Costco seems a lot more crowded lately

[jetman]

It was the same ole same ole (crowded but not too crowded) Monday.
but,
for the last yr or two, the fuel pumps are always 5 to 10 deep.
Ain't nobody got time for that

 

[ripcord]

Look at it! Will you just look at it?! I like to look at it!

All kidding aside I've never seen a Li-ion battery that size, the ones in my amazon rechargeable flashlights are small

It's probably two cylindrical cells stacked together with a battery management system chip, all shrink wrapped together. It probably uses 26650 type cells if it's the same diameter as a C cell.

 

[wavinwayne]

..for the last yr or two, the fuel pumps are always 5 to 10 deep.
Ain't nobody got time for that

Before I sold my Forester, I had already stopped getting my gas from Costco because their price was usually the same or almost the same as the Mapco I pass on my way home. I didn't have to wait in line at Mapco, AND I got rewards points for every gallon.

Costco isn't an option anymore since I'm driving a diesel now and our Costco doesn't sell diesel.

 

[PandaBear]

I always wonder how people are able to consume those gigantic amounts of food and other products. I mean, who wants to buy 132 ounces of ketchup?

Many were for commercial operations. Have you seen the size of their largest sugar? It is like a bag of rice in Asian Family eating 2 cups a meal. I've never seen non commercial buyer buy 5 gals of syrup or shortening at a time either (I think those are in the bakery section under the pastry table).

 

[Torrid]

When your stores are that crowded you have to be rolling in the money!

And we have to pay to be allowed in the door!

 

[PandaBear]

I spend maybe $150 a month on food, Costco would be a complete waste. Plus a 2hr round trip. Nobody got tim fo dat!

I live 10 mins away from one and even I don't go there all the time because Trader Joe is 3 mins away and have most things in smaller portions and better quality.

I think Costco's scale is too big to get the best produce now. Their organic blueberries and strawberries are often unripe or molded, whereas for maybe 15% more other stores have the ripe stuff in good quality. Their frozen organic broccoli is great though so we buy them there, but their breads selection is poor and often overpriced for what I need. Why buy 10lb of Salmon for $13/lb when Trader Joe is $10/lb at 7oz portion? Unless I need one whole piece for a large gathering I'd pick the smaller portion from TJ. They do have larger and better quality eggs but aren't useful to us if we only have space for 12 at a time. $5 chicken can't be beaten though, even if we can't finish it and have to use it for stock days later. Biggest problem I have with their meat section is they have great quality (USDA Prime) but don't have a lot of the cuts I want like shank, marrow bones, etc in the portion size I need. I end up going to the Vietnamese butchers or Whole Foods usually.

 

[k1xv]

As Yogi Berra once said,

"No one goes there any more, because it is too crowded".

 

[PandaBear]

No getting into politics here, but it appears to be a national trend since the pandemic. Many individuals retired/retired early, others are now working from home and some are just working part time. As such, many individuals have all day to go shopping and warehouse clubs like Costco, Sam's and BJ's Wholesale are busy all day long.

It amazes me to see numerous young families of 4,5, or 6 shopping at Costco between 10:00am and 4:00pm every single day of the week. This was an infrequent occurrence prior to 2020. Remember how it would be impossible to find toilet paper, paper towels, nitrile gloves and disinfectant during the pandemic? Well, the national media highlighted the warehouse clubs as restocking bulk quantities of these resources on a regular frequency. The hoarding and panic buying mentality came out in most of us and warehouse club membership increased tremendously since that time.

TP and paper towel: the industry said things have changed and their demand for residential TB vs commercial TB ratio is now permanently switched to residential due to WFH. So yes they are buying from Costco and no they are not hoarding, they just WFH more now (i.e. 3-4 days a week instead of 0)

Gloves and disinfectant: not sure about gloves but some people just got used to the habit of using disinfectant everywhere and never got off that habits.

Shopping between 10-4: teacher learning day used to mean you have to find someone to babysit them but now with WFH they just WFH and keep the kids with them, and go shopping mid-day in between meetings with the kids so they don't have to pay for babysitting.

The world has changed, and people like to not commute and not pay for childcare. This is one of the reason why many restaurants for office workers are closing as way fewer onsite workdays now.

 

[PandaBear]

I really don’t like going to restaurant and being served Costco food

If you go upstream enough the restaurants who got their stuff from Sysco probably eventually end up in the same farm with Costco.

 

[cb_13]

And half of it goes down the drain off of dishes

Probably true in many cases but depends on parenting style. In our house if one of the boys(4&5)want to get their own ketchup, bbq sauce or mustard they can. If they get a ridiculous amount they have 3 options eat it, save it to be eaten before the next meal/snack or do age appropriate chores to buy another bottle.

Most of the time it makes them be a little more careful but I have watched the 4 year old eat about a 1/2 cup of ketchup with a tablespoon.

 

[Hillbilly Deluxe]

The secret to getting gas at Costco is to get there in the mornings, Saturdays before 9 am and generally Sundays when NFL is on is a good time....

 

[Rmay635703]

People looking to save money on higher end food prices?

Fixed it for you,

Cosco and Sam’s both offer lower prices on specific items, especially things that are normally expensive anyway (organic/specialty/novelty) and on bulk name brand day to day like TP.

However , I most definitely can’t buy everything I actually use there, a lot of stuff would get tossed if I did, I also would no longer eat certain things and I would pay more for certain foods.

The type of meat I buy is consistently cheaper at grocery/woodmans/Aldi/Kwik Trip. $2.49/lb ground beef
$1,49/lb ground Turkey are my staples there with occasional $2 Corn Beef and $2.99/lb tough cuts of beef.

I do splurge on certain one off buys at the warehouse stores, usually bagged Asian, Shrimp , Novelty chicken but usually just buy the things I don’t have to worry about spoiling that are cheaper.

Oddly our local Sam’s is only truly busy at holidays, things are no where near as crazy as the pandemic years

 

[PandaBear]

Probably true in many cases but depends on parenting style. In our house if one of the boys(4&5)want to get their own ketchup, bbq sauce or mustard they can. If they get a ridiculous amount they have 3 options eat it, save it to be eaten before the next meal/snack or do age appropriate chores to buy another bottle.

Most of the time it makes them be a little more careful but I have watched the 4 year old eat about a 1/2 cup of ketchup with a tablespoon.

I think the joke about how Heinz make their ketchup money was "It's not about how much they use, but how much they left on the plate". I'm sure this applies to most condiments not just ketchup.

 

[4WD]

Probably true in many cases but depends on parenting style. In our house if one of the boys(4&5)want to get their own ketchup, bbq sauce or mustard they can. If they get a ridiculous amount they have 3 options eat it, save it to be eaten before the next meal/snack or do age appropriate chores to buy another bottle.

Most of the time it makes them be a little more careful but I have watched the 4 year old eat about a 1/2 cup of ketchup with a tablespoon.

Wut ? No ketchup sandwiches

 

[k1xv]

In a discussion about school lunches that were supposed to include at least one vegetable, it is reported that Ronald Reagan thought that ketchup qualified as a vegetable.

 

[Hillbilly Deluxe]

TP and paper towel: the industry said things have changed and their demand for residential TB vs commercial TB ratio is now permanently switched to residential due to WFH. So yes they are buying from Costco and no they are not hoarding, they just WFH more now (i.e. 3-4 days a week instead of 0)

Gloves and disinfectant: not sure about gloves but some people just got used to the habit of using disinfectant everywhere and never got off that habits.

Shopping between 10-4: teacher learning day used to mean you have to find someone to babysit them but now with WFH they just WFH and keep the kids with them, and go shopping mid-day in between meetings with the kids so they don't have to pay for babysitting.

The world has changed, and people like to not commute and not pay for childcare. This is one of the reason why many restaurants for office workers are closing as way fewer onsite workdays now.

Your experience of life in the Silicon Valley area is NOT typical for 90% of the US.

 

[ripcord]

In a discussion about school lunches that were supposed to include at least one vegetable, it is reported that Ronald Reagan thought that ketchup qualified as a vegetable.

I think that story is apocryphal. If it was true, I highly doubt that decision would have risen to the level of the White House. Maybe some Agriculture or Education Dept bureaucrat at the most.

 

[PandaBear]

Your experience of life in the Silicon Valley area is NOT typical for 90% of the US.

I talked to a lot of dual income parents in large cities and while most don't pay the high cost of living like I do, they have similar problems with childcare, commute, juggle between different roles, etc.

 

[loneryder]

The secret to getting gas at Costco is to get there in the mornings, Saturdays before 9 am and generally Sundays when NFL is on is a good time....

Or about 5pm any day.

 

[Vil_Riker]

I think that story is apocryphal. If it was true, I highly doubt that decision would have risen to the level of the White House. Maybe some Agriculture or Education Dept bureaucrat at the most.

learned a new word -

apocryphal

Thank you!