[HN Gopher] Love Song to Costco
___________________________________________________________________
Love Song to Costco
Author : prostoalex
Score : 350 points
Date : 2022-07-10 22:16 UTC (1 days ago)
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| atlgator wrote:
| I wish Costco still had early entry for elderly and disabled.
| That was really nice during the pandemic.
| brewdad wrote:
| Somewhere there's a grandma that still has a garage full of
| toilet paper thanks to getting in the door early.
| jnord wrote:
| Great story, thanks for sharing!
| W-Stool wrote:
| In 2005 my wife and I lived in a part of the USA that had no
| Costco within a half day's drive. We soon secured jobs in a part
| of the USA that had two (two!) Costcos in the same city that we
| would live. True story - before we even looked for housing, I
| went online and joined Costco. Years later my diabetic cat even
| had a Costco pharmacy account (best place to buy insulin by far)
| and received a discount for being without health insurance.
| SOLAR_FIELDS wrote:
| I have a Costco account and a Sam's Club (Walmart's Costco
| equivalent) account. Even though I do something like 98% of my
| bulk shopping at Sam's club (due to proximity, the Costco is ~
| 15 min drive away vs 5 mins for the Sam's club), it's still
| worth it for me to hold the Costco membership for specific
| purchases. Notably I've purchased (because there's no better
| place to buy these things and the vendor vetting is amazing)
| bedsheets, smart thermostats & a sauna from Costco over the
| last year and those have easily made back the $60 USD it cost
| me to buy the membership. I'll probably end up buying a gazebo
| kit from Costco sometime in the next year.
|
| I think for semi-big purchases ($USD 200 to $USD $20,000) as a
| consumer Costco has huge value. The vendor vetting thing may
| not be as important when it comes to a bag of chips, but when
| it comes to a $4,000 gazebo or some $2,000 appliance I have
| really come to trust Costco's vetting.
| inferiorhuman wrote:
| > when it comes to a $4,000 gazebo or some $2,000 appliance I
| have really come to trust Costco's vetting.
|
| How does that jive with selling Samsung (and LG) appliances?
| Samsung is easily the worst appliance manufacturer in North
| America across pretty much any appliance. LG's not too much
| better but supposedly their dryers and front load washers are
| decent.
| noSyncCloud wrote:
| > Samsung is easily the worst appliance manufacturer in
| North America
|
| > LG's not too much better
|
| Any sources for these blazing hot takes? Or are we supposed
| to take your hearsay at face value?
| pooper wrote:
| > Samsung is easily the worst appliance manufacturer in
| North America
|
| I don't know this firsthand but I too have seen a lot of
| this recently. Even before COVID. I am specifically
| thinking appliances like refrigerators, oven ranges, and
| washer/dryers. Maybe some microwave ovens.
|
| Maybe Samsung just outsells everyone else making the
| problems more visible but it seems a lot of people love
| complaining about Samsung.
| rascul wrote:
| For a couple years I delivered and installed appliances
| for Lowe's. We brought back (ie customer returned) LG and
| Samsung just as much as Whirlpool and GE, even though we
| sold significantly less of the LG and Samsung appliances.
| I was told that the closest person able to service them
| was 250+ miles away. Also, LG and Samsung tended to scrap
| an entire new fridge for seemingly trivial stuff, such as
| an ice maker not working. I've never owned a LG or
| Samsung appliance but from the number of returns I've
| seen, I certainly wouldn't want a fridge or front load
| washer from either manufacturer.
| christophilus wrote:
| Last time I shopped for a fridge (2 years ago, maybe)
| every single sales guy and maintenance guy I talked to at
| maybe 4 different stores said: "Never buy a Samsung."
|
| They all seemed to think that LG had gotten its act
| together, though. I ended up with an LG fridge.
| inferiorhuman wrote:
| I've currently got an LG fridge that's a year old.
| Everyone's said that this is one of their most reliable
| refrigerators and yet here I am with a 60deg freezer. The
| nicest thing I can say is that the warranty process is
| hugely disjointed and parts are 2+ weeks out.
| Spivak wrote:
| I'll pile on Samsung being absolute garbage. Same is true
| for GE and LG. Went through three fridges before the
| warranty ran out. Then just bit the bullet and bought a
| Bosch 800 and have had zero trouble since.
| IntelMiner wrote:
| I think they were stated as opinions, not citable facts
| adwi wrote:
| Tangential but have been buying appliances for the first
| time and have been deep in research of what to do with a
| small-moderate budget.
|
| I had indeed heard the same about Samsung, and more
| generally designed service lives < 7 years across brands
| with better reputations.
|
| I elected to buy all used but (good condition) late-model
| Miele appliances. They're rated at 20+ years, they focus on
| reliability and repairability, and if you're patient you
| can get them for less than even the cheapest Samsung etc
| models, especially when taxes are taken into account.
|
| Not to mention they're the best quality appliances money
| can buy. I definitely don't need a paella mode on my
| dishwasher, but it makes me smile every time (and remember
| I paid $200 for it)
| SOLAR_FIELDS wrote:
| It reminds me of the very popular Reddit thread from
| about a decade ago where a vacuum cleaner repair guy said
| that Miele's were his preferred vacuum and recommended
| them above most others: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/com
| ments/1pe2bd/iama_vacuum_re...
| dhd415 wrote:
| In addition to the manufacturer, the type of appliance and
| its manufacture date really matters. I have an LG front-
| loading washing machine from the late 2000s that has been
| working fine for 14 years with one minor circuit board
| replacement. My appliance repair guy says that LGs from
| that timeframe are very reliable. When the motor bearings
| on that washer go out, I'll have him replace the motor if
| OEM replacement motors are available rather than buy a new
| one.
|
| Refrigerators are a completely different animal as are
| dishwashers, etc. Despite my great experiences with LG
| washers, I'd avoid LG refrigerators. I've had good
| experience with multiple Bosch and Miele dishwashers, but
| mediocre experiences on all the new fridges I've bought in
| the last 10 years.
| rexf wrote:
| Shopping for appliances is not easy.
|
| For my recent purchase, I looked at wirecutter as a
| starting point and bought from Costco. Also I got a 3rd
| party extended warranty (since you never know with water-
| using appliances).
|
| According to Wirecutter (NYT): "If you're a member, Costco
| offers the cheapest delivery and installation of the big
| national chains, you'll get an additional year of warranty
| coverage for many products, and it will help you make
| warranty claims with the manufacturer."
|
| https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/where-to-buy-
| appl...
| [deleted]
| kfrzcode wrote:
| I've been happy with my Samsung range, fridge, dishwasher
| and TV
|
| It's been 6months. When should I expect issues?
| greenthrow wrote:
| The TV will probably hold up just fine, other than the
| ads it will show if connected to the internet.
|
| Samsung/LG appliances (washer/dryer, fridge, etc.)
| usually last 5 years or less. Whereas a quality appliance
| should last 10 years or more. My source on this is
| friends who work in the industry plus the experience of
| family members who bought LG/Samsung appliances anyway.
| inferiorhuman wrote:
| 1-5 years typically
| cyberge99 wrote:
| Costco also works out deals to sell "special" revisions of
| major brand offerings. One example is a Sony Bravia that has
| a physical microphone disable switch.
| anotherman554 wrote:
| If you are referring to the A80j model the Costco exclusive
| Bravia has a microphone disable switch because it has a
| microphone. The standard Bravia has no microphone at all.
| alliao wrote:
| wow. I'm sold.
| 8ytecoder wrote:
| Or the Sonos Arc SL that doesn't have a microphone at all.
| crooked-v wrote:
| Though it's worth keeping in mind that they also have a lot
| of items with unique model numbers/SKUs that are actually
| entirely identical otherwise, to make it less obvious that
| the version at Costco is $X cheaper than the one available
| everywhere else.
| gnicholas wrote:
| > _Years later my diabetic cat even had a Costco pharmacy
| account (best place to buy insulin by far) and received a
| discount for being without health insurance._
|
| IIRC, you don't need a membership to:
|
| * shop at the pharmacy
|
| * buy alcohol
|
| * eat at the food court
|
| I believe the first two are due to govt regulations, and may
| only apply in certain states.
|
| It's also much easier for anyone to shop at Costco with a
| spouse's/friend's membership card now that they have self-
| checkout. You used to have to worry about the cashier flagging
| you if the cardholder wasn't there, but now there's no one who
| even looks at your card.
| rdl wrote:
| Just get someone to give you Costco gift cards; you can then
| enter the store with that gift card, and use other payment
| mechanism for the balance of purchase.
| legalcorrection wrote:
| > _It 's also much easier for anyone to shop at Costco with a
| spouse's/friend's membership card now that they have self-
| checkout. You used to have to worry about the cashier
| flagging you if the cardholder wasn't there, but now there's
| no one who even looks at your card._
|
| Or how about don't be a liar/cheater and buy your own
| membership. It's not expensive and it pays for itself fast.
| Shame on whoever does this.
| nwatson wrote:
| Yeah. I almost think of Costco as a privatized utopian
| socialist mini-state. One should pay to be a good citizen.
| ... But then I've also thought it would be cool to build an
| app to help people organize trips to Costco from "food
| deserts" to split memberships and bulk-sized items and the
| bill.
|
| Also, once on a trip to Hawaii with my wife and extended
| family I had my arm around my wife in the Costco checkout
| line. I mentioned that "it feels so good and so right." My
| wife was at first flattered and then realized I was talking
| about the universality of the Costco experience.
| tacocataco wrote:
| It's been a while since I was a member, but I remember
| being able to get my sister her own card attached to my
| account. I just gave the cashier her name and the next time
| she went in by herself she got her card.
| legalcorrection wrote:
| Yes, the standard membership covers two people for the
| base price. Makes circumventing the membership
| requirement all the more scummy and petty.
| wlesieutre wrote:
| I don't know about the food court, but alcohol is
| definitely true for legal reasons in some states. In
| Connecticut our local Costco had its alcohol sales in a
| separate entrance next to the main warehouse, on the
| opposite end from the tire department.
|
| To add another one, the same is true nationwide for their
| optometrists, you can get your eyes checked there without a
| membership but won't be able to buy glasses. If you want a
| place to get your prescription without a hassle from the
| optometrist (who is legally required to give you the
| prescription but isn't necessarily happy about that),
| Costco is a reliable option.
|
| https://customerservice.costco.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/
| 8...
|
| https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/complying-
| ey...
| legalcorrection wrote:
| I mean using someone else's membership card. Nothing
| wrong with using services that don't require membership.
| skinnymuch wrote:
| Yes. This is what people should be ashamed about. Good for
| you for shitting on people! /s
| ortusdux wrote:
| The alcohol restriction is at the state level, so some stores
| do require a membership.
|
| Namely : Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii,
| Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Texas,
| & Vermont have laws that ban requiring memberships for the
| purchase of alcohol.
|
| IIRC, Costco's lobbiests played a large role in Washington's
| privatization of liquor sales, and the final law did not
| include such a restriction.
|
| For those interested, the break even on a 2% cash back
| membership is at the $2k/year.
| karlding wrote:
| I think the break even point for the upgrade is actually
| $3k/year, not $2k/year?
|
| The standard Gold Star Membership costs $60/year, and the
| Gold Star Executive Membership costs $120/year [0]. This is
| an additional $60/year (ignoring sales tax, etc.).
|
| In order to break even, you need to earn at least $60 using
| the 2% cash back from the Executive Membership in order to
| cover the upgrade. This works out to ($60/year) / 0.02 =
| $3k/year.
|
| [0] https://customerservice.costco.com/app/answers/detail/a
| _id/8...
| walrus01 wrote:
| The standard $60 a year membership can pay for itself
| fairly quick just in gasoline price savings (often 20c or
| more better than other local stations) if you happen to
| frequently drive along a freeway that has a Costco on
| your route.
|
| Can easily be a $8 per tank difference.
| ThunderSizzle wrote:
| Definitely true now. Under Trump, Costco was only beating
| by 1-5 cents, sometimes. Now, they can be half a dollar
| cheaper easily.
| IgorPartola wrote:
| You also save money compared to shopping elsewhere which
| is really the major contributor to it being worth it.
| adastra22 wrote:
| Do you? None of the stuff we buy from Costco is cheaper
| compared with other local grocery stores. I mean,
| ignoring the hot dogs and rotisserie chicken, obviously.
| jedberg wrote:
| Fun fact, if you get the upgraded membership and don't
| spend enough to make up the difference from the regular
| membership, they will refund you the difference if you ask.
|
| So technically it doesn't make any sense to not get the
| premium membership as long as you're willing to float them
| the difference for a year.
| Caboose8685 wrote:
| Where is this stated in their rules or whatever?
| Something I can reference if I need to try this and the
| person pushes back.
| frumper wrote:
| They're more than happy to tell me about this, so I'm
| sure if you ask they will be happy to share with you.
| They'll even refund the whole membership
| jedberg wrote:
| Never seen it written down. They just told me once at
| customer service when I went to cash my rebate check and
| they noticed it was smaller than the membership price
| difference.
| ThePowerOfFuet wrote:
| I can confirm that this is true.
| aix1 wrote:
| > as long as you're willing to float them the difference
| for a year
|
| ...and remember to ask for a refund.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| Unless something has changed recently, if you don't make
| enough in cash back to cover the difference between the
| regular membership and the executive one, you can go by
| customer service and they'll comp you the difference.
| labster wrote:
| I think the 2% thing is a customer incentive thing, and
| not intended to be a profit center. And that doesn't work
| as well if people feel like they're gambling on whether
| they will make enough purchases to justify it, if they
| feel like losers in the end.
| wil421 wrote:
| Georgia lets you buy liquor without a membership but it's a
| separate store within a store that has its own entrance.
| Corporations and families are also limited to owning 2
| liquor stores in the state so only 2 Costcos sell liquor.
| wyldfire wrote:
| In Texas the Costcos have a liquor store that does not
| require a membership. But so far as I can tell, the alcohol
| sold in the Costco-proper likely does require a membership.
| Perhaps the presence of the liquor store satisfies the
| legal requirement.
| tristor wrote:
| In Texas, liquor (spirits) sales and non-spirits sales
| are different classes of licenses with different rules.
| Costco in Texas does NOT sell any spirits/liquor inside
| of the membership area, only beer, wine, and premixed
| cocktails (e.g. margarita in a bottle, which is made with
| agave wine not tequila anyway). The attached non-member
| liquor store is the only part which sells spirits, and as
| required by Texas law is open to the public without a
| membership.
|
| Related to this, Texas also has "blue laws" which ended
| in 1985 other than the parts covering automotive dealers
| and liquor stores. So in Texas, liquor stores cannot be
| open on Sundays (nor can car lots). This is another
| reason Costco may be incentivized to not sell liquor
| within the member-only part of the store separately from
| the other requirements from TABC, because they are open
| on Sundays.
| wil421 wrote:
| We have similar liquor/beer/wine laws in Georgia.
| Recently they did away with no sales on Sunday and some
| local "mimosa" brunch laws that allow restaurants to sell
| alcohol before 12:30. Good forbid someone drinking
| watching sports before church gets out.
|
| Anyway, grocery stores will turn off the beer cooler
| lights on Sunday morning and put a note with the time
| they will be able to sell it.
| ghufran_syed wrote:
| It's also worth knowing that you don't have to spend the
| "Cashback" voucher in the store, you can go to customer
| services and they'll give you actual cash instead! I just
| learned this after being a member for 14 years...
| labster wrote:
| Just buying gasoline at Costco is more than enough to pay
| back the membership fee in California. It's about
| 50C//gallon cheaper than other fuel in the same city.
| merlyn wrote:
| In Minnesota it is about $0.20 cheaper than the discount
| gas places.
|
| I'd definately pay $2.60 more to avoid the crazy people
| jamming Costco's parking lots trying to get that 20 cents
| off. I've narrowly avoided many people going anywhere
| they could at ramming speed while I was visiting a
| neighboring business.
|
| I now avoid their neighboring businesses on every weekend
| as I value my life and car to avoid that whole scene.
| sammalloy wrote:
| > I'd definately pay $2.60 more to avoid the crazy people
| jamming Costco's parking lots trying to get that 20 cents
| off.
|
| It might have something to do with the age of their
| pumps. My Costco just put in new pumps and the long lines
| go really fast. I don't know for sure what changed, but
| more people are tapping to pay now (or using the Costco
| keychain chip) and the pumps flow twice as fast than
| before. It has really made a noticeable difference.
| Before, I would spend 5-10 minutes in the line as well as
| pumping, and now it's less than five minutes total when
| it's busy.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| Costco gas is also Top Tier branded, and I trust Costco
| to maintain their equipment and tanks and source better
| quality gas than other independently owned stations.
| sammalloy wrote:
| This is the primary reason I use Costco gas. I've had
| nothing but problems with bad gas from other companies in
| my area.
| gnicholas wrote:
| I used to think this. The Costco in Redwood City is a
| good deal compared to most stations, but the cheap
| station on Woodside Rd. (< 2 miles away) is basically the
| same price. It also never has long lines, which I often
| find at Costco.
| labster wrote:
| I used to think it was false, and that the price drop
| wouldn't pay for the extra distance to Costco, but times
| have changed since the invasion of Ukraine. It's probably
| location dependent. I'm in Ventura County.
| gnicholas wrote:
| Good to know! I'm sure it varies by location, and it's
| also possible the quality that I'm getting at the no-name
| station is not as good.
| inferiorhuman wrote:
| > eat at the food court
|
| That changed a couple years back.
|
| https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Costco-food-court-
| me...
| walrus01 wrote:
| Realistically if you want to eat at the food court just
| walk backwards into the exit and be like "oh yeah I'm going
| to the pharmacy", most states have a law not allowing
| Costco to require membership for pharmacy, and the just go
| buy your food from the automated kiosk.
| m-ee wrote:
| It's not new and that strategy doesn't always work. I
| tried to get a hotdog in SF in like 2014 and they
| wouldn't let me through. When I asked about purchasing
| alcohol he said that was allowed but they would have an
| employee escort me to the liquor and then checkout to
| ensure I couldn't go to the food court.
| skinnymuch wrote:
| That seems like a dbag employee. Possible that sort of
| person will make your time difficult regardless of the
| official rules
| inferiorhuman wrote:
| I've used the ATM at that Costco and nobody followed me
| or nagged me. But that location is right by a bunch of
| good places to get food so I've never tried to push my
| luck.
| sntran wrote:
| Couple counter points:
|
| Appliances shipped from Costco.com are in their original
| packaging. They usually come with damages. I have had a couple
| items that I had to bring them back to the store to return.
|
| Another thing is how they choose which items to sell at a
| particular warehouse. I used to visit one to buy a Sony Bravia
| 77" OLED and was told that the model was only sold at locations
| with high-income neighborhood.
|
| Other than that, they have a way to get my money. It seems like
| we go there every week or so.
| throwawayarnty wrote:
| Amazing how much China has changed over the past 60 years. From
| backwards and famined to a global super power.
| [deleted]
| speed_spread wrote:
| But are there Costcos in China?
|
| Also, do people in China get out of the city to go camping for
| the weekend?
|
| These are honest questions I'd like to have answers for.
| mchaver wrote:
| > But are there Costcos in China?
|
| Yes, I know there is one in Shanghai.
|
| https://www.costco.com.cn
|
| > Also, do people in China get out of the city to go camping
| for the weekend?
|
| I am not sure about camping, but glamping is popular with
| young people.
|
| https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/glamping-china-
| trend-...
| merlyn wrote:
| Yes, Costcos, Sam's Clubs. Ikea. Carrefour. Walmart. Apple.
| Oppo stores.
|
| Probably not around at the time that the article's author's
| parents emigrated.
|
| There are people doing more of the outdoor thing in China
| now. Probably none going about 20 years back. Last time I was
| there, there were recreational bicyclists (ie. taking them
| off the back of their car) in the cities, as opposed to my
| first visits where many more bicycles for their comute than
| cars.
| Markoff wrote:
| Their prices (Carrefour and Walmart) are not really
| competetive though, they have (Carrefour) some special
| stuff not carried in other shops if you wanna buy foreign
| goods, but for regular grocery you are better off with
| Wumart, BHG (and for small Chaoshifa) or others.
|
| I was especially stunned with how bad was Chinese Macro,
| you must buy in bulk, but you will get higher prices than
| small Chinese shops, in Europe they pretend to be wholesale
| where you msut buy in bulk, but at least their prices are
| oftena bit lower, often can't really compete with
| Kaufland/Lidl/Penny, but in China they didn't even try.
|
| Anyway by the end of my 5+ year stay in China I was doing
| already my groceries though the app, delivered to my 5th
| floor apartment without elevator.
|
| OPPO is Chinese brand, so dunno exactly how is it worth
| mentioning they have stores in China.
| markles wrote:
| Most cities have plenty of hiking and camping groups you can
| join. Hiking and other outdoor activities have grown
| considerably in popularity in the last couple of decades.
|
| Lots of stone path walkways which people will refer to as
| hiking, but isn't what most in Europe or the US would
| consider it to be. There are groups that build off old paths
| that connect villages or which were used for hunting. Some
| areas have really nice networks of trails, though, just not
| to the extent you'd find elsewhere.
| pirate787 wrote:
| Really the progress started with Deng Xiaoping, so just in the
| last 45 years. But China has 20% of all humanity, so really
| just stepping back into its rightful place after the disaster
| of Maoism.
| divbzero wrote:
| I've always had a gut feeling that Costco's customers represent a
| broader swath of socioeconomic diversity than most other stores.
| Don't know how true that is and would love to learn if there's
| real data behind it.
| jedberg wrote:
| The median Costco shopper makes over $125,000.
| listenallyall wrote:
| No, according to a dubious "research firm" that provides no
| data, the "typical" Costco shopper (define typical however
| you want) earns 125k. The same firm also states the typical
| Wal-Mart shopper earns $80k, same as both Whole Foods and
| Target. You can decide how close their numbers are to
| reality.
|
| https://www.businessinsider.com/typical-walmart-shopper-
| demo...
| lallysingh wrote:
| That's one faang employee and two broke people. Wal Mart
| has stuff you can't get at WF or Target.
| caymanjim wrote:
| Minor anecdotal evidence, but I live in a small semi-
| rural/semi-suburban town in NJ, and Costco appears to have a
| full cross-section of people. It does seem slightly more
| economically-diverse than the regular grocery and retail
| stores, in that you'll see a lot more rich people (by virtue of
| driving Porsches and Mercedes) at Costco than you will at
| Walmart.
| insightcheck wrote:
| Business Insider hired an analytics firm named Numerator to
| create a report that finds on the average Costco customer [0].
| I couldn't find the original data or report in Business
| Insider's summary, but from its article:
|
| "Numerator found that Costco's typical shopper in the US is an
| Asian American woman between 35 and 44 years old who is married
| and living in a city in the Pacific Northwest. (Costco was
| founded in Seattle and is based in Washington.) She typically
| has a four-year degree or higher level of education and earns
| more than $125,000 a year."
|
| I'm not sure whether the income of the "typical shopper" was
| defined based on a median or mode, so there could well be a
| large variance of customers with a lower socioeconomic status.
| A separate article by Investopedia [1] also asserts that Costco
| mostly opens stores in affluent suburban areas, and originally
| targeted college-educated and financially wealthier customers.
|
| So, Costco's customers are likely skewed to have a higher
| socioeconomic status, based on the location of most of its
| stores in wealthier suburban areas and findings from an
| analytics report (with some skepticism towards the article
| about the report, as the raw data and methods weren't shared,
| as far as I could see).
|
| [0] https://www.businessinsider.com/typical-costco-shopper-
| demog...
|
| [1]
| https://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/061516/whats-...
| TheRealNGenius wrote:
| that doesn't make sense. It says that the "typical shopper"
| is one very specific gender/age/income/racial category.
|
| What the heck does that mean? Am I supposed to believe that
| the most common category of people are that category, or that
| those attributes are the more common ones? I'm positive I see
| an almost even split of male/female when I go to Costco.
| Otherwise, that wording is jacked by any metric.
| lallysingh wrote:
| Assume statistical mode for enums, mean for floats.
| divbzero wrote:
| I couldn't find the original data either. Numerator offers
| snapshots of customer distribution [2] that go beyond just a
| median or mode, but does not share it publicly for Costco.
|
| [2]: https://www.numerator.com/snapshots
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| > A separate article by Investopedia [1] also asserts that
| Costco mostly opens stores in affluent suburban areas, and
| originally targeted college-educated and financially
| wealthier customers.
|
| This is obvious simply by searching for Costcos on a map. Or
| the fact that any time your total is less than $100, the
| cashier and the customer joke about how lucky and rare the
| sub $100 receipt is.
| rdl wrote:
| My favorite Costco is in Iceland: a place where things are
| normally absurdly expensive, and Costco Iceland is merely
| somewhat expensive. Arrive, stock up on food for a week (to
| supplement with restaurants, but some savings). Costco Japan
| would be really fun to visit too (haven't yet).
|
| Also Costco + Internet (Amazon, B+H, etc.) are essentially 99% of
| my shopping here in Puerto Rico.
|
| Visiting Costco, Walmart, etc. immediately after returning from
| war zones with limited supplies is a pretty shocking experience;
| I can only begin to imagine what it's like for someone new to the
| country who is actually from such a place.
| johnwalkr wrote:
| Costco in Japan is great. Even without an American sized fridge
| and freezer it is definitely worth shopping at. It's by far the
| cheapest place to buy American snacks, bacon, good peanut
| butter, tortillas, brown sandwich bread and kind of the only
| place to buy bulk. It's an hour away from me and requires a car
| rental but it's easily worth going once every 2-3 months.
| lostmsu wrote:
| How's the Internet in Puerto Rico?
| Wistar wrote:
| I really like that piece.
| seanc wrote:
| Somewhere I read a quote from some cranky business analyst
| complaining about how the low prices, quality products and high
| wages impact profits. "It's better to be a Costco customer or
| Costco employee than it is to be a Costco shareholder."
|
| To which I responded "That sounds like a well run company!"
| beachtaxidriver wrote:
| If you look at COST it was pretty darn good to be a shareholder
| too.
|
| Somehow they made that work out where all three of them won.
| iancmceachern wrote:
| And a company that will stand the test of time, because as
| Warren Buffet says, it's providing value.
| hillsboroughman wrote:
| In the last 20 years, I did several jobs. The jobs I was happiest
| in were those where my boss was a loyal Costco shopper. I dont
| know if the two are connected.
| jamiek88 wrote:
| Costco blew my tiny little mind when I was fresh off the boat
| too!
| kepler1 wrote:
| Related to the story's underlying topic, as an immigrant I find
| significant attitudinal/philosophical differences in how I regard
| saving money and spending money versus, for example, my American
| coworkers and friends, especially younger ones who grew up around
| relatively well-off families. Maybe the affection for Costco
| embodies that. I'm sure I sound like an old fart for saying this,
| like "those younguns don't know the value of a dollar any more".
|
| By comparison at least, they are much freer with their money and
| don't have the same baggage about it. An example especially
| apparent for me is their willingness to spend on clothing, where
| I just can't bring myself to do it. Maybe just not having been
| brought up around parents who were ever dressed that nice, or
| allowed me and siblings to be. Or for example, their lack of
| concern about overpaying for small things, which yes in the
| bigger picture, who cares if you're overcharged for a drink once
| in a while?
|
| I suppose it's because the information or concern about not
| having money was already passed down or imposed on me as a lesson
| early in life (whether intentionally or not). Sometimes I view it
| as an advantage as I see that my friends (those spending freely)
| will encounter those lessons when they get married, have kids,
| etc. and need to save. On the other hand, I wonder if I'm just
| handicapping myself with that baggage and not allowing myself to
| enjoy the freedom that a good income now brings, and living too
| much in the restraints of my family's past...
| joveian wrote:
| While not necessarily the particular examples you give, there
| is a destructive side to the willingness to spend as well in
| terms of environmental impact. Lots of people in the US end up
| with basements or garages of stuff they don't use and can't
| even remember what is there or find it if they were ever to
| want to use it. I think there is a religion of wealth not just
| among the super wealthy where people think the environmental
| impact doesn't matter or if it does someone else will fix it or
| if not then they deserve it anyway. Ethically there can also be
| major issues, including with clothing, and the more likely to
| be ethical stuff can be more expensive (but not that expensive,
| the most expensive stuff is usually just expensive in order to
| show off wealth). The freedom of wealth is the freedom to shit
| on other people if you want to or just don't care enough to not
| do so. I suggest continuing to be careful about what you buy
| but with a wider ethical consideration rather that just looking
| for the best price.
| Pasorrijer wrote:
| Another thing that hasn't been mentioned, while it doesn't
| directly affect the experience, is how well Costco treats their
| employees. Almost all of their policies are progressive and
| employee first, and that's something I'm also willing to support.
|
| https://www.huffpost.com/entry/costco-pay-benefits-glassdoor...
| lbrito wrote:
| Haven't read the piece yet, but I definitely will - for a long
| time I would like to understand why people are so enamored with
| Costco. I recently joined because they have some good food that
| is hard or more expensive to find elsewhere, but that's about it.
| To me it's just a store. Outside of the US/Canada I've never seen
| people evangelize a store so much.
| findjashua wrote:
| 2 words: quality control
| geodel wrote:
| You are right that at the end of day it is just a store. I know
| many people who keep renewing Costco membership every year but
| goes like once or twice a year. I on the other end is in same
| category that author describes. Even for gallon of milk I'd
| prefer going Costco and if there is more than one item it is
| not even a question.
|
| To me most basic thing would be great quality at that price
| level that I guess everyone else is also looking for. At deeper
| level by reducing choice it sets a familiar pattern of food I
| eat on daily/weekly/monthly basis. Or for clothes just like
| people wear brands and proud to announce it. For me it is I do
| not wear brands and similarly proud of the fact.
| 14 wrote:
| It you eat the food they offer you can definitely get it at a
| better price. Furthermore Costco demands a higher quality for
| certain products. I don't have the source on that but read
| somewhere once that say the can of soup you get at a regular
| grocery store then compare it to Costco they have better
| ingredients things like higher protein for example. I also know
| things like protein powder were the same price but much larger
| at Costco. Meat is much better quality and cheaper. Their
| return policy is hassle free. Probably a lot more I could say
| about Costco.
| shp0ngle wrote:
| The piece is not really about costco though. I mean it is, but
| not _really_.
| bloppe wrote:
| ya lol it feels like 90% of the people on HN go straight to
| the comments without reading the pieces
| sammalloy wrote:
| > I would like to understand why people are so enamored with
| Costco
|
| I've been going to Costco since it was Price Club in the 1980s.
| I can explain why people love it. There's an aura of mystery to
| the shopping experience because of the philosophy behind the
| layout. They basically want you to shop around the whole store
| because nothing is ever in the same place and product longevity
| beyond basic consumer staples is unheard of. In other words, it
| is unlikely the special product you find one week will be there
| the next. This kind of unpredictability goes against the grain
| of the reliability built into the shopping experience, and it's
| what I find so attractive about it. Not only will you be
| exposed to something new and different, but you'll have to
| settle for an entirely different product than the one you
| planned on buying because of the surprise factor at work.
| Obviously, this consumer approach won't work for everyone,
| especially those who stubbornly buy the same thing every week
| or month.
| throwaway0a5e wrote:
| Sounds like Ocean State Job Lot or Mardens but with a
| membership fee to keep the wrong crowd out.
| sammalloy wrote:
| The more interesting thing is how they weed out their
| vendors, not their members.
|
| Edit: you're right, it sounds like they stole some of their
| ideas from Marden's.
| firebird84 wrote:
| When I worked a summer at BJ's (a similar wholesale club) the
| manager informed me that this was by design. I was asking why
| we needed to move all the stuff, if we were discontinuing or
| something. He said nope, we just have to do this every now
| and then because it keeps people shopping longer. There may
| be an added "experience" element to it as well, but this was
| an eye opener to me as a teen.
| grapeskin wrote:
| I was a member for 2 years, although outside of the US.
|
| The store is mostly US/UK/Australian imports of questionable
| quality, prices far higher than local goods (which is to be
| expected when shipped long distance for one specific chain),
| and questionable desirability (e.g. sauces not used much in
| local cuisine, of far lower quality than local brands, in
| containers far larger while also more expensive per gram).
| Products Americans would want from home are also almost non-
| existent. So it caters to nobody.
|
| I think it had a lot of novelty at first since it's a very
| "American" thing and kind of a fun trip, but I'm not sure of
| the longterm viability. There's only so much you can do with a
| store that sells oversized budget-brand ketchup at luxury
| prices and stale jars of nuts.
|
| Never visited while I was living in the US, but I doubt it
| could beat Winco. Bulk, low prices, often local, and no BS
| membership fees.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| Winco is great, but it is not competing with Costco, which
| has a reputation for selling curated products with somewhat
| higher quality.
|
| Winco is solid though, and living near both is extremely
| convenient.
| kvark wrote:
| For me, it's a modern equivalent of the soviet stores. There is
| no 10 kinds of everything, but the ones available are
| guaranteed to be fairly good quality and at an affordable
| price.
|
| Speaking more modern, it saves the mental effort of researching
| choices. Need something? Check Costco, buy if there, done.
|
| Of course there are negatives associated with them, too.
| el-salvador wrote:
| PriceSmart, (Costco's Latin American cousin), does something
| similar too.
|
| They research/test the products before selling them so that
| they comply with their quality standards. So once products
| are on the shelves its likely that they are good.
|
| This make buying decisions easier. Which is a much better
| shopping experience than having to read a dozen product
| reviews while shopping online.
| mantas wrote:
| > soviet stores
|
| > but the ones available are guaranteed to be fairly good
| quality
|
| Yeah, right... Nope.
| nradov wrote:
| That's true for some categories of goods but not all. They
| have way more than 10 kinds of wine.
| f1refly wrote:
| > soviet stores. There is no 10 kinds of everything, but the
| ones available are guaranteed to be fairly good quality
|
| According to people from the former soviet block I know, the
| reason they got so good at fixing stuff is because the first
| thing they did after buying an appliance from a store (after
| it became available eventually) was fixing it because nothing
| ever worked as expected. I guess "nothing" is an
| overstatement but I still wouldn't use the soviet union as an
| example for great product quality.
| rtpg wrote:
| I feel like that was generally a property of everything
| everywhere though. I still remember sticking a fork into my
| VCR (probably made in USA?) or basically every car having
| something wrong with it.
|
| Things have gotten more reliable across the board imo.
| namdnay wrote:
| I guess the european equivalent would be LIDL
| p_l wrote:
| Lidl, at least in most places, doesn't run bulk stores like
| Costco apparently is.
|
| There are some bulk stores with memberships, some of them
| limited to B2B sales, some accepting normal people as
| customers - places like MAKRO and Selgross - but they
| obviously are mainly a warehouse supplier for shops and
| companies.
|
| I don't know how Lidl is in terms of selection in other
| countries, but especially with smaller stores the joke is
| that "every week something new" which refers more to
| somewhat random selection, and they tend to have lesser
| known brands (which, while not necessarily a bad thing,
| isn't also a sign of quality, and sometimes you really like
| the specific brand). Personally when I shopped more at Lidl
| (had one opposite of office), I compared the selection to
| "what recently fell of the truck and will stay till it's
| all sold"
| DocTomoe wrote:
| It is always interesting to read how different such
| brands are perceived in different countries. Over here in
| Germany, Lidl is considered "the better discount store"
| as compared to Aldi (especially Aldi Nord), and has made
| a push to more high-level products (which often are
| better than name-brand stuff that they also carry).
|
| When I talk to British friends, the idea of shopping at a
| Lidl seems to be sacrilegious to them. Still, when I went
| into one somewhere in Yorkshire before the plague, it was
| pretty much what I expected.
| lowercased wrote:
| We got a Lidl near us - one of the first when they were
| planning their US East Coast invasion. Apparently,
| they're scaling back new stores, and ours is one of a
| handful of 'large' footprint stores, and almost
| everything after that is (or will be) probably half the
| size.
|
| We love Lidl mostly because of the price. Almost
| everything was/is around 20-30% less than the stores
| around it. Much of this is from 'store brand' items, but
| the price diff is lower even against other 'store brand'
| pricing.
|
| When they opened, they had a wider variety of items,
| including a wide variety of daily baked breads. That got
| scaled back a lot, as apparently there's not enough
| support/demand in this area for fresh breads outside of
| 'white'.
|
| There's a weird circle of grocery stores that have sprung
| up in my area. Within a 3 mile radius, there's Target,
| Walmart, Lidl, Aldi, Wegmans, Food Lion, Harris Teeter,
| Publix and Lowe's (2?). It seems excessive to me, but the
| area is growing, and they likely wouldn't have invested
| in this area without a strong expectation of not losing
| money.
|
| There's still a Lidl stigma around here. Many folks I
| talk to think of it as some 'poor person' shop.
| inferiorhuman wrote:
| > the ones available are guaranteed to be fairly good quality
| and at an affordable price
|
| I bought into the hype and got a Costco membership a few
| years back. One of the first things I went looking for was
| whole bean coffee (Peet's xmas roast). The local Costco had a
| bunch of coffee from Starbucks and Peets (meh quality to
| start) but only the painfully dark roasts and all of it was
| ground. Pre-ground coffee in bulk has a pretty limited use
| case (and relatively short shelf life).
|
| Fast forward to last week and I went looking for a new fridge
| at Costco dot com. They prominently featured LG (ugh) and
| Samsung refrigerators. While some LG models seem to review
| pretty well I've never seen anyone say anything positive
| about Samsung, their service, or the serviceability of their
| appliances. I'm in the middle of dealing with a defective LG
| fridge and that's about the nicest thing I can say about LG's
| warranty and customer support.
|
| Costco may have a permissive return policy and decent
| customer support but I would never blindly buy something
| without doing a bit of research just because it's at Costco.
| Especially with a big ticket item like a fridge I'd rather
| use my Amex anyhow.
| adastra22 wrote:
| > I've never seen anyone say anything positive about
| Samsung, their service, or the serviceability of their
| appliances
|
| I have all Samsung appliances at my home. They are the best
| appliances I have ever owned. I can't speak to their
| service because I have never had a single issue with any of
| them.
| lowercased wrote:
| > I have all Samsung appliances at my home. They are the
| best appliances I have ever owned.
|
| Congrats. I think you're in a minority. Our washing
| machine 'fabric softener' compartment started rusting
| less than a year after getting it. We had a _long_ time
| and many back and forths trying to get them to
| acknowledge the problem. Their 'fix' initially was
| "don't use that". Finally - months later - they agreed to
| have someone come fix it, but it was going to be hundreds
| of dollars because we were "out of warranty". "But... we
| reported this to you with months left in the warranty
| period". "Well, tough luck" was basically the response.
|
| My wife kept persisting - this dragged on for months -
| and eventually got some service rep to 'cover' this and a
| service guy came out. "Oh this is common - see this a lot
| with Samsungs in the last few years".
|
| Relatedly, we had a dryer guy come out to fix the Samsung
| dryer. He indicated Samsung and LG were among the worst
| consumer-level brands for home appliances, based on their
| workload as service techs. But Samsung and LG have
| gigantic foot prints in the major retail outlets, so
| continue to get sold in to many households.
| gambiting wrote:
| I've heard enough stories from friends and family about
| samsung fridges and washing machines dying shortly after
| their warranty and Samsung wanting crazy money to fix
| them. Also a friend who bought their top of the line
| "frame" TV and returned it within a week because the TV
| had stutter when watching live TV and there is an
| 800-pages long forum thread about it on their forums,
| with Samsung basically replying "we're aware of this
| issue and we aren't planning on fixing it".
|
| On the other hand I have their phone(S21) and I'm very
| happy with it.
| DocTomoe wrote:
| > I've never seen anyone say anything positive about
| Samsung, their service, or the serviceability of their
| appliances.
|
| I've never had problems with Samsung appliances. Can't say
| the same for (supposedly high-quality) Bauknecht or Miele.
| anonAndOn wrote:
| Costco.com is where to look for coffee and other
| foodstuffs. You may have to buy the coffee in 5 lb bags,
| but the selection is superior and the quality is generally
| very good.
| iudqnolq wrote:
| My experience is the big ticket items are all fine products
| at normal prices, but there's no reason to pick Costco for
| them. I suspect it's where they make a lot of their profit,
| considering their groceries are famously low margin. I buy
| groceries and gas exclusively there.
| shaftway wrote:
| I strongly suspect it's the extra services that third
| parties sell through them. Like the vacation packages,
| air conditioning installation, etc. We almost got a
| Puronics filter through them, but stopped short when we
| found out that it was $9000 at Costco, but $6000 through
| an independent installer.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| Costco's profit is all membership fees. Everything else
| is (in aggregate) sold at cost. This is public
| information in their 10-K filings.
|
| For the hotel and travel stuff, they get a commission
| like other travel agents/channels.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| The reason to pick Costco for appliances is because you
| get a 4 year warranty if you use Costco credit card (in
| the US).
| mikebonnell wrote:
| Almost all of their profit is from membership fees.
| https://investor.costco.com/node/24021/html
|
| Sales almost equal merchandise cost plus selling
| expenses. Membership fees add $984 million on top of
| that.
| gambiting wrote:
| Here in UK the #1 reason to get them from Costco is that
| they give 5 years warranty on all electronics and home
| appliances, way beyond what the manufacturer offers. I'd
| happily buy a new TV or a fridge from them for that
| reason alone.
| badpun wrote:
| > soviet stores. (...) but the ones available are guaranteed
| to be fairly good quality and at an affordable price
|
| Must be different soviets that I lived in. The quality was
| often terrible (e.g. "chocolate" that did not contain cocoa
| at all, ugly clothes and shoes that would break down quickly,
| beer that tasted like piss etc.) and that is assuming the
| goods were in the store at all. Basic western goods, such as
| Levi jeans or can of Coca-Cola were celebrated as artifacts
| of an alien, infinitely more advanced civilization.
| p_l wrote:
| At least with chocolate, during communist times in Poland
| AFAIK if someone was packaged as "chocolate" it had to be
| chocolate - it was "chocolate-like product" that you had to
| be wary of which was closer to american "chocolate"[1]
|
| [1] I jest, I jest, but what is legal to be in store-bought
| chocolate in USA, based on things I actually ended up
| getting while visiting, was literally one of the ways
| communist poland cut chocolate to make "chocolate-like
| product" :V
| rexf wrote:
| Yeah, Costco has OK selection and OK/good prices. The
| downside for groceries is the bulk sizing can be much more
| than you want to buy.
|
| Their return policy is also very good. Obviously do _not_
| abuse this (or you are being a jerk). This means you can buy
| things without hesitation since you can easily return it
| should you run into an issue later.
| Suzuran wrote:
| Costco is generally clean, Costco doesn't have the corporate
| reputation for extreme exploitation of their workers that
| Walmart does, Costco's store brand is actually decent, there
| appears to be no overt cost-cutting in store operations, and
| for me the big deal was that Costco was the only place around
| here that attempted to actually _enforce_ mask mandates after
| you were inside the store. I saw one lady getting escorted out
| for taking her mask off and starting a fight when asked to put
| it back on; She screamed "I'LL NEVER SHOP HERE AGAIN!" and the
| employee escorting her out said matter-of-factly "Yes, that's
| what trespass means."
|
| In short, they give the appearance of doing ask if the things a
| business should be doing in line with the intent of the law, as
| opposed to just doing the bare minimum to the letter of the
| law, and doing what you are supposed to do is so rare as to be
| considered exceptional.
| dmos62 wrote:
| > Costco is generally clean
|
| That makes it sound like cleanliness is not the norm in
| grocery stores in US.
| convFixb wrote:
| Thanks to our old friend Baumol [1], cleanliness is not the
| norm in any typical grocery store in the 1st world.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol's_cost_disease
| dmos62 wrote:
| You're saying that people who work in grocery stores
| don't care about their job performance, because their
| level of pay is guaranteed by workers in other industries
| being productive? That's a cynical thought.
|
| By the way, where I'm from (EU), cleanliness is
| definitely the norm for grocery stores.
| harpersealtako wrote:
| US grocery stores in general seem no less clean than
| western European grocery stores from my limited
| experience. I don't know what the parent poster is
| talking about -- even Walmarts in the bad parts of town
| seldom seem conspicuously "dirty".
| mercutio2 wrote:
| Come on. I've been to many, many small grocery stores in
| Western Europe.
|
| Some had obviously old/dirty fixtures, signage, and
| floors, some had newer cleaner looking equipment. The
| average in Europe was much, much "dirtier" than Americans
| on average will put up with.
|
| "Dirty" in this context means not-new-looking.
|
| I'd much rather not pay for someone to replace things
| that are perfectly functional.
|
| But many consumers ( _especially_ Americans) prefer
| extremely well lit, very new looking equipment.
|
| So I think you may have this exactly wrong. Europe has
| much dirtier stores, because it doesn't value cosmetic
| polish as much as health and cost savings.
| dmos62 wrote:
| To be fair, different countries in Europe are culturally
| different. And, to be even fairer, what we mean by
| "dirty" is wildly personal, I think.
| Spivak wrote:
| That depends, are you the health inspector? But yeah,
| unless you live in an area where the average home is 400k+
| and the average car is a Mercedes your local grocery stores
| will be "grimey". Not really dirty, but staffed by people
| who (rightfully) aren't paid enough to care. By comparison
| Costco is basically sterile.
| the_doctah wrote:
| I'm not sure we should be proud of businesses having to force
| their hourly employees to act like bouncers for surly anti-
| maskers.
| slyall wrote:
| New Zealand is getting our first store in a couple of months
| and people are obsessed with it. Stories in the media nearly
| every week. Long queues for membership.
|
| A lot of this is because the local Supermarket Duopoly avoids
| competing on price and makes great profits. People are looking
| forward to cutting their costs and also a flow-on as the
| supermarkets cut their prices a little to compete.
|
| Similar to IKEA which is a year or so away. Easy to take for
| granted when you have it but the alternative is paying a lot
| more for similar to worse quality.
| divbzero wrote:
| It would be fascinating to be part of that team at Costco or
| IKEA planning to open a new store in a new country. On top of
| the challenges you can think of, there must be aspects of
| running the business that you take for granted in your home
| country and don't realize will be a challenge in the new
| country.
| DocTomoe wrote:
| If you want to read an example of people failing at that
| task, read up on Walmart trying to conquer Germany. [1]
|
| [1] many, many articles, but https://www.theguardian.com/bu
| siness/2006/jul/28/retail.mone... is as good as any
| barry-cotter wrote:
| > On top of the challenges you can think of, there must be
| aspects of running the business that you take for granted
| in your home country and don't realize will be a challenge
| in the new country.
|
| New Zealand has an educated, English speaking workforce,
| uses the English common law and actually has rule of law.
| They know how to do this. IKEA has stores in Vietnam, where
| all of those are much less true. They're not going to learn
| much about international expansion they don't know already.
| This is very different from a Canadian company opening up
| in the US, or a French one in Belgium. IKEA, and I presume
| Costco know how to do this already.
| pionar wrote:
| You hire people from the new market who do know those
| quirks. Or, you can be like McDonald's and most fast
| food/QSR companies, and simply license your name to "master
| franchisees" in those markets.
| lordgrenville wrote:
| I would guess that island conditions naturally lead to (at
| least tacit) price collusion, such that the entry of a
| multinational might not lead to prices going down. (In the
| US, the classic case is _White vs. Packer_ , about gas prices
| in Martha's Vineyard.) IKEA prices vary a lot between
| countries. https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-
| style/homed/latest/121925681/no...
| surfmike wrote:
| Costco entering Iceland also had a measurable effect on the
| country's inflation rate.
|
| https://www.icelandreview.com/news/food-prices-drop-
| thanks-c...
| freeqaz wrote:
| The simplest answer to this is Kirkland Signature. It's a very
| genius idea that Amazon is starting to copy now with
| AmazonBasics, but Costco has been doing it for years.
|
| This article explains it better than I can:
| https://every.to/napkin-math/how-costco-convinces-brands-to-...
|
| TL;DR: If you buy something like Grey Goose vodka, it's going
| to be the same product as the Kirkland Signature version on the
| shelf next to it. It is often literally from the same factory.
| Costco AND Grey Goose make more money by being able to sell to
| multiple market segments.
|
| Read that article. It's genius and one of the many reasons I
| love shop at Costco.
| pirate787 wrote:
| Store brands (private label brands owned by the retailer)
| have been around forever and are not a Costco innovation.
| Every US grocery store and most big box stores sell them.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| The source for this article's core claim is a pair of Reddit
| comments, FYI.
| gopalv wrote:
| > I would like to understand why people are so enamored with
| Costco
|
| The first thing someone told me when I got to the US was to go
| to Costco, pay the membership and get an AMEX charge card for
| Costco.
|
| If you are someone with zero credit history and want to buy
| groceries without having cash on you all the time, then Costco
| is a big part of the "welcome to America" package.
|
| What Costco lacks in variety, it made up in quality and
| quantity (no, that's not a choice). The food is good, most
| things are sold at cost, gas is cheaper, diapers are cheaper
| ... everything with a Kirkland label is middle-of-the-curve
| good.
|
| So Costco runs become a regular thing. Before you know it, it
| is like church - go there, show your membership and eat the
| wafers.
|
| Not quite a religion, but something you still proselytize.
| base698 wrote:
| Costco only takes Visa.
| unixhero wrote:
| Wrong It takes American Express too.
| mcronce wrote:
| They used to be AmEx only. They're now Visa only.
| unixhero wrote:
| I paid with Amex at Costco yesterday.
| jmacd wrote:
| In Canada it is Mastercard only. Used to be Amex.
| chiyc wrote:
| I want to say that's a relatively recent change.
| ridgered4 wrote:
| Yes, sometime within the last 5 years they broke their
| long partnership with AMEX. It seems to be Citibank now.
| ianai wrote:
| Have to wonder whether it'll change in another 5 years.
|
| Making 4% back on gas is mega killer though.
| AdmiralAsshat wrote:
| My understanding is that they changed because Citi
| offered them a better deal.[0]
|
| That said, I do kinda miss the Amex and its automatic
| extended warranty.
|
| [0]https://money.cnn.com/2016/03/31/pf/costco-visa-
| american-exp...
| subliminalpanda wrote:
| In Canada they only accepted Mastercard for some time.
| anotherman554 wrote:
| Visa or Mastercard debit (not credit). They used to be
| American Express exclusive.
| bigtones wrote:
| Australians have had Costco for 2 years and they absolutely
| love it. Very popular.
| eddieroger wrote:
| Plenty of good points made already - gas is cheap, products are
| good - but what keeps me a Costco shopper is the consistent and
| frequent stories about them being a genuinely good employer.
| Maybe because I've spent my career in retail IT, but I hear all
| the time about how good of a place Costco is to work. Staff
| turnover is low, wages are good, and they close for most
| holidays. I may not need 48 AA batteries often, but when I do,
| I'd rather buy them at Costco.
| lbrito wrote:
| I was totally unaware of that. Thank you for pointing it out.
|
| I assumed Costco had shitty employee treatment like other
| large chains. Its sad that this has become the default we
| have come to expect from stores and not even think about it.
| ernestns wrote:
| In some areas where it can be costly to import goods, like
| Hawaii, Costco tends to be one of few reliable stores to find
| products at relatively reduced prices. With this type of
| reputation, it's understandable why their following is loyal and
| enthusiastic.
| ekianjo wrote:
| as usual most people react to the headline without reading the
| article :)
| rglullis wrote:
| I am amused by how clear it is to spot those that didn't even
| bother to open the link. All of them, no exceptions, could be
| summarized as "I am completely ignorant of what's actually
| being talked about and I am not really inclined to dig deeper
| into it. Anyway, let me interject with my worthless opinion and
| find a way to make this about _me_. "
|
| But then again, perhaps this could be a meta-commentary about
| how American hyper-individualism makes everyone's worldview so
| small that they can not see anything but themselves, and _yet_
| this somehow "works"?
| skinnymuch wrote:
| What's wrong with someone coming to HN for the comments? The
| headline allows for commenting about that subject.
|
| For all you or I know, this story has most of its upvotes by
| people who want to talk about or read comments about Costco,
| not the story of the article.
| rglullis wrote:
| > What's wrong with someone coming to HN for the comments?
|
| I don't mind reading the comments without reading the
| story. I mind people _writing_ comments without reading the
| story.
|
| > most (...) want to talk about (...) Costco, not the story
| of the article.
|
| And that is _incredibly_ shallow. If I wanted to read
| senseless comments based on the title of an piece, I 'd
| just prompt GPT-3 for random wikipedia entries.
| skinnymuch wrote:
| GPT-3 comments of any kind would certainly be incredibly
| shallow. Comments from actual grown people are different,
| even if it's just based off domain + headline + a
| possible skim.
|
| Edit: I'm not sure senseless comments even correlate more
| with not reading an article.
| rglullis wrote:
| Are you taking literally something that I wrote just for
| rhetorical effect?
|
| Let me try in another way: I don't think that wading
| through tens of comments saying "I like/love/dislike
| Costco" or "I prefer Wegmans/Kirkland/whatever" is the
| type of thing that hits the mark for being a place that
| "gratifies one's intellectual curiosity".
|
| This would be for boring conversation already if the
| topic at hand was a discussion about retail stores, but
| it's made even worse because the post itself has so many
| more interesting things to be talked about, that engaging
| in this type of shallow talk becomes a nuisance to the
| ones that actually made just a bit of effort to read the
| piece and are ready for a more interesting conversation.
| ComputerCat wrote:
| Costco stresses me out! It's always so crowded, they move stock
| around so I can never find anything and the lines to check out
| are huge! BUT I do love how wide the aisles are.
| unixhero wrote:
| Costco is amazing.
| wude935 wrote:
| As a child of AAPI immigrants, this piece really hit home,
| especially when the author mentioned how the struggles of her
| parent's generation impacted the way she was raised.
| thethought wrote:
| Enjoyed the post.
|
| I shop at Costco for
|
| - wine, single malt, brandy, cheese, and bread
|
| - sea food, mutton, sardines, tuna, canned stuff, tomato and
| citrus fruits
|
| - dog food and bird feed
|
| And of course their food court pizza + hot dogs
|
| Great place.
| mongol wrote:
| Costco will open in Sweden soon. On the opposite part of
| Stockholm from where I live, so I don't think it will be useful
| for me. I don't know much about it but I am excited to see what
| it will bring, and if it will affect the general grocery market
| around here.
| unicornmama wrote:
| Hmmmm I wonder if they will try the bulk model. Americans have
| very large fridges and grocery shop once a week. Grocery stores
| are often a 20-30 minute drive away. In my European country
| people have small fridges and may buy groceries several times
| per week. Grocery stores are a 5-10 minutes away.
| mongol wrote:
| People that live in houses here usually have one fridge and
| one freezer, about 180 cm or so tall. In apartments, usually
| less.
| CorvusCrypto wrote:
| The thing that will be interesting to see as well is how they
| approach a market where delivery has been increasingly
| important over bulk availability. Thinking about prices of
| services like MatHem and picsmart etc and if they can shake it
| up
| ArtemZ wrote:
| Stockholm is a horrible place to live long term. You are
| basically banned from owning a car, but there are no convenient
| connections to huge shopping centers like Kungens Kurva (and
| stores likes IKEA doesn't offer delivery for most items!) and
| huge retail/warehouse stores like Biltema.
| CorvusCrypto wrote:
| I am curious if your perspective comes from someone that is
| swedish or not. The general consensus locally is the opposite
| sentiment ime and ofc you can easily rent cars for the day or
| a small trailer for very cheap. That coupled with the fact to
| for example Kungens Kurva it is somewhere you can get to
| within an hour from within even the city center is quite nice
| and the bus stop is literally next to the IKEA (ofc you go to
| Barkarby if more north and again the station for the bus is
| right next to center). The delivery is interesting that you
| note considering we have always been able to get things
| delivered to our apartment though maybe it depends where you
| live...
| ArtemZ wrote:
| Curious if being swedish national has to do with
| perspectives. From what I heard, perspectives of swedish
| nationals usually involves leaving Sweden.
|
| I'm living on Kungsholmen for several years already if that
| matters.
|
| Getting to Kungens Kurva from Thorildsplan involves one
| change and realistically takes a bit more than an hour to
| get there. Of course, you can't bring a huge box with your
| new sofa to a bus or metro and Ikea won't deliver bigger
| items too, so you have to deal with either renting a car or
| paying insane prices for delivery. Same goes for bringing
| larger items to manned garbage collection stations.
|
| I don't rent a car because I feel insecure about driving
| someone's else car after many years without driving
| experience.
| mongol wrote:
| Beg to disagree. You are not banned from owning a car.
| ArtemZ wrote:
| There are virtually no free parking places unless you own a
| house in Stockholm. You can't park your car long term on
| the street near your apartments block because there is
| always a day in a week during which parking is forbidden,
| so you have to move the car at least once a week. If you
| get sick and end up in a hospital for more than a week or
| want to go to a long term vacation you will face HUGE
| penalties and likely outstanding towing and penalty parking
| fees.
|
| This makes car ownership a constant headache, I don't want
| to deal with this.
| mongol wrote:
| Too bad for you but that is far from being banned.
| skinnymuch wrote:
| That's how it is or was in NYC. I never saw it or heard
| about is being a huge deal. Just something you lived
| with.
| klyrs wrote:
| I love Costco for many of the reasons people are citing here,
| but I didn't have a membership until very recently because the
| store is a bit useless if you don't have a car and a pantry. I
| really wonder how well they'll do in dense European cities
| where those aren't the norm.
| mongol wrote:
| The store will be in Arninge. This is quite a bit from city
| center. Many of the richest neighbourhoods are nearby.
| dont__panic wrote:
| A lot of people I know in the tech space seem to love Costco.
| I've been. It's fine -- compared to a lot of other dingy, sad,
| depressing grocery stores, it is absolute MILES better. So I
| understand the fondness.
|
| But for me, it can never compare to Wegmans. At Wegmans, the
| store brand is always a sensible default purchase in a category,
| and often the best option in a category. The employees all seem
| happy because Wegmans has been one of the best blue collar
| employers in the country for a couple of decades now. The hot
| bar, burger shop, and sub shop are all fantastic: relatively
| cheap, and often better than any fast/casual alternatives in the
| area. They have a great beer selection, if you live in a state
| that allows beer sales in grocery stores.
|
| Caveat: if you've only ever visited the Brooklyn Wegmans, or
| honestly any Wegmans outside of the core central-western NY zone,
| you're missing out on the best qualities of Wegmans. For whatever
| reason, the stores they've started in new regions in the past few
| years just don't capture the same Wegmans spirit. The creme de la
| creme Platonic form Wegmans will forever be Rochester's Pittsford
| Plaza location. If you're ever in Rochester, it's worth the
| visit.
| stuff4ben wrote:
| Wegmans is just another overpriced grocery store with a huge
| wine selection going for it. Literally here in NC I'd rather go
| to Harris Teeter or Whole Foods than Wegmans. Some HT's have a
| bar to hang out at which I occasionally do before I do my
| shopping. I just don't see the appeal of Wegmans except the
| transplant northerners who are reminiscencing.
| ecopoesis wrote:
| Wegmans has recently come to New England. They are generally
| much nicer, cleaner, and organized then our big local chain,
| Stop & Shop.
|
| However Wegmans has a weird inventory. Many things you could
| find in any New England grocery store like steak tips, salt-top
| rolls, or brown bread are simply missing.
|
| It wasn't until I was perusing Wegmans' extensive cured meat
| department that I realized I was thinking of Wegmans the wrong
| way: it's not a grocery store, it's an ethnic food store, like
| a Super 88. But instead of being Chinese, Wegmans is a midwest
| ethnic food store.
| rockostrich wrote:
| Everything you said about Wegmans is true of Costco. Kirkland
| brand is usually the best option if they make it and Costco is
| known for their high starting wages, benefits, and treating
| their employees well. Their hot dog (1/4 lb all-beef) + drink
| deal has stayed at $1.50 for decades and is legitimately a
| solid lunch. Their beer selection is good (at least in NY)
| although I would recommend just going to a local brewery to buy
| beer in pretty much any state.
| KillerRAK wrote:
| Costco is the best!
|
| In addition to having a great curated product selection that one
| can trust, they appear to treat their employees well as they
| always have a great attitude and top-notch customer service.
| notkurt wrote:
| Did anyone else read Costco as Contoso first? Or am I the only
| one holding out for a love song dedicated to Contoso
| walrus01 wrote:
| Apparently Microsoft keeps the domain for contoso.net and
| contoso.com registered and its mx receives a vast quantity of
| mail from misconfigured things out in the wild.
| vxNsr wrote:
| You've spent too much time reading Microsoft documentation
| tomc1985 wrote:
| sexy_seedbox wrote:
| I've never been in a Costco in my life but have eaten so much
| Kirkland products.
| bobsmooth wrote:
| I think one of the things in becoming an adult is understanding
| the trauma of your parents. This was a nice article.
| ggm wrote:
| Nice isn't the word I'm reaching for. Very well written, hard
| to deny, quite angry. The one thing it isn't is a love song.
|
| Great writing. Good read.
| jiscariot wrote:
| I enjoyed this piece immensely. Might be a "missing the forest
| for the trees" thing, but it was odd needing to scroll so far
| down for a comment that grok'd the theme of the article,
| instead of chiming in on discounted gas and Kirkland vodka.
| edmcnulty101 wrote:
| As a native born and poor American without any parents I feel the
| same way going to Costco. Its miraculous.
|
| After being homeless a few times as a native born American I
| still feel like showers are the ultimate luxury.
|
| I'm always happy to see immigrants with jobs in America and
| Europe but I can't help but wonder what can we do to make other
| countries as desirable as America?
|
| Theres billions of people. Why aren't their countries desirable
| as well?
|
| Why is North America and Europe the main destination for the
| entire world to wish to immigrate to?
|
| Why doesn't almost any country in Africa South and Central
| America, Asia, and India continents have immigration problems and
| what can we all do to make it desirable for people to want to be
| in their homes?
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| Because they are higher trust societies with less low level
| corruption, allowing one to have more peace of mind in day to
| day life.
|
| Simply going out in a vehicle is magnitudes riskier in the
| country my parents come from. My whole extended family can
| afford maids, cooks, and drivers, yet they all moved because
| they wanted a lower volatility life for their children, even if
| it meant doing your own laundry, cleaning, cooking, and
| driving.
| formerkrogemp wrote:
| > Because they are higher trust societies with less low level
| corruption, allowing one to have more peace of mind in day to
| day life.
|
| Certainly this is a factor, but let's not forget the decades
| of destabilizing influence, coups, assassinations, wars,
| sanctions, and foreign policy promulgated by the US to keep
| some countries poor to maintain US interests.
| edmcnulty101 wrote:
| I didn't see where the US interfered with China or India's
| elections. I didn't see where the US interfered with
| Mexico's elections.
|
| Those are a huge portion of the immigrants to the U.S if
| not the majority.
| elbigbad wrote:
| Can you say more? My spouses family was same, I go visit them
| in their country and they have lavish wealth (comparatively
| to others in the country) and maids and cooks and such. But
| they moved to developed nations like AUS, US, and UK.
| dominotw wrote:
| better air quality.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| Less worry about needing to bribe, especially for everyday
| stuff. Less worry about getting shaken down by cops. Stable
| governments with government insured bank accounts and money
| that loses purchasing power at a much slower rate. Ability
| (and threat) of the court system to potentially right a
| wrong.
| teddyh wrote:
| > _Because they are higher trust societies with less low
| level corruption_
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index
|
| (Also, if you are comparing places, don't forget to also
| consult https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index)
| skinnymuch wrote:
| These sort of things should have more transparent and
| correct naming. Corruption is high as can be in the west
| too. It's just mostly lobbying so the average person
| doesn't have safety concerns. Something like stability,
| comfort, and safety concerns makes much more sense. Or as
| quoted, less low level corruption works too.
|
| The Democracy Index being done by The Economist and being
| used as a respectable index to look at is pretty funny, but
| in line with the status quo.
|
| How many low end countries in these indexes have been used
| and abused by the western countries liberal/conservative
| political regimes The Economist, its ownership, and many of
| its readers love? Sadly, dozens upon dozens upon dozens.
| edmcnulty101 wrote:
| What can we do to make India, Africa, Asia, and South/Central
| America filled with high trust societies like Europe, North
| America, and Australia?
|
| And keep these current high trust societies trust from
| continuing to be eroded? On the front page of HN at the same
| time this article is.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32050417
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| The simplest answer is that good, capable people need to
| participate in the civic process. Not just voting every
| year. Running for office, campaigning, donating, knocking
| on doors, participating and starting civic organizations,
| having children, raising those children with the proper
| values.
|
| Unfortunately, a lot of that can be undone by things like
| lack of resources, which means things like securing your
| own or your tribe's future is more important than advancing
| everyone's.
|
| It is possible that those in developed, stable countries
| are simply lucky enough to be at the right place at the
| right time. As boundary conditions and parameters change,
| the situation can evolve or devolve with little control.
| edmcnulty101 wrote:
| The countries in Europe, North America, and Australia
| were all in the right place at the right time.
|
| While the countries in Africa, Indian, Asia, and South
| America weren't.
|
| That's one possible explanation.
| wyldfire wrote:
| > higher trust societies with less low level corruption
|
| Without a doubt this seems like a big/major factor. But we
| have corruption in the US. Do we have less corruption because
| of enforcement of anti-corruption laws? Or do we have those
| laws and an expectation that they're enforced because of some
| other factors? Not rhetorical, I just don't know. Casually it
| seems like many European countries have the same or greater
| expectations and similar prosperity. When I read stories
| about Russia and the former Soviet republics it makes me
| think that there's so much mistrust and hopelessness that a
| corrupt government is taken for granted.
|
| I have no idea whether or not the US is exceptional but if it
| is I wouldn't jump to describe it as virtuous. But I do wish
| I could understand what policies we could pursue that might
| make other societies similarly high trust.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| > Do we have less corruption because of enforcement of
| anti-corruption laws? Or do we have those laws and an
| expectation that they're enforced because of some other
| factors?
|
| Neither answer is complete. Laws and enforcement can only
| go so far. It is not feasible to police every single
| interaction between people.
|
| My amateur hypothesis would be a combination of a wealth of
| resources, growth outlook, shared struggles, traditions and
| cultural outlooks that provide utility and propagate
| downstream, etc. Probably impossible to intentionally
| recreate. And of course, very possible to lose.
|
| If everyone in society decides they want to screw each
| other, then no amount of laws will help. Unfortunately, in
| many societies, the game is very adversarial with dire
| consequences, and you have to play that way.
|
| On the other hand, a society where people are mostly out to
| engage in good faith transactions can greatly benefit from
| reduced friction, enabling more transactions and each actor
| wasting less energy in preventing themselves from being
| screwed.
| toast0 wrote:
| > Do we have less corruption because of enforcement of
| anti-corruption laws? Or do we have those laws and an
| expectation that they're enforced because of some other
| factors?
|
| I think there's an expectation that at least egregious
| corruption will be enforced against; typically in a court
| of law, but if not, in the court of public opinion. But
| also, petty bribes are offensive to be offered or demanded.
| There's a sense that bribing your way out of a minor
| offense is a more serious crime than whatever the offense
| was.
|
| There's still higher level corruption, regulatory capture
| and all that, and other cases of interested parties making
| decisions with conflicts of interest. Those are trickier
| than bribes.
| pm90 wrote:
| > Theres billions of people. Why aren't their countries
| desirable as well?
|
| Because whenever they have political systems that promote
| stability or justice, those leaders are overthrown in favor of
| those who will obey diktaks of the IMF/World Bank/WTO which
| generally promote privatization and wealth concentration.
|
| So other countries are desirable but have low social/economic
| mobility.
| foogazi wrote:
| > Because whenever they have political systems that promote
| stability or justice, those leaders are overthrown in favor
| of those who will obey diktaks of the IMF/World Bank/WTO
|
| simplistic reasoning, but IMF was funded in 1945 - what's
| your explanation for the previous 20 centuries?
| crooked-v wrote:
| You may want to look up the history of European
| colonization of most of the world.
| Panzer04 wrote:
| By and large, the problem is unfortunately the reverse.
|
| If you have resources, your government ends up either an
| corrupt, nepotistic authoritarian hellhole or a corrupt,
| nepotistic socialist paradise (until the
| oil/gold/diamonds/gas run out, at which point it becomes a
| corrupt, nepotistic authoritarian hellhole)
|
| Most countries have the problem of corrupt, nepotistic
| governments that look after the insiders at the expense of
| the rest of the population - subsidies for their mates,
| tariffs on overseas imports the help your friend but screw an
| industry, etc. The simplest way of avoiding the most
| destructive consequences of bad governance is often to just
| remove the government from the equation.
| usrn wrote:
| That didn't seem to happen in the Nordic countries.
| jahewson wrote:
| They had strong governments long before they discovered
| their natural resource (oil).
| lbrito wrote:
| throwamon wrote:
| > Why aren't their countries desirable as well?
|
| Yup, that would be pretty nice. If only America would let them.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in...
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_war_crimes
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent
| TulliusCicero wrote:
| > Yup, that would be pretty nice. If only America would let
| them.
|
| And yet, if you ask people actually from those countries,
| rarely will they pin Uncle Sam as the primary reason they're
| still not well developed.
| unethical_ban wrote:
| I just had my bike stolen from me in broad daylight. I said
| to myself "this is the kind of thing that happens in Brazil,
| not here".
| mise_en_place wrote:
| Sorry to hear that. Costco has a nice selection of bikes
| for you to choose from.
| edmcnulty101 wrote:
| I didn't see where the US interfered with China or India's
| elections.
|
| I didn't see where the US interfered with Mexico's elections.
|
| Those are a huge portion of the immigrants to the U.S if not
| the majority.
| wyager wrote:
| > Why aren't their countries desirable as well?
|
| See e.g. _National IQ and Economic Development: A Study of
| Eighty-One Nations_ , by Lynn and Vanhanen.
|
| There is a superlinear relationship between average IQ and
| GDPPC.
|
| Research precludes a predominant causal relationship from GDPPC
| _to_ IQ (e.g. via Flynn effect); all that is left is that
| population intelligence causally precedes GDPPC.
| toast0 wrote:
| > Why doesn't almost any country in Africa South and Central
| America, Asia, and India continents have immigration problems
| and what can we all do to make it desirable for people to want
| to be in their homes?
|
| Some countries do have immigration problems and emmigration
| problems. If they're more desirable than nearby countries, but
| not nearly as desirable as US/EU, then they'll pull in their
| neighbors, potentially too much at times, but still have those
| with resources leaving when they can.
|
| IMHO, things people are looking for are physical safety,
| political stability, economic stability and opportunity, legal
| stability (rule of law, predictable courts, timely access to
| courts, reasonable law enforcement).
|
| The top reasons people I hear people say they come to the US
| are because it's unsafe for them where they live, or to have
| the opportunity to make more money.
| Panzer04 wrote:
| Mostly less stable governance, often with less protection of
| private rights (though obviously most of these countries are
| just poorer as well).
|
| If you have no assets, it's also far easier to make money in a
| rich country and move back rich, rather than the reverse.
| akomtu wrote:
| Here is an unscientific explanation. NA and EU are populated by
| older souls: some of them see the value of giving, while
| others, who've chosen the wrong path, are adepts at scheming;
| but both are similar in their maturity. The less mature souls
| are still busy with mastering their emotions and their nations
| are too chaotic for this reason: they either fall apart without
| a leader, or when a mature leader presents itself, they have to
| be ruled by an iron fist (China, India). Eventually the focus
| will shift to another place on Earth: the most advanced will
| move on there and America will join the long list of empires
| that were once great, but that event is still a thousand years
| away.
| prostoalex wrote:
| > what can we all do to make it desirable for people to want to
| be in their homes?
|
| Great book on the subject is
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Nations_Fail It explores
| precisely this phenomenon - why certain places that have
| geographic proximity (Dominican Republic and Haiti, Nogales AZ
| and Nogales Sonora) drifted so far away from one another
| economically, why some places with vast natural resources
| (Nigeria) are undesirable while some other countries with
| limited natural resources (Japan, Singapore) are economic
| successes.
| gumby wrote:
| My great grandfather moved to a different part of Asia and never
| went back. My grandfather moved elsewhere and never went back. My
| mother moved to another continent and then later, with my father,
| to a third, where I partially grew up. And I moved to yet another
| continent (with another emigree), speaking a language that, like
| my mother, I had learned after growing up.
|
| Yet today I spoke English with a stranger, a woman born to Indian
| immigrants and she spoke with the same hand gestures I do.
| permo-w wrote:
| what does this have to do with Costco?
| gumby wrote:
| Thanks for asking if it wasn't clear.
|
| The article used Costco as a vehicle for exploring the
| experience, and yet so some degree trauma, of moving away
| from your birthplace. I read it through the lens of a common
| belief that Asian families in particular are very close and
| don't handle migration well.
|
| I mentioned my story because it's a contradictory example,
| but also because I believe that the belief that somehow
| "Asians" can't handle family separation is not correct -- I
| believe all people have roughly the same percentage of "gotta
| stay here" and "gotta go somewhere else" -- it's just human
| nature.
|
| The last part of my story also relates to the Costco article:
| despite a lot of time there I never lived in India, nor,
| thanks to the laws and attitudes of where I was born did I
| speak much of any Asian languages with my mother yet decades
| later I, and some American woman of Indian decent whom I'd
| never met before, used the same body language and gestures
| while speaking. Where did that come from?
| permo-w wrote:
| thank you for the detailed explanation :)
| godelmachine wrote:
| Did you ask her out for a coffee?
| smugma wrote:
| Sounds like the beginning of a true love story.
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| deweywsu wrote:
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