Here's a replay of a column that appeared here on 7/27/11. What's changed since then? Well, I'm still using that laptop, though I hope to purchase a new one before I do any traveling…and God knows when that will be. I no longer buy a helluva lotta cat food because I no longer have a helluva lotta feral cats in my backyard. (The most I ever had back there actually was four but one of them seemed to weigh about the same as ten cats.)
And I now do Costco mostly by delivery. It saves me a lot of time and since I don't actually go into the store to be tempted by items that look irresistible, I save a lot of dough on impulse buys.,,
I haven't run one of these in a while since my last few Costco visits have been free of anecdotes. Yesterday's was rather unexciting. I made the dumb mistake of grabbing a free sample of a Korean barbecue chicken that they sell frozen. Note to self: Never taste anything that might be spicy unless there's a drink of water available. At the place where they sell the ready-to-eat BBQ chickens, I encountered a lady who was determined to inspect every one of about 30 chickens to find one that might be half-a-percent bigger than the others.
Anyway, I bought a same-size BBQ chicken and a new laptop and a tonweight of paper towels and some big bags of baking soda and a helluva lotta cat food and a few other items. Then I got into a line that made me wonder if the Windows 7 on the laptop might not be obsolete by the time I made it through checkout. But what the heck? It's Costco. You're saving a buck. You can wait in line for that.
Behind me — fortunately, not ahead of me — there was a family with three carts loaded with food and household supplies. You could not have added a box of toothpicks to those carts, so full were they. Obviously, they were stocking a new home…and apparently in one trip to one store: A case of coffee, a case of creamer, a case of filters, a case of sugar, etc. The man who was the father (I guess) was holding a box of cookies that couldn't be added to any of the carts and I said to him, though he had not asked, "No, you may not go before me."
Got a laugh out of the guy. He then said to me, "I love this place. Get all my shopping done in one stop." You got the feeling that pleased him more than the savings…and I can understand that. Saving time is a good thing, too.
As he said what I just said he said, his wife (I guess) leaned in and reminded him, "We have to stop at Ralphs Market and get that brand of olive oil I like. I don't know why they don't carry it here."
The father rolled his eyes and said to me, "Well, almost one stop shopping."