4 ms·

Costco is the buffet model turned into a grocery store. Why buy 8 ounces of mayonnaise when you can buy 5 pounds. It caters to the American lust/love of bigger

Costco is the buffet model turned into a grocery store. Why buy 8 ounces of mayonnaise when you can buy 5 pounds. It caters to the American lust/love of bigger = better, when in practice it might just be better to buy less, and thus buy more often.

Pfhreak 7y ago
Except, for many things buying less frequently results in less packaging, fewer trips to the store, more economical purchases, etc. Lots of upsides to buy once, store for a while.
- whoopdedo 7y ago
  But it requires you to allocate personal space to store those purchases. A second freezer, or larger cupboard. So greater pressure on real estate. If I'm economizing my living space I won't be shopping at Costco.
  - rficcaglia 7y ago
    I agree here. Second freezer and lots of space for storage is a must. Not for tiny apartments. A suburban phenomenon mostly.
- skookum 7y ago
  I'm a big fan of Costco, but packaging is one area where I'm not sure how well it works out from an environmental footprint perspective. Buying milk? 3 standard cartons in a big cardboard box. Tomatoes? 4 lbs in a cardboard box wrapped in plastic where you would have used the same amount of plastic minus the box at a supermarket. Many of the items they sell are in the standard packaging then packaged in one additional layer of multi-unit packaging. I understand the need for it due to requiring stacking the items in large quantities plus efficiency of checkout and I optimistically hope that supply chain efficiency offsets the additional packaging but I'm not sure what the reality is.
  - Scoundreller 7y ago
    The box of 12 soaps in 12 boxes always irks me. But you have to consider the packaging that you don't see at other retailers: it might come to them in the same packaging, but it's discarded before you see it.
    - skookum 7y ago
      That is a good point that may offset to some extent. From the glimpses I've had of grocery store stocking - especially when it comes to produce - I think Costco is still more packaging-per-volume for the things I buy. Costco also still has an additional third layer of boxing for most items between the sellable packaging and the pallet. For example the boxes of tomatoes I mentioned are additionally housed in a 6-unit box and it's those boxes that are stacked on the pallets. I supposed the final outcome depends on what one buys - processed/frozen food probably has a better packaging efficiency at Costco.
- Scoundreller 7y ago
  And bigger packages have less packaging material per volume. While bigger packages could have thicker packaging, that's not always true: packaging that protects from the outside world won't be any different. A foil layer is a foil layer.
bpodgursky 7y ago
What if I don't want to: - Buy a ton of small items, each with their own wasteful packaging? I buy 10lb bags of frozen chicken at Costco, and it has far less packaging than buying individual units. Same with peanut butter. Vegetables. Oil. - Spend two hours a week hopping back and forth to grocery stores? What if I want to make 1-2 runs to Costco per month so I can cook food in bulk? - Carefully hunt for which items at the grocery store are on sale, and which are heavily marked up? At Costco I am guaranteed that the price is at least competitive. I don't have to figure out whether the grocery-store vanilla bottle is competitive, or 3x wholesale price. I mean, if you have time to spend, feel free to hop around speciality grocery stores 3 times a week, but I personally have no interest in that. I have better things to do. So maybe tone down the snobbery and acknowledge that other people have other priorities.
- Scoundreller 7y ago
  > At Costco I am guaranteed that the price is at least competitive. Right, you know that Costco is taking making a 10% margin across the board. You'll never be able to exploit a loss-leader and fill your cart with below-cost X, but you're never getting overly hosed either. If you're a well-to-do immigrant that hasn't built up a mind-map of "Buy A at X, buy B at Y, and only buy C when on-sale at Z", Costco is a low-cognitive load solution.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
dominotw 7y ago
> in practice it might just be better to buy less, and thus buy more often. why is that?
- Overtonwindow 7y ago
  Freshness could be one option.
  - vmurthy 7y ago
    Not to mention: avoiding waste. Ever had a ton of stuff you bought for a dollar less than the price and ended up throwing out half the stuff ? Me, too.

Pfhreak 7y ago

Except, for many things buying less frequently results in less packaging, fewer trips to the store, more economical purchases, etc. Lots of upsides to buy once, store for a while.

whoopdedo 7y ago
But it requires you to allocate personal space to store those purchases. A second freezer, or larger cupboard. So greater pressure on real estate. If I'm economizing my living space I won't be shopping at Costco.
- rficcaglia 7y ago
  I agree here. Second freezer and lots of space for storage is a must. Not for tiny apartments. A suburban phenomenon mostly.
skookum 7y ago
I'm a big fan of Costco, but packaging is one area where I'm not sure how well it works out from an environmental footprint perspective. Buying milk? 3 standard cartons in a big cardboard box. Tomatoes? 4 lbs in a cardboard box wrapped in plastic where you would have used the same amount of plastic minus the box at a supermarket. Many of the items they sell are in the standard packaging then packaged in one additional layer of multi-unit packaging. I understand the need for it due to requiring stacking the items in large quantities plus efficiency of checkout and I optimistically hope that supply chain efficiency offsets the additional packaging but I'm not sure what the reality is.
- Scoundreller 7y ago
  The box of 12 soaps in 12 boxes always irks me. But you have to consider the packaging that you don't see at other retailers: it might come to them in the same packaging, but it's discarded before you see it.
  - skookum 7y ago
    That is a good point that may offset to some extent. From the glimpses I've had of grocery store stocking - especially when it comes to produce - I think Costco is still more packaging-per-volume for the things I buy. Costco also still has an additional third layer of boxing for most items between the sellable packaging and the pallet. For example the boxes of tomatoes I mentioned are additionally housed in a 6-unit box and it's those boxes that are stacked on the pallets. I supposed the final outcome depends on what one buys - processed/frozen food probably has a better packaging efficiency at Costco.
Scoundreller 7y ago
And bigger packages have less packaging material per volume. While bigger packages could have thicker packaging, that's not always true: packaging that protects from the outside world won't be any different. A foil layer is a foil layer.

bpodgursky 7y ago

What if I don't want to: - Buy a ton of small items, each with their own wasteful packaging? I buy 10lb bags of frozen chicken at Costco, and it has far less packaging than buying individual units. Same with peanut butter. Vegetables. Oil. - Spend two hours a week hopping back and forth to grocery stores? What if I want to make 1-2 runs to Costco per month so I can cook food in bulk? - Carefully hunt for which items at the grocery store are on sale, and which are heavily marked up? At Costco I am guaranteed that the price is at least competitive. I don't have to figure out whether the grocery-store vanilla bottle is competitive, or 3x wholesale price. I mean, if you have time to spend, feel free to hop around speciality grocery stores 3 times a week, but I personally have no interest in that. I have better things to do. So maybe tone down the snobbery and acknowledge that other people have other priorities.

Scoundreller 7y ago
> At Costco I am guaranteed that the price is at least competitive. Right, you know that Costco is taking making a 10% margin across the board. You'll never be able to exploit a loss-leader and fill your cart with below-cost X, but you're never getting overly hosed either. If you're a well-to-do immigrant that hasn't built up a mind-map of "Buy A at X, buy B at Y, and only buy C when on-sale at Z", Costco is a low-cognitive load solution.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

dominotw 7y ago

> in practice it might just be better to buy less, and thus buy more often. why is that?

Overtonwindow 7y ago
Freshness could be one option.
- vmurthy 7y ago
  Not to mention: avoiding waste. Ever had a ton of stuff you bought for a dollar less than the price and ended up throwing out half the stuff ? Me, too.