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Costco is the anti-Amazon

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Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#111

Post by dpark »

baby_souffle wrote: post #59
spike021 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ample parking? Not at any locations in my area. Even on weekdays.

Go within an hour or so of opening. I used to work right across the st from one and would spend most of my shift looking out at their parking lot and you could see it get more packed throughout the day, thin out a little bit in the early afternoon and then slowly drain towards closing. It's always least crowded right at open and then an hour (? or maybe two?) later they open for the "regular" people and once that's t…

> Go within an hour or so of opening.

Hah. It’s such a PITA that Costco includes an hour earlier entry on the top tier membership.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#112

Post by lowbloodsugar »

Personal convenience vs societal cost? Let’s have both ffs. Fucking luddites. Same kind of folks arguing against AI because it will take their shitty low paying job. No post-scarcity future for us! We want to work in debt servitude forever!

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#113

Post by seanmcdirmid »

Amazon is the anti-Costco also. We thought about it, and it doesn't really make sense to get a Costco membership when we can lean into Prime more. It doesn't help that we live in a fairly urban area (Ballard in Seattle) and Costco's is pretty suburban.

I'd much rather order some heavy stuff from Amazon to have delivered and walk to the local grocery store for everything else.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#114

Post by zeroonetwothree »

mschuster91 wrote: post #108

> Amazon often negotiates delayed payment terms with suppliers, leaning on them to allow payment windows longer than the thirty-day industry norm. Oh how I would wish for this crap to be banned. By law. Simply put, at the scale of "you are even allowed to sell at large volume to Amazon, Walmart, ..." you aren't on equal footing with Amazon. You are subservient. Contract law still builds on the idea that b2b contracts…

Why? Then we’d have to pay more to buy stuff.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#115

Post by SoftTalker »

anon7000 wrote: post #78
rr808 wrote: post #75

I dont like Costco, it epitomizes American over-consumption. Parking lot overflowing with oversized SUVs with people loading up oversized trolleys with food from food corporations to take back to their oversized fridges and storage basements.

Costco is one of the few stores in America that attempts to give great value to consumers. Most supermarkets just don’t

Aldi seems to. I thought of them as I read about Costco, not because of the size of their stores (which are generally quite small as supermarkets go) but because of the limited choices. Aldi normally has everything I need but doesn't have a lot of choice in any individual thing. It makes shopping there feel very efficient.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#116

Post by groundzeros2015 »

gwbas1c wrote: post #33

> Even if you think it is preferable at an individual level, there are good reasons to question the social value of the logistical complexity that it necessitates. Home delivery of single-packaged items entails an entirely different cost structure than freight trucks driving to consumer-facing warehouses delivering entire pallets of goods to be driven home by customers themselves. Ok, so 100 people can all drive to t…

Prices tell this activity is very efficient and not burdensome on society.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#117

Post by icantevenhold »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #113

Amazon is the anti-Costco also. We thought about it, and it doesn't really make sense to get a Costco membership when we can lean into Prime more. It doesn't help that we live in a fairly urban area (Ballard in Seattle) and Costco's is pretty suburban. I'd much rather order some heavy stuff from Amazon to have delivered and walk to the local grocery store for everything else.

As someone who finds ordering groceries obscene what kind of heavy stuff do you get that you need to order in?

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#118

Post by zeroonetwothree »

forrestthewoods wrote: post #55

Costco is way too damn crowded. There needs to be 2x or 3x the number of stores. It is a great deal. But an utterly miserable shopping experience.

Part of the reason their prices are low is they are very efficient at using their total hours open.

I often just get it delivered to my house to avoid the crowds though.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#119

Post by earljwagner »

There's another reason for Costco's appeal and trust among members: Kirkland Signature. Costco mandates that any KS product must be at least 10% better in quality than the leading national brand it replaces and/or cost less.

That further helps simplify shopping and decision-making and resolves the paradox of choice. Instead of having to sort through a wide variety of unknown brands on Amazon, they just go with KS.

https://www.thestreet.com/retail/costco-reveals-why-kirkland...

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#120

Post by SoftTalker »

tonymet wrote: post #32

I admired Costco for installing USA-made manhole covers rather than use those made in India, which most municipalities have shifted to for lower cost. I’m probably the only person who would notice that. Sort of how Steve Jobs explained that a good carpenter cares about the backside of the dresser as much as the front, even if no customer will ever notice.

Thanks for an interesting comment! (No irony intended).
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