How Costco became a 'third place'

[Daniel]

@wtg said:

@AndyD said:

the crush of the unwashed hoards

We go to a warehouse that is five minutes from our house, but there are a couple of others within 15 minutes or so that we go to occasionally because they do carry different products than our store does. Each warehouse has its own personality.

The one in the town where rich people live is our least favorite. The members and the employees all seem to have the same sour attitude and it's pretty unpleasant to shop there. People fight over parking spaces and the employees look haggard and are rude to customers.

There's another one in a middle class suburb where there are a lot of Indians and Pakistanis, and where we can get a wider variety of the food products from those countries. It's insanely busy but everyone is really nice.

The third one is in an area that is multi-ethnic, with lots of Southeast Asians and that is near a suburb that has a large Jewish population. They have the best selection of foods I'm not likely to see anywhere else. The place is crazy busy, too, and has the feeling of a market. But in a fun way.

Bottom line: The rich people are entitled snobs and make everyone else miserable.

That's an understatement.

This is interesting.

Every Costco here has the same inventory.

[Daniel]

This post is deleted!

[AdagioM]

I love Costco. I buy a lot of the same stuff that @wtg does.

On my usual list:
Eyeglasses when I need them! So much cheaper than the optician at eye doc office
Eggs (free range) 18 count
cheap wine for Mr. AM (he doesn’t care)
Kirkland prosecco
Nicer bubbly (currently Brut Cattin)
TP
Frozen shrimp, salmon burgers
Frozen blueberries
Quinoa
Olives (stuffed with jalapeno and garlic, yum)
Tuna
Sardines
Sneakers (Skechers $30)
Sometimes prepared food that I can keep in the freezer for when I don’t feel like cooking
Clothes
Gasoline

Anyway, I like it. I’m not making friends there, though. Oh! My niece works there, too.

[Mary Anna]

Costco is fine, if you were already planning to buy a carp ton of something. Quirt is our household's Costco-lover, but I can totally see the value for things like toilet paper that aren't perishable and that you're definitely going to use, presuming you have space to store them in Costco quantities.

There's always the danger of buying a carp ton of something you think you'll use, but you don't. (This is why we'll be taking expired over-the-counter meds for the rest of our natural lives.) Since I'm more of a just-in-time shopper, I pay more per item, but I waste less. It's really hard to do the math on that kind of thing.

I particularly dislike buying a carp ton of something that turns out to be disappointing. I got a bag of green beans last week that were beautiful--emerald green and no strings to speak of--but they literally tasted like nothing. I'd liken them to solid green water. Now there's a container of the leftovers in the refrigerator making me feel guilty, because I do not want to eat them. On the same trip, I got a box of cherry tomatoes. They're delicious and they stayed fresh forever. You just can't know until you get the stuff home and taste it. This is always true, but the waste stings when you've bought a lot of something and it's not good.

As for the original post, I cannot fathom Costco as a third place or as any kind of pleasant social experience. I routinely leave the place hoping I never again have to see another human being.