Why I tolerate Costco

747 over Costco

In general I like to shop for stuff... with the exception of my bi-monthly trips to Costco. Ugh, it's an industrial warehouse with concrete floors and unnamed aisles. Shoppers run amok in alarming disregard. Case in point, once I was rummaging around for bed sheets and found a styro tray of warm, runny sirlion steak wedged between two rows of 480 thread count queen sheet sets. If I didn't spend so much time as a child tagging along with my Mum at Kelly-Douglas, buying wholesale candy and cigarettes for our little corner neighbourhood store on Vancouver Island, I probably wouldn't wince (as much). It's just that there is so much of all the same thing, all the time. Four years ago I made the mistake of buying a kirkland brand fleece vest and wore it for a little while, only to bump into 2 other woman in a one week period wearing the same item. Then and there I felt like ripping it off my back and burning it in the middle of the Village (also known as downtown Whistler). I couldn't afford to live here if it wern't for Costco and I do appreciate the fact that they pay their workers a living wage and have a great return policy. It's the labourious drudge of earning money and then spending it on the same nondescript stuff I got two weeks ago that bugs me (groceries, sundries, automotive), all the while going round in monotonous circles and playing bumper carts with every fourth shopper. Half an hour later I'm at the checkout and feel an underwhelming achievement as I fork out another $300. This place gives me the least amout of enjoyment for the most amount of money spent, bar none.

On a positive note I do like the fact that the Richmond Costco I usually go to is very close to the Vancouver Airport runway. Those planes fly over so close that you can get a real good look at them at the parking lot.