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I want to live like Costco people

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Re: I want to live like Costco people

#601

Post by aaronbrethorst »

declan_roberts wrote: post #214
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #166

I'm 43, own a home, live in Seattle, and feel attacked by this article. "every Costco shopper has a certain item or two they’re compelled to purchase on each visit" Organic, single-serving guacamole and Magic Spoon cereal for me. My toddler is obsessed with their mammoth two dollar slices of cheese pizza and talks constantly about wanting to go to Costco to have pizza with his little bestie.

Costco is such a family friendly place. My kids love going there. They've made some deliberate decisions to make it family friendly: 1. The aisles are wide so the whole family can walk through the store together. 2. The kids love free samples 3. The food court is a great place to have an inexepensive dinner. 4. The store is designed so there's nothing really to grab at ground level if you're a little kid. Everything…

I feel compelled to add that we took our toddler to Costco after daycare today. He had his slice of pizza, I got my guacamole and gluten-free, high protein Magic Spoon cereal. Somehow we spent $500. Everyone left happy and thoroughly exhausted.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#602

Post by csa »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #564
lurkshark wrote: post #544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To maybe add some framing, 37% of Americans don’t have enough cash to cover a $400 unexpected expense. Obviously $400 > $65 but I think it puts some perspective on how tight cash flow is for a good chunk of the population. https://www.federalreserve.gov/consumerscommunities/sheddata...

> enough cash to cover You don't need to buy the membership with cash. Credit card, pay off $3-5 a week with your food savings, you'll barely pay any interest. Also not having $400 would have to be the number after buying food with your paycheck, right? If you get the membership as part of your first food purchase, including that nice bag of rice, you'll be okay.

> You don't need to buy the membership with cash. Credit card, pay off $3-5 a week with your food savings, you'll barely pay any interest.

I’m guessing you don’t know many lower income people.

Not only are credit cards generally not part of the picture for these folks, but often they don’t even have bank accounts.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#603

Post by nunez »

thinkingtoilet wrote: post #282
legitster wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "What's great about this country is America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you can know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All th…

It's not the same, but concerts used to be affordable. Now they are insane. I'm incredibly fortunate that I have a high paying job and can afford to go to shows if I wanted to but I refuse to pay these insane ticket prices. Same with sports. I no longer have any desire to go to an MLB game and get fleeced with a $15 bud light. I'll go to some minor league game in a shitty stadium with no special amenities and enjoy a…

the minor league stadiums i've been to in Texas were on par with the mega stadiums, just smaller (and cheaper!)

you'll get a kick out of this. one concrt hall i went to recently was charging THIRTY THREE DOLLARS for a single shot of Whistle Pig. Not even the good stuff.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#604

Post by HerbManic »

austinl wrote: post #361

Feudal Japan had a measurement called the "koku", which is roughly the amount of rice needed to feed a person for a year: about 330 lb. You can now buy 50 lb. of rice at Costco for $30, which is a few hours of work at minimum wage. To me, that is a modern marvel. I don't want people to buy things that they don't need, and I also don't like the crowds, but I can't help but feel grateful for a stocked grocery store tha…

Sometimes I do that and figure out how much time I work for something. For many, that is only one or two days of work to get a year of minimum calories.

If I decided to go full homestead and grow and process this myself, how long would that take? Way, way, WAY more than 2 days. Scale and specialization has done some amazing things and this is a great example of it.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#605

Post by Gareth321 »

kemitchell wrote: post #503
austinl wrote: post #361

Feudal Japan had a measurement called the "koku", which is roughly the amount of rice needed to feed a person for a year: about 330 lb. You can now buy 50 lb. of rice at Costco for $30, which is a few hours of work at minimum wage. To me, that is a modern marvel. I don't want people to buy things that they don't need, and I also don't like the crowds, but I can't help but feel grateful for a stocked grocery store tha…

I wish Costco were accessible to basically everyone. Among some poorer people I've got to know in the SF Bay Area, having the card and confidence in the means to use it are a mark of the middle class, an aspirational thing. Membership is an up-front cost. That excludes those who can't part with the cash for no immediate benefit. Depending on what you buy, and what else is available around you, breakeven can take a go…

Costo makes almost no money on food sale, and almost all of its profit from the membership fee. It's required for their business model, which is VERY friendly for its employees. This is an example of capitalism done right.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#606

Post by x-complexity »

kelipso wrote: post #296
windows2020 wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes on a hot day for the short period the kid's napping I find myself at Home Depot searching for this or that tired from the work week under pressure as the clock ticks down having no idea what I'm doing and I make it to checkout tired no exhausted and I see the ice cold cooler the Coke its last moments before it's soaked with condensation open the door scan it rush to the car twist it open it screams wow some…

Indoctrination via decades of advertisements in clear demonstration. The imagery from this description are taken directly from coke advertisements. Either that or this is a parody.

> Indoctrination via decades of advertisements in clear demonstration. The imagery from this description are taken directly from coke advertisements. Either that or this is a parody.

How can you be so sure you've broken free of the indoctrination, when what you have written is also the product of indoctrination? The only practical difference is the banner under which the indoctrination happened under.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#607

Post by Gareth321 »

ericd wrote: post #461
whyenot wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

For commoners in Feudal Japan, it would’ve been unpolished/brown rice, refining rice was labor intensive/expensive. When accessibility of white rice spread due to automation making it much cheaper, in the 1800s, it caused a huge epidemic of beriberi, which had once been a rich man’s disease, and killed a huge number of people.

There are famous stories of prisoners in Japanese prisons during the World Wars being healthier than their captors because they ate refined, white rice instead of the brown rice for the prisoners.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#608

Post by midtake »

brewdad wrote: post #558
midtake wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To add to your point: Someone should let the author know that considering oneself informed and taste-driven is itself cheugy. The performative aspect is the essence of cheug. So I hope he was being ironic. Costco itself, in a way, is a sort of Wittgenstein's ladder, or Wittgenstein's warehouse, because eventually you realize that everything sold under the Kirkland label is just a de-badged top brand. If you still rea…

While true concerning the quality of Kirkland brand, sometimes there are still differences that can matter. I love the Kirkland bacon but they don't sell a thick cut version (at least at my Costco) so sometimes I buy the "brand name" instead.

You are correct, I may have exaggerated a bit.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#609

Post by wavemode »

brewdad wrote: post #558
midtake wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To add to your point: Someone should let the author know that considering oneself informed and taste-driven is itself cheugy. The performative aspect is the essence of cheug. So I hope he was being ironic. Costco itself, in a way, is a sort of Wittgenstein's ladder, or Wittgenstein's warehouse, because eventually you realize that everything sold under the Kirkland label is just a de-badged top brand. If you still rea…

While true concerning the quality of Kirkland brand, sometimes there are still differences that can matter. I love the Kirkland bacon but they don't sell a thick cut version (at least at my Costco) so sometimes I buy the "brand name" instead.

That's interesting. Where I live, the thing that sticks out in my mind the most about buying Kirkland bacon from Costco, is how ridiculously thick-cut it is. It's literally the thickest bacon I've ever encountered lol

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#610

Post by wil421 »

strange_quark wrote: post #567
wil421 wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m in the same boat. The quality to terrible. No I don’t want a bunch of pumpkin seeds that you’re using as filler for products. The produce isn’t great either. A huge portion of the food is either premade factory food that’s chilled or frozen. I don’t want a bunch of cellulose in my cheese either.

I seriously question if you’ve ever actually been to Costco. The produce is generally fine but everything else is good to great quality. I always load up with a huge wedge of parmigiano reggiano, Spanish olive oil, Barolo wine (all Kirkland branded and DOP labeled) for literally half the price of anywhere else. Everything else is generally solid too. Just looking around at the other Kirkland food I’ve got right now,…

Your local grocery store must be terrible if you think Costco has good food and produce. No, I’m not talking about wine, oil, or water. I buy those 3 things plus paper towels and toilet paper (not Kirkland toilet paper post Covid).

Everything you mentioned is a prepackaged, premade item. It’s not fresh. The Kirkland Parmesan is cut and sealed in a factory. Not cut by my local grocery or Whole Foods from a giant wheel that has the Italian markings.

The last bag of chicken breasts I got were almost the size of turkey breast and it was woody and stringy. Google if you don’t believe me.

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