Costco is the anti-Amazon

Post by missedthecue » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 4:44 PM UTC

mike50 wrote: post #484

mlinsey wrote: post #472

Costco is an elegant solution for the suburbs, where everyone is driving around a vehicle large enough to store giant boxes off a pallet and bring them home. Here in NYC, it's really impractical to go to a warehouse and carry a month's worth of supplies home on the subway. The flip side is that the Amazon last mile deliveries are done on electric scooters that can bring a whole trailer worth of packages to the mailro…

This has to be astoturfed or something. There is literally a Costco in Manhattan and several in suburban Queens and Staten Island. Nothing stops you from going to Costco and just getting a cab back for a once a month trip.

Post by dsr_ » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 4:48 PM UTC

luisln wrote: post #492

dietr1ch wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish cities should design a delivery railroad. I don't want to let food delivery robots take over pedestrian spaces and having standardised package sizes and weight limits would help make things efficient.

Large cities are designed to get people outside, not keep them inside. A delivery raiload would take up space that could otherwise be used to transport people.

Post by gramie » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 4:50 PM UTC

phil21 wrote: post #280

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps this is just slightly oversimplified Amazon goes to great lengths to make purchasing exceedingly easy and fast. And with Prime, customers can buy a single, low-priced item with no shipping costs, cf. the Costco requirement to buy in bulk quantities. As one would expect, this convenience and facilitation leads to more purchases. It also results in more packaging, more waste, more emissions, etc. This was detai…

You know how Costco constantly moves some of the usual “staples” they have around the store randomly? And how Costco can never be relied on having the same item outside of those core products every time you go to the store? Better buy it now since next month they may no longer have it and you need to wait 6mo before you see it again - if ever. That’s on purpose to induce you to wander the store more and “discover” it…

Post by WhiteOwlLion » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 4:52 PM UTC

Loudergood wrote: post #45

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…

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.

Post by DrewADesign » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 4:54 PM UTC

names_are_hard wrote: post #433

DrewADesign wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a chain of gas stations along interstate highways, either mostly or entirely in the south. Many are contenders for, and one of them is, the world’s largest gas station— not hyperbole. One has 120 gas pumps and they do so much volume, they have a team of attendants running around outside to deal with card/pump problems. They’re open 24/7/365 and constantly have dozens of fresh, made on-site BBQ items and sides re…

Wow. I spent decades of my life living in the US but apparently the wrong parts. Now I'm living in a different continent but I hope one day I'll have the opportunity to experience this part of America. Happy Independence Day!