7 ms·

Costco's gimmick is relieving you of choice and price shopping. They find the best stuff and don't mark it up. If Consumer is your identity yet you fear executi

by Lucent 5mo ago

Costco's gimmick is relieving you of choice and price shopping. They find the best stuff and don't mark it up. If Consumer is your identity yet you fear executing its labors, let Costco step in and become your denomination of consumerism, complete with tithe, proscribed usury, and communion hot dog.

SoftTalker 5mo ago
Also the reason that small specialty shops, and mom-and-pop grocery, fruit, dairy, bakeries and butcher shops are largely gone. They just cannot compete with Costco and Sam's Club/Walmart's buying power.
- lifeisgood99 5mo ago
  Actual specialty shops survive just fine. There's plenty of value in real expertise. Run-of-the-mill stores selling the same commodity at a higher price are simply inefficient.
- bell-cot 5mo ago
  99% of the reason for the mom-and-pop groceries dying out is that "our" Federal Gov't decided that it would stop bothering to enforce the law - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson%E2%80%93Patman_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson%E2%80%93Patman_Act And note how the modern Democratic Party - the originators of that law back in 1936 - utterly failed to give a crap about the issue.
  - triceratops 5mo ago
    > note how the modern Democratic Party... utterly failed to give a crap about the issue From the article on the Act - "Enforcement of the RPA has declined since the 1980s. In 2022, FTC commissioner Alvaro Bedoya endorsed a revival of enforcing the RPA in order to curb price discrimination. In April 2024, sixteen members of Congress wrote to the FTC urging for a revival of the enforcement of the Act. In December 2024, the FTC sued liquor distributor Southern Glazer's under the Act, asserting that they charged small stores more than they charged large chains. On January 17, 2025, the closing days of the Biden Administration, the FTC filed a lawsuit against PepsiCo. In May 2025, The FTC voted to dismiss the PepsiCo suit but the suit against Southern Glazer's is proceeding." It's a low bar but the Democratic party has given more of a crap about it than anyone else.
  - twoodfin 5mo ago
    Robinson-Patman is a bad law. Even if it were a good law, it would be effectively impossible to enforce equitably and not capriciously, which is probably why it hasn’t been. The government telling competitive buyers and sellers which kinds of price negotiation are legal and which are not is terrible economics because it attenuates price signals.
    - bell-cot 5mo ago
      Pre-1980's, it seems to have been enforced well enough to keep a whole lot of mom-and-pop grocery stores in business. I'm thinking the faded-out enforcement was due to a certain 1980's President, and his administration's "Greed is God" ethos. A lot of protections for the little guy got dumped on his watch.
      - twoodfin 5mo ago
        You don’t have to guess. Wikipedia’s cite for the claim of decline says: Enforcement of the RPA is overseen by the Federal Trade Commission, but cases have declined since the 1980s due to the complexity of the law and the requirement to prove intended damages. Juries in recent cases claiming RPA violations have not found the defendants guilty.
- legitster 5mo ago
  The idealized small mom-and-pop shops were largely put out of business by WWII and rationing more than anything. Supermarkets and department stores have more or less been the norm in the US since long before Wal-Mart began spreading across the country. There are still plenty of produce stands, bakeries, and butcher shops in the country. Most of what was driven out of business were small bodega-style corner stores.
  - jerlam 5mo ago
    I would argue that corner stores were also driven out of business by suburbanization. If no one is within walking distance to a corner store, then it's not going to survive. Fewer people are going to drive to a corner store that costs more and stocks less than a supermarket. They mostly exist now in a different form as gas station markets, or in dense urban areas like NYC, or some central business districts.
- jerf 5mo ago
  A specialty shop can probably survive Costco much more easily than they can survive Walmart or any other conventional (American) grocery store. The grocery store carries 20 or 30 different olive oils, to select one example. Odds are all the snobbiest will find something they like... odds are even decent that in a blind taste test even the snobbiest would find something that they would be horrified to discover came from a normal grocery store. Costco carries one or two options for a given thing, and are outright missing many things you might want. As nice as Costco is for buying things on a budget when you're going to use them up fully, I think it would be a bit of a challenge to make them your only grocery source. Doable as a sort of self-imposed challenge, no problem, there's certainly enough for that, but you'd be missing a lot of things, and/or wasting money on huge quantities of things you won't use. The quality is generally pretty decent (I may have more brand loyalty for "Kirkland" than almost any other brand) but not necessarily the most premium options. If you are the type to even consider the specialty shop in the first place you're more likely to be unsatisfied by Costco than a grocery store.
  - kenhwang 5mo ago
    Costco is for bulk staples and commodities for me. Products that I really don't need the best of the best for, good enough is good enough and as long as I can use it all before it goes bad, I'd rather not waste more thought than needed for it. Milk, eggs, flour, flowers, microfiber towels, batteries, salt and pepper. Then for all the niche stuff that I do truly care about, there's the specialty stores or really the farmer's market. That's where I'll indulge for the first press seasonal olive oils, all sorts of pluot/apriplums/plumpicots combinations, short shelf life wild berries, blueberry/orange/mint blossum honey and whatnot.
    - gottorf 5mo ago
      > Costco is for bulk staples and commodities for me > Milk, eggs, flour, flowers, microfiber towels, batteries, salt and pepper If you can walk out of Costco month after month with just those essentials, and never pick up any of the nice-looking and reasonably-priced goodies there, I think it's safe to say that you have the level of discipline required to be financially successful and not have to care about whether you're getting the best price per unit of whatever it is you're buying. :-)
- maxglute 5mo ago
  I remember reading costco has leverage on their supplier-producers, enough that they than enforce better standards above regulation (i.e. meats/produce), which is something mom-pop can't do.
- werdnapk 5mo ago
  I will not buy coffee at Costco. I've had Costco coffee beans and it's terrible. I only buy premium beans at specialty shops and always will. The masses can drink their subpar coffee from Costco if they wish.
dnnddidiej 5mo ago
If there is wine on the dog, i I'm 100% in.
deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]
nlawalker 5mo ago
Identifying as a rabid consumer is not a requirement of appreciating Costco. The end result of that gimmick is that it feels like they're looking out for their customers and offering them a valuable service as opposed to trying to suck them dry. Buy this blender; don't buy this blender; they don't care, just know that this is probably the one that will best meet your needs, it's the best deal you're going to find on it anywhere, and if you're unhappy with it for any reason they'll take it back.
- fellowniusmonk 5mo ago
  Some companies serve the people and some companies want people to serve them. The sabbath was always meant for man and that makes a lot of people very angry because whatever ideological or religious lip service someone gives their behavior demonstrate they hate man, or more subtly, love mankind like dollars in their pocket, stripping humans of their humanity. This mendacious attitude is also a major driver of enshitification. The internet and executive social distancing has made a huge swath of people lose touch with how unique individuals are, so they treat humanity with the bigotry and coldness that the law of large numbers has lead them to, which is ultimately very mean.
  - jatora 5mo ago
    a bit out of left field. tell us how you really feel... about something that's definitely not this topic because this is nonsense
- jonnycoder 5mo ago
  It's a gimmick only for those who get sucked into buying things that they don't need. I've been a Costco shopper for decades, and sure have succumbed to some useless stuff, but my Costco list is 90% the same month to month. I get appalled when I see the same items on my list, that are smaller and in a pack of 1 instead of 2-4, for more money at other stores. If electronics were just like food, it would be like seeing a Macbook Pro for $2000 everywhere but it was $799 at Costco.
  - 5mo ago
queuebert 5mo ago
I wouldn't call it a gimmick when the business has been so successful for so many years. They target educated shoppers who want to buy quality at minimum markup and not think too hard about it. If I want a TV, I know Costco will have good ones at a good price. If I need socks, same. Their food is cheaper and better than Kroger. It's just a win-win for shoppers and Costco. The only tradeoff is selection and dealing with the crowds. What you wrote sounds intelligent but belies an ignorance of the business model.
- wombat-man 5mo ago
  Yeah, this right here. I don't want to sift through thousands of options. Sometimes I just want a widget that is good quality and I don't want to get ripped off.
- hdhdhsjsbdh 5mo ago
  Parallel to that, I have to imagine Costco makes a lot of money off of impulse purchases, which are induced by uncertainty in the specific items they will have available, plus mutable store layouts. Long ago in undergrad I took a retail marketing class and we did a field trip to Costco; the GM told us it was part of their policy to rearrange parts of the store occasionally so that you had to browse the entire place to check off your shopping list. This increases the likelihood that you stumble across new products. So it’s this combination of “best price/quality without decision fatigue” plus some impulse buying that works for them. The fact that they are figuring out the price/quality trade off for you up front probably also makes it easier to impulse buy with fewer regrets.
  - infecto 5mo ago
    The word is treasure hunt. Stores like Costco or TJ Maxx (there are others) use what they call the treasure hunt. They design the whole experience around you walking around hunting for that new piece of treasure that you have to buy.
  - bookmark99 5mo ago
    Yea so true. Unlike many with families here, I (a single 26M) recently got a costco membership for the gas savings, whenever i stop by costco in the middle of the month, i'm looking for one or two things. This time it happened to be peanut butter, it's insane the amount of times I had to tell myself, no you dont need this, get peanut butter and leave. Ofcourse it's very convenient that their app doesnt show what aisle things belong to so that was a fun realization.
simplyluke 5mo ago
> If Consumer is your identity yet you fear executing its labors This is an interesting take. Spending hours min-maxxing the "best" combination of product/price in every given category has always been peak consumerism as an identity to me. Subreddits filled with tens of thousands of posts and strongly held groupthink opinions about why knife brand x is the best option for you to open your amazon packages, or how much you need to try the new mechanical keyboard switch collaboration, deep dives on wirecutter, waiting for the right sale, etc. I go to costco because I don't want to do any of that for my groceries and basic home needs. I need oil for my car this weekend, and beer and burgers to hang out after I'm done with it. I don't want to spend 10 hours reading about the best 5w30 oil (or should I get 0w20?), I want a high-quality option at a fair price.
- hx8 5mo ago
  The entire activity of going to buy a few things for around the house during the weekend is something that is performed by a consumer. This guy is exactly talking about you, but you aren't seeing it because your own internal identity isn't Consumer it's something like "guy who wants a chill weekend." However in the marketplace your identity is consumer.
  - SubmarineClub 5mo ago
    What point are you even making? We all have to eat, we all have to wipe our asses, we (mostly) all need to change the oil in our cars. I don’t really see the purpose in describing the purchase of necessities as an identity.
    - hx8 5mo ago
      I'm specifically trying to make the point that identity is not just a personal experience -- the experience of how you see yourself. Identity is also a label that can be placed upon you. Parent Comment was trying to reject the personal identity of consumer while their words actively affirming their identity as a consumer in the marketplace. You can reject the personal identity of a consumer all you want, but businesses will still judge you by your actions (how much you spend).
FireBeyond 5mo ago
One area where I'd say Costco -is- a let down is electronics. Yes, you don't always need the latest and greatest, but in my area Costco was selling 2 and 3 year old model TVs that have been superseded by the manufacturer at their (low but still retail) same prices.
gessha 5mo ago
I often times walk through a local store chain and see 30 types of mustard on the shelves and I think to myself: “Who needs so much choice?” Another thing on the top of my mind is oatmeal - I’m not a oatmeal connoisseur but I can’t taste the difference between the 5-10 types of oatmeal in the store, not that I’ve an active choice to try them. Do we need that much diversity in oatmeal choices? And so on and so on.
- alliao 5mo ago
  unfortunately when there are so many choices the usual reason is because they are all bad...
tipperjones 5mo ago
It feels like you really wanted to shoehorn the communion hot dog line in there.

by Lucent 5mo ago

SoftTalker 5mo ago

Also the reason that small specialty shops, and mom-and-pop grocery, fruit, dairy, bakeries and butcher shops are largely gone. They just cannot compete with Costco and Sam's Club/Walmart's buying power.

lifeisgood99 5mo ago
Actual specialty shops survive just fine. There's plenty of value in real expertise. Run-of-the-mill stores selling the same commodity at a higher price are simply inefficient.
bell-cot 5mo ago
99% of the reason for the mom-and-pop groceries dying out is that "our" Federal Gov't decided that it would stop bothering to enforce the law - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson%E2%80%93Patman_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson%E2%80%93Patman_Act And note how the modern Democratic Party - the originators of that law back in 1936 - utterly failed to give a crap about the issue.
- triceratops 5mo ago
  > note how the modern Democratic Party... utterly failed to give a crap about the issue From the article on the Act - "Enforcement of the RPA has declined since the 1980s. In 2022, FTC commissioner Alvaro Bedoya endorsed a revival of enforcing the RPA in order to curb price discrimination. In April 2024, sixteen members of Congress wrote to the FTC urging for a revival of the enforcement of the Act. In December 2024, the FTC sued liquor distributor Southern Glazer's under the Act, asserting that they charged small stores more than they charged large chains. On January 17, 2025, the closing days of the Biden Administration, the FTC filed a lawsuit against PepsiCo. In May 2025, The FTC voted to dismiss the PepsiCo suit but the suit against Southern Glazer's is proceeding." It's a low bar but the Democratic party has given more of a crap about it than anyone else.
- twoodfin 5mo ago
  Robinson-Patman is a bad law. Even if it were a good law, it would be effectively impossible to enforce equitably and not capriciously, which is probably why it hasn’t been. The government telling competitive buyers and sellers which kinds of price negotiation are legal and which are not is terrible economics because it attenuates price signals.
  - bell-cot 5mo ago
    Pre-1980's, it seems to have been enforced well enough to keep a whole lot of mom-and-pop grocery stores in business. I'm thinking the faded-out enforcement was due to a certain 1980's President, and his administration's "Greed is God" ethos. A lot of protections for the little guy got dumped on his watch.
    - twoodfin 5mo ago
      You don’t have to guess. Wikipedia’s cite for the claim of decline says: Enforcement of the RPA is overseen by the Federal Trade Commission, but cases have declined since the 1980s due to the complexity of the law and the requirement to prove intended damages. Juries in recent cases claiming RPA violations have not found the defendants guilty.
legitster 5mo ago
The idealized small mom-and-pop shops were largely put out of business by WWII and rationing more than anything. Supermarkets and department stores have more or less been the norm in the US since long before Wal-Mart began spreading across the country. There are still plenty of produce stands, bakeries, and butcher shops in the country. Most of what was driven out of business were small bodega-style corner stores.
- jerlam 5mo ago
  I would argue that corner stores were also driven out of business by suburbanization. If no one is within walking distance to a corner store, then it's not going to survive. Fewer people are going to drive to a corner store that costs more and stocks less than a supermarket. They mostly exist now in a different form as gas station markets, or in dense urban areas like NYC, or some central business districts.
jerf 5mo ago
A specialty shop can probably survive Costco much more easily than they can survive Walmart or any other conventional (American) grocery store. The grocery store carries 20 or 30 different olive oils, to select one example. Odds are all the snobbiest will find something they like... odds are even decent that in a blind taste test even the snobbiest would find something that they would be horrified to discover came from a normal grocery store. Costco carries one or two options for a given thing, and are outright missing many things you might want. As nice as Costco is for buying things on a budget when you're going to use them up fully, I think it would be a bit of a challenge to make them your only grocery source. Doable as a sort of self-imposed challenge, no problem, there's certainly enough for that, but you'd be missing a lot of things, and/or wasting money on huge quantities of things you won't use. The quality is generally pretty decent (I may have more brand loyalty for "Kirkland" than almost any other brand) but not necessarily the most premium options. If you are the type to even consider the specialty shop in the first place you're more likely to be unsatisfied by Costco than a grocery store.
- kenhwang 5mo ago
  Costco is for bulk staples and commodities for me. Products that I really don't need the best of the best for, good enough is good enough and as long as I can use it all before it goes bad, I'd rather not waste more thought than needed for it. Milk, eggs, flour, flowers, microfiber towels, batteries, salt and pepper. Then for all the niche stuff that I do truly care about, there's the specialty stores or really the farmer's market. That's where I'll indulge for the first press seasonal olive oils, all sorts of pluot/apriplums/plumpicots combinations, short shelf life wild berries, blueberry/orange/mint blossum honey and whatnot.
  - gottorf 5mo ago
    > Costco is for bulk staples and commodities for me > Milk, eggs, flour, flowers, microfiber towels, batteries, salt and pepper If you can walk out of Costco month after month with just those essentials, and never pick up any of the nice-looking and reasonably-priced goodies there, I think it's safe to say that you have the level of discipline required to be financially successful and not have to care about whether you're getting the best price per unit of whatever it is you're buying. :-)
maxglute 5mo ago
I remember reading costco has leverage on their supplier-producers, enough that they than enforce better standards above regulation (i.e. meats/produce), which is something mom-pop can't do.
werdnapk 5mo ago
I will not buy coffee at Costco. I've had Costco coffee beans and it's terrible. I only buy premium beans at specialty shops and always will. The masses can drink their subpar coffee from Costco if they wish.

dnnddidiej 5mo ago

If there is wine on the dog, i I'm 100% in.

deleted 5mo ago

[deleted]

nlawalker 5mo ago

Identifying as a rabid consumer is not a requirement of appreciating Costco. The end result of that gimmick is that it feels like they're looking out for their customers and offering them a valuable service as opposed to trying to suck them dry. Buy this blender; don't buy this blender; they don't care, just know that this is probably the one that will best meet your needs, it's the best deal you're going to find on it anywhere, and if you're unhappy with it for any reason they'll take it back.

fellowniusmonk 5mo ago
Some companies serve the people and some companies want people to serve them. The sabbath was always meant for man and that makes a lot of people very angry because whatever ideological or religious lip service someone gives their behavior demonstrate they hate man, or more subtly, love mankind like dollars in their pocket, stripping humans of their humanity. This mendacious attitude is also a major driver of enshitification. The internet and executive social distancing has made a huge swath of people lose touch with how unique individuals are, so they treat humanity with the bigotry and coldness that the law of large numbers has lead them to, which is ultimately very mean.
- jatora 5mo ago
  a bit out of left field. tell us how you really feel... about something that's definitely not this topic because this is nonsense
jonnycoder 5mo ago
It's a gimmick only for those who get sucked into buying things that they don't need. I've been a Costco shopper for decades, and sure have succumbed to some useless stuff, but my Costco list is 90% the same month to month. I get appalled when I see the same items on my list, that are smaller and in a pack of 1 instead of 2-4, for more money at other stores. If electronics were just like food, it would be like seeing a Macbook Pro for $2000 everywhere but it was $799 at Costco.
- 5mo ago

queuebert 5mo ago

I wouldn't call it a gimmick when the business has been so successful for so many years. They target educated shoppers who want to buy quality at minimum markup and not think too hard about it. If I want a TV, I know Costco will have good ones at a good price. If I need socks, same. Their food is cheaper and better than Kroger. It's just a win-win for shoppers and Costco. The only tradeoff is selection and dealing with the crowds. What you wrote sounds intelligent but belies an ignorance of the business model.

wombat-man 5mo ago
Yeah, this right here. I don't want to sift through thousands of options. Sometimes I just want a widget that is good quality and I don't want to get ripped off.
hdhdhsjsbdh 5mo ago
Parallel to that, I have to imagine Costco makes a lot of money off of impulse purchases, which are induced by uncertainty in the specific items they will have available, plus mutable store layouts. Long ago in undergrad I took a retail marketing class and we did a field trip to Costco; the GM told us it was part of their policy to rearrange parts of the store occasionally so that you had to browse the entire place to check off your shopping list. This increases the likelihood that you stumble across new products. So it’s this combination of “best price/quality without decision fatigue” plus some impulse buying that works for them. The fact that they are figuring out the price/quality trade off for you up front probably also makes it easier to impulse buy with fewer regrets.
- infecto 5mo ago
  The word is treasure hunt. Stores like Costco or TJ Maxx (there are others) use what they call the treasure hunt. They design the whole experience around you walking around hunting for that new piece of treasure that you have to buy.
- bookmark99 5mo ago
  Yea so true. Unlike many with families here, I (a single 26M) recently got a costco membership for the gas savings, whenever i stop by costco in the middle of the month, i'm looking for one or two things. This time it happened to be peanut butter, it's insane the amount of times I had to tell myself, no you dont need this, get peanut butter and leave. Ofcourse it's very convenient that their app doesnt show what aisle things belong to so that was a fun realization.

simplyluke 5mo ago

> If Consumer is your identity yet you fear executing its labors This is an interesting take. Spending hours min-maxxing the "best" combination of product/price in every given category has always been peak consumerism as an identity to me. Subreddits filled with tens of thousands of posts and strongly held groupthink opinions about why knife brand x is the best option for you to open your amazon packages, or how much you need to try the new mechanical keyboard switch collaboration, deep dives on wirecutter, waiting for the right sale, etc. I go to costco because I don't want to do any of that for my groceries and basic home needs. I need oil for my car this weekend, and beer and burgers to hang out after I'm done with it. I don't want to spend 10 hours reading about the best 5w30 oil (or should I get 0w20?), I want a high-quality option at a fair price.

hx8 5mo ago
The entire activity of going to buy a few things for around the house during the weekend is something that is performed by a consumer. This guy is exactly talking about you, but you aren't seeing it because your own internal identity isn't Consumer it's something like "guy who wants a chill weekend." However in the marketplace your identity is consumer.
- SubmarineClub 5mo ago
  What point are you even making? We all have to eat, we all have to wipe our asses, we (mostly) all need to change the oil in our cars. I don’t really see the purpose in describing the purchase of necessities as an identity.
  - hx8 5mo ago
    I'm specifically trying to make the point that identity is not just a personal experience -- the experience of how you see yourself. Identity is also a label that can be placed upon you. Parent Comment was trying to reject the personal identity of consumer while their words actively affirming their identity as a consumer in the marketplace. You can reject the personal identity of a consumer all you want, but businesses will still judge you by your actions (how much you spend).

FireBeyond 5mo ago

One area where I'd say Costco -is- a let down is electronics. Yes, you don't always need the latest and greatest, but in my area Costco was selling 2 and 3 year old model TVs that have been superseded by the manufacturer at their (low but still retail) same prices.

gessha 5mo ago

I often times walk through a local store chain and see 30 types of mustard on the shelves and I think to myself: “Who needs so much choice?” Another thing on the top of my mind is oatmeal - I’m not a oatmeal connoisseur but I can’t taste the difference between the 5-10 types of oatmeal in the store, not that I’ve an active choice to try them. Do we need that much diversity in oatmeal choices? And so on and so on.

alliao 5mo ago
unfortunately when there are so many choices the usual reason is because they are all bad...

tipperjones 5mo ago

It feels like you really wanted to shoehorn the communion hot dog line in there.