreign concept for many of us who seek out the best product…

Nobody is going to come to your funeral and tearfully wail that you had fabulous taste in handbags. Brands may serve as camouflage when you're trying to conform, but conforming is not an identity. Your identity is based on what you create, not what you consume.

But, I won't be there to see how they feel about me at my funeral. I'm here now, to see how they treat me. So yes, doing things to conform / be one of the crowd may not be what people remember you for... but it may be what impacts your daily life.

Just an observation. My computer bag is older than most of my coworkers.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#332

Post by starkparker »

mrbombastic wrote: post #253
sicvita wrote: post #223

> I will never buy Costco coffee—I know too much about coffee, and my allegiance to a coterie of indie micro roasters (Yes Plz subscription for life) and esoteric brewing methods has ruined me for life from enjoying the simple pleasures of a Kirkland Signature K-Cup pod. You can pry the 2-lb bags of Mayorga Cafe Cubano dark roast coffee from my cold, dead hands.

Ruta Maya is quite good as well, probably not as big of a coffee snob as the author though.

An author who lives in Portland but gets a mail-order coffee subscription from California, no less. A half-dozen indie microroasters within 2 miles of him? _Not good enough_

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#333

Post by rbbydotdev »

when you consider the setup and infrastructure going to and fro the mega warehouse of dry and perishable goods, also considering the required equipment, (a sedan, or large car) - It begins to become apparent the genesis of costco largely rises out of Americas car culture and suburbia.

Alternatively elsewhere, small shops, many locally owned, butchers, vendors convenience stores replace the existence of 'costco'

In these facts, I dont know if its necessarily a bad thing, but there is something empty, soulless and anti social about it.

Maybe a few grape tomatoes for thought between the world salad of this article, "cognitive pattern. It is a jarring thoughtscape, remarkably compelling and nondiscursive and utterly hard to shake." - That is what the author too is getting at?

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#334

Post by rahimnathwani »

throw0101c wrote: post #118

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

The sentence you quoted from Wikipedia is nonsensical.

Comparing one revenue line to total net profit is a category error: the numerator and denominator measure different things.

In FY2024, Costco did $249.6B in net sales and collected $4.8B in membership fees. Gross margin on product sales was about $25B. That $25B is 5x the membership fee revenue. So, even if you consider membership fees as being free money, membership fees are only 16% of gross margin.

Moreover, without those product sales, the membership would be worth zero and no one would buy it.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#335

Post by stickfigure »

jsbisviewtiful wrote: post #170
throw0101c wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Careful - even Gen-Z is looking at Kirkland clothing for certain pieces […] I've heard good things about their wool socks.

They used to be better but I stopped buying them after COVID related supply chain problems lowered the quality, at least a few years ago. Dunno if they rebounded. Supposedly they are made in the same factory as Smartwool

That seems improbable. I have bought "merino" socks from Costco and they are only something like 20% merino. I also have Smartwool socks and they are quite different.

I actually like Costco's generic black-and-orange athletic sock as a daily driver. I treat them poorly; we take off our shoes in the house but not socks. As they wear out, I throw them away; once a year I buy a new pack to refresh the losses. I use the Smartwool for activities but otherwise take good care of them. They last.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#336

Post by cayleyh »

foobarian wrote: post #294
type4 wrote: post #199

I have a really mixed feeling about Costco. I hate it, I going there, I hate the crowds, the parking, the people, being hawked a credit card, a cell phone, whatever the vendors are selling. It makes me feel like a pig in a slaughterhouse waiting to get out of the store, I feel like it's the platonic form of consumption. We all go to the nice little consumption center like good piggies to get our sustenance and to get…

The one thing that brings me back there is their croissants. There are none other like it, and their product is a 12ct pack for a very reasonable price.

You can buy them frozen, directly from the baking counter, in 144 count boxes... Just saying...

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#337

Post by zabzonk »

ncrc74 wrote: post #241

You'll never live like Costco people You'll never do what ever Costco people do Never fail like Costco people You'll never watch your life slide out of view And then dance and drink and screw Because there's nothing else to do

I took her to a supermarket

I don't know why but I had to start it somewhere

So it started there

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#339

Post by fragmede »

shaftway wrote: post #98
giwook wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair point. What about cars or houses?

That fancy Lamborghini is going to be sitting in the same traffic as my Honda.

Not in LA/socal. The secret is out. There's a bunch of underground tunnels that rich and well connected people can use, that the little people can not.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#340

Post by throwway120385 »

trollbridge wrote: post #207
Petersipoi wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking Doesn't the fact that the original quote literally acknowledges "bums on the corner" imply that he wasn't referring to housing at all?

I have found the Coke machines at Costco to always have a perfect mixture.

“If you raise (the price of the) effing hot dog, I will kill you”
Post reply on HN