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I want to live like Costco people

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Re: I want to live like Costco people

#641

Post by jhbadger »

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…

I also find it funny that many of the people who look down on Costco rave about Trader Joe's and find it cool -- even though, like Kirkland, Trader Joe's products are mostly de-badged brands as well.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#642

Post by JackFr »

wavemode wrote: post #612
vunderba wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s a foreign concept for many of us who seek out the best product or deals for each purchase and will change brands in an instant if another company releases a better product. For those of us who grew up in the era of the "Are you a Mac or a PC" [1], many Americans are intimately familiar with the concept of brand identity. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_a_Mac

Mac, yes. But I feel like being a "PC user" was never a coherent social identity. People use PCs for various reasons, usually pragmatic. (Reflecting on it, I don't think I ever knew anyone who was "loyal" to Microsoft, or, dare I say, even particularly liked them as a company. At least certainly not the way people like Apple.) In that sense, I feel as though Apple is the exception that proves the rule. There are real…

> But I feel like being a "PC user" was never a coherent social identity.

But there were people who were vocally non-Mac, dismissing it as “great for students and graphic designers”, but not a computer for real work.

(That was me in the 90’s. Of course eventually I began working on a Mac professionally.)

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#643

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#644

Post by JackFr »

mft_ wrote: post #621
Dylan16807 wrote: post #564

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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’re not mathematically wrong, but you assume that everyone has a rational disciplined approach to their finances, and a reasonably stable income behind that. And for buying in bulk (which is basically what Costco offers) to work, you need a larger amount of available cash up front, and a home with sufficient safe space for storage. And of course you need some sort of transport to bring your bulk purchases home fro…

As someone who has shopped at Costco using public transportation, that’s where your IKEA bags come into play. And you avoid bulk liquids at all costs.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#645

Post by kakacik »

foobarian wrote: post #294
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…

The one thing that brings me back there is their croissants. There are none other like it, and their product is a 12ct pack for a very reasonable price.

> There are none other like it

Heh, I guess you mean apart form true French ones. You won't find them anywhere else in the world, there is always something off in dough or overall process so result is different and worse.

But its true that ignorance is quite often a bliss.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#646

Post by stasomatic »

com2kid wrote: post #595
defrost wrote: post #551

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

American here, only every heard it meaning someone who likes fancy food. Never heard of it being a fat person, except in so far as the word is old fashioned enough to conjure the image of a fancy dressed fat person eating fancy food.

Same. "Gourmand" has always been linked to "gourmet" in my brain. However wrong according to the "dictionaries", I've seen it mean the same in colloquial use in a couple of languages I'm familiar with.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#647

Post by gilrain »

defrost wrote: post #444
ishouldstayaway wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so?

Quantity. The original usage of Gourmand was synonymous with gluttony and excess; while a gourmet might be satisfied with exquisitely prepared micro portions tucked away within an expansive plate criss crossed by a drizzle of ??, a gourmand wants the full stack pyramided to the maximal stope angle.

> Nit: a gourmand is the opposite of a gourmet

> The original usage of Gourmand was

Your original “well actually” is incorrect by your own admission. The correct statement is “a gourmand [was] [in some sense] the opposite of a gourmet”.

Not as punchy. I can see why you exaggerated, but as a fellow pedant I can’t approve of the misinformation.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#648

Post by TomMasz »

My wife had the Costco membership and had a tendency to buy in quantities that were a bit much for the two of us. Our freezer was always packed. Now that she's passed, I went and got my own membership (and requisite Visa card), just for the things available there I can't get elsewhere. My goal is to try to avoid the allure of buying inappropriate amounts. We'll see how that goes.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#649

Post by cogman10 »

antonvs wrote: post #587
cogman10 wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There’s nothing good or desirable about any of it unless you’ve been indoctrinated into thinking that. Ah, that's too harsh. Sugar water tastes good. Fast food is made quickly and it tastes good. There's no "indoctrination" that happens to make people realize that. I agree that coke has 0 nutritional value. However, the flavor is agreeable to most people.

You were addicted as a child to something unhealthy, and that's why it's indoctrination. > However, the flavor is agreeable to most people. Only because most people have undergone that indoctrination. You can't imagine that people could try Coke and think "what is this ridiculously sugary shit?" The reason you can't imagine that? Indoctrination.

No.

I have a son with severe autism. Indoctrination doesn't work on him because he doesn't even understand it.

We have actively kept soda away from him because it's bad for his teeth.

And yet, he absolutely loves the stuff (family members gave it to him). He even has severe food aversions limiting what he's willing to try.

You can't convince me that the only reason people like sugar water is because of indoctrination. That's just silly.

Re: I want to live like Costco people

#650

Post by naniwaduni »

antonvs wrote: post #587
cogman10 wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There’s nothing good or desirable about any of it unless you’ve been indoctrinated into thinking that. Ah, that's too harsh. Sugar water tastes good. Fast food is made quickly and it tastes good. There's no "indoctrination" that happens to make people realize that. I agree that coke has 0 nutritional value. However, the flavor is agreeable to most people.

You were addicted as a child to something unhealthy, and that's why it's indoctrination. > However, the flavor is agreeable to most people. Only because most people have undergone that indoctrination. You can't imagine that people could try Coke and think "what is this ridiculously sugary shit?" The reason you can't imagine that? Indoctrination.

The turn-off with Coke is usually the carbonation. The appeal of sugar is quite primal.
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