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I want to live like Costco people

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Re: I want to live like Costco people

#551

Post by defrost »

ishouldstayaway wrote: post #524
defrost wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you had to go to #2 of several definitions in an American English dictionary for that secondary devolved meaning. Additionally, " heartily interested" in English usage implies an enthusiastic excess, large amounts, etc. Still, it appears we agree about the original and primary usage. As does your link via #1 You're doing okay on stope angle I'm guessing.

Let me guess: you're also the kind of insufferable (and similarly incorrect) pedant who insists that "decimate" still means "reduce by one tenth"?

No.

Try harder.

Gourmand still, in large parts of the English speaking world, carries large overtones of excessive eating under the guise of quality eating.

If I were to make a guess, I suspect that in your part of the world some of the French persuasion made frequent reference to those that overstack their plates as gourmands and it has since locally become synonymous with gourmet as the troll escaped them.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#552

Post by defrost »

huimang wrote: post #511
defrost wrote: post #491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> an arbitrary rule that you just made up. No, it's an observation that the first primary usage seemed to disagree (not that it did) and so it was observed that the second alt was used by the commenter above OED has a lot to say about gourmand, Chesterfield in his 1758 letter that you quoted was saying that the Landgrave has a well stocked table .. good food and a lot of it , for he is a Gourmand. Following that Ches…

This really gets on my nerves. ishouldstayaway provided a perfectly valid resource to support the initial statement that gourmand isn't just about quantity anymore. > Well, you had to go to #2 This is clearly a disparaging remark meant to discredit their comment. So what if it's #2? It's a definition in multiple dictionaries . This usage warranted its own definition. > in an American English dictionary Same thing her…

> instead of accepting that there are multiple usages

Yeah, maybe slow your roll and think about that, along with everything else you've projected.

Clearly I accepted there are multiple usages, I specifically mentioned multiple definitions above.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#553

Post by brewdad »

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.

Supplement with the 50lb bag of beans that sits 20 feet away from the rice at my Costco and you are pretty much there.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#554

Post by simplyluke »

hx8 wrote: post #283
simplyluke wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If Consumer is your identity yet you fear executing its labors This is an interesting take. Spending hours min-maxxing the "best" combination of product/price in every given category has always been peak consumerism as an identity to me. Subreddits filled with tens of thousands of posts and strongly held groupthink opinions about why knife brand x is the best option for you to open your amazon packages, or how much…

The entire activity of going to buy a few things for around the house during the weekend is something that is performed by a consumer. This guy is exactly talking about you, but you aren't seeing it because your own internal identity isn't Consumer it's something like "guy who wants a chill weekend." However in the marketplace your identity is consumer.

I think we're just arguing semantics at this point. From an economic definition you, me, and everyone else who has to exchange money for goods and services is a consumer. I'm referring to consumer culture/consumerism, which wikipedia defines in a cleaner way than I can. Buying groceries period makes you a consumer, having a weird sense of superiority because you go to a specific grocery store is consumerism.

> In contemporary consumer society, the purchase and the consumption of products have evolved beyond the mere satisfaction of basic human needs,[1] transforming into an activity that is not only economic but also cultural, social, and even identity-forming.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumerism

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#556

Post by tonymet »

Costco is the last holdout of true American abundance. In the 90s abundance seemed everywhere, even if out of reach. The difference in quality of a service or product was clear at higher price points. Now as a rich adult I generally feel poor, even at fancy restaurants. Nearly everything feels meagre, flimsy & rationed, despite being insanely expensive. Like that scene in Jojo Rabbit where the kids are wearing cardboard uniforms .

I buy 95% of my food and most of my household items from Costco. I will blindly buy any item without reading reviews. Out of thousands of purchases I can count the failures on one hand.

Many ridicule Costco for being excessive. But frugal buyers can produce great value out of 25 lbs of flour, 10 lb bags of rice and so on. With proper home economics you can still eat like a king on a lower-middle-class budget. I'm very proud of the nutritious and luxurious meals I produce with what most people are paying for Doritos & Mountain Dew.

I will never live out of reach of a Costco. It's the second most important factor when I live somewhere.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#557

Post by brewdad »

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…

Earlier today I read how World Cup resale tickets are dropping below face value for many of the upcoming matches. This evening I read that FIFA tripled the price for the best seats. Bifurcation indeed.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#558

Post by brewdad »

midtake wrote: post #366
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…

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.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#559

Post by brewdad »

wlesieutre wrote: post #355
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…

The great thing about Costco is that everything they sell is reliably fine . Is it the best in the world? Probably not. But it's usually good. At worst it's average. When I find myself reading Consumer Reports or The Wirecutter looking for "what is the best toothbrush" it's not that I actually need the best toothbrush . I'd be perfectly happy with a good toothbrush. What I'm trying to do is avoid spending a bunch of…

This is how I approach Costco. Everything there will meet a minimum standard, so I'm more willing to try something new. Also, the prices will pretty much always be fair. Could I track down a better deal somewhere else? Possibly but I usually don't want to expend that extra effort to save a buck or two.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#560

Post by xp84 »

irjustin wrote: post #488
type4 wrote: post #199

I have a really mixed feeling about Costco. I hate it, I going there, I hate the crowds, the parking, the people, being hawked a credit card, a cell phone, whatever the vendors are selling. It makes me feel like a pig in a slaughterhouse waiting to get out of the store, I feel like it's the platonic form of consumption. We all go to the nice little consumption center like good piggies to get our sustenance and to get…

> Yet, I keep going. Then I think Costco has done its perfect job and exactly the goal the founder set out to create: Quality goods at affordable prices. They optimize for those 2 things first. Consequently, everything else becomes a management of chaos (the part that stresses you out and thusly hate). If they did try to make the experience better, it would cost them someplace. And honestly, you're just at whole food…

This is a great perspective! Somehow it makes it feel better to think of it that way, that basically this is likely as good as it can get on those two very important metrics, and that improving other things would probably cause those to decrease.

Better than optimizing for short-term shareholder value like most other firms...

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