Costco is the anti-Amazon

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 7:25 AM UTC

Amezarak wrote: post #259

titanomachy wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s nothing wrong with your way, it’s just a different lifestyle based on how dense of a community you live in. People living in apartments in dense cities don’t have room for a whole cow in their apartment, but there’s probably a few grocery stores in walking distance, so they pick up food more often. Living in a suburb means that you probably don’t walk by a grocery store on your way home from work, and you pro…

Well, that’s what I’m getting at. There’s no reason I can’t go to the store every day - I pass right by a lot of grocery stores. I don’t want to go in them or even think about buying stuff any more than I have to - it’s tedious. I want to always have almost everything I’d want on-hand. I think the the GP would love this too if it was practical- but it’s not for him. I’d be more interested in hearing the exact reasons…

Post by roysting » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 8:32 AM UTC

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #109

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…

When the Amazon truck drives down my street it’s always stopping at 5 houses or so. So the marginal cost of my package is practically zero.

Post by anon7000 » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 9:00 AM UTC

oatmeal1 wrote: post #287

Loudergood wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, this argument falls flat on it's face. Of course it's more complex than that. When I worked from the office, centralized retail was very convenient and hardly added any driving. If you work from home, the opposite is true. The next revolution would be to standardize reusable packaging, that same daily delivery truck could bring that back. But only government could make that happen.

The next revolution is zoning reform so it's legal to build shopping people want to do within walking distance of where they live.

Post by icantevenhold » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 9:07 AM UTC

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #130

icantevenhold wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Generally the bulk things I would have gotten at Costco, which isn't much for our family, so mostly protein drinks, olive oil, and so on. They come in pretty big cases, and it definitely seems like the heaviest thing the Amazon driver is delivering that day. We still drive to the Chinese grocery for a big bag of rice every once in awhile.

Post by inigyou » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 9:09 AM UTC

beAbU wrote: post #354

goosejuice wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

250k skus seems pretty arbitrary. What's the significance of this number? A bodega goes a long way for most people's daily needs.

A bodega is often (and usually unavoidably) more expensive than a bigger grocery retail chain that's further away. Price conscious buyers will opt to drive to the bigger, farther away store because it has more variety, and the essentials are cheaper. I know I do this.