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I want to live like Costco people

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Re: I want to live like Costco people

#421

Post by daemonologist »

selimthegrim wrote: post #136
narrator wrote: post #72

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.

In many southern states the job is outsourced to private tag agents so there might be only a few actual DMV offices in big cities.

And in my experience this means you usually have to go to both the DMV and then across town to the tag agent.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#422

Post by JKCalhoun »

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.

(If you're having to say this to someone, I suspect you are wasting your breath.)

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#423

Post by ChoGGi »

Wow, reading some of these comments. I think I love my Costco.

If I'm grabbing an item or two and they haven't been moved I can be in and out in under 10 minutes.

Lethbridge AB, some of these other ones sound like an adventure.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#425

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

queuebert wrote: post #117
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> where the commodity store brand is significantly worse than alternatives (batteries). Kirkland batteries actually last longer than Duracell. They're some of the best alkaline batteries you can get, especially considering the price. Sure, lithium batteries will last longer, but the mAh per dollar is lower, so they'll still cost more. https://youtu.be/8VumAfhdhAI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ_tGjXm0Ng

That has not been my experience at all. I think Kirkland batteries have less capacity than the premium brands. Also the point of lithium batteries is that they don't leak, not that they last longer.

> I think Kirkland batteries have less capacity than the premium brands

If you're comparing alkaline to alkaline, it's simply not true. The two videos I linked showed people testing it.

> Also the point of lithium batteries is that they don't leak, not that they last longer.

Well, they DO last longer by a significant margin. Again, this was tested in the second video I linked. The description in the video has a link to the spreadsheet of their data: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KwTt0lu7_aytity4IE3S...

Kirkland Alkaline was on par with the Rayovac Fusion+ and Duracell Powerboost. Only Rayovac Fusion was noticeably better (oddly, the non-plus version was better), and even then, it's not significantly better considering the price.

In terms of dollars per mAh, Kirkland is #2, only behind AmazonBasics.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#426

Post by initatus »

RajT88 wrote: post #373

Costco is my least favorite part of middle age. Although, I do generally like their products and pricing. For some reason my wife likes taking more time there than other places we shop for food, and I get anxious to get it over with. You can bet most of the times I wander off to get things off our list that she's herself wandered off, and the Costco we go to doesn't have good cell coverage. So I then end up both anxi…

I figured out that when I push the cart, my wife runs all over and I struggle to keep up and navigate the cart between the crowds and it's an anxiety inducing experience trying to keep up before she turns a corner, then another, never to be seen again.

When she is encumbered with navigating the cart, it's quite easy to stay nearby as all her movements have to be more considered. This also generally restricts her to the same lumbering speed as all the other carts in the store.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#428

Post by danso »

silisili wrote: post #26
danso wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are people supposed to act while waiting in line to check out?

That's the takeaway - that people are supposed to be bored in line? I wasn't insulting the people, I was describing what to me is the awful human experience of shopping at Costco.

I was just struck by this line:

> there were hordes of people standing lifelessly in a huge line waiting to check themselves out

Where are the retail experiences where people waiting to checkout are expressing an abundance of joy in life to you? Is the problem the “horde”? Sure, popular places tend to have a lot of people. I’m not sure why Costco customers act way less fun to you than at other places? This whole comments reads like a petulant “everyone is a NPC but me” screed

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#429

Post by heathrow83829 »

whyenot wrote: post #404
henryfjordan wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's 1655 calories in a pound of uncooked rice, so with 330lbs you are sitting at ~1500 calories a day for a whole year. You wouldn't starve to death, but you'd absolutely want to supplement (both for more calories and probably for vitamins). But also you'd be eating that rice every single day pretty much, how else are you getting through that much rice?

Wouldn't you also need at least a little protein? and some lipids? For example, there is a lot more in Soylent than just rice flour. Oh, are we talking brown rice or white rice? That seems like it might make a huge difference, not only in nutrition, but also pooping.

the biggest problem with white rice is the lack of fiber, the somewhat high glycemic index, and it has the same problem all processed grains have: lacking potassium, iron and magnesium. these days though white rice and other processed grains all come with added b-vitamins (before that started at the turn of the century, there were massive b-vitamin deficiencies popping up everywhere). white rice has less protein than most grains but at 9% of calories, that's still not bad though some variety wouldn't hurt.

don't get me wrong, white rice isn't the worst thing in your diet but i think it's great to diversify with some whole grains and lots of beans (a real superfood), many of which can be had for 2$ to 3$ per 2k calories.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#430

Post by twoodfin »

bell-cot wrote: post #226
twoodfin wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Robinson-Patman is a bad law. Even if it were a good law, it would be effectively impossible to enforce equitably and not capriciously, which is probably why it hasn’t been. The government telling competitive buyers and sellers which kinds of price negotiation are legal and which are not is terrible economics because it attenuates price signals.

Pre-1980's, it seems to have been enforced well enough to keep a whole lot of mom-and-pop grocery stores in business. I'm thinking the faded-out enforcement was due to a certain 1980's President, and his administration's "Greed is God" ethos. A lot of protections for the little guy got dumped on his watch.

You don’t have to guess. Wikipedia’s cite for the claim of decline says:

Enforcement of the RPA is overseen by the Federal Trade Commission, but cases have declined since the 1980s due to the complexity of the law and the requirement to prove intended damages. Juries in recent cases claiming RPA violations have not found the defendants guilty.

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