Costco

You have to love going to Costco and fighting the crowds. Especially in the late morning or early afternoon, Sunday right after church. You know church is out, as this is the time Costco has better dressed shoppers than Nordstrom’s.

Trying to find a parking spot can be very taxing. Waiting for someone to load their car to get their space is a practice in patience. If they see you are waiting, they seem to slow the whole loading process down. They take their time taking the cart to the cart return and walking back to the car. They act like they have never put on a seat belt and it is there first time back up the car.

Once you get parked, you have to make it across the parking lot without being killed by the guy in the Lexus texting and eating a Costco hotdog. You have to make your way past the exit and entrance to the store without getting hit by an overloaded cart coming out of the store or an impatient shopper trying to navigate their way into the store. You have to do all this just so you can get one of those over sized carts. At least at Costco, most of the carts are in good shape. Not like Walmart where every cart I pick either has a square wheel so it goes thump, thump, thump down the aisle or one wheel that is locked up causing you to veer off either to the right or left making it impossible to go in a straight line.

I finally get my cart and have to remember to show my Costco card just to get into the store. I am not sure if they are worried that a non-Costco member might come into the store, look around and start stealing secrets or what. You have to have a card to purchase anything anyway.

Trying to get by the front door impulse aisle is always a challenging task. They like to line up all the treasure bargains under $100.00 right by the door so by the time you make it past, your cart is already full. And it took you a half hour to get through as everyone who came in stops and gawks at the new treasures.

Once you get by the impulse items, things thin out a little bit. The office supplies aisle is always vacant. And going up and down the merchandise aisle looking for the new gadget is usually fairly simple and sometimes interesting. I always like listening to the husband and wife arguing as they go down the aisle. It doesn’t matter what they are arguing about, but they guy always seems pissed off and the woman is pleading to her husband.

I can’t figure out why they just don’t put a cart parking lot in front of the produce cooler. They might as well. Because there is always one or two shoppers who leave their cart in the door way to the cooler and go inside to get what they want blocking anyone else from entering. Once you get inside there is always someone examining every package trying to decide which one they want and won’t even let you close to the baby cucumbers.

Going thru the bakery and meat department are usually pretty uneventful, But you get into the same parking the cart issue when you come to the dairy cooler and this is also where the sampling begins. I have never seen so many people who act like they have not eaten in months, but who look like they have had more than their fair share of food at the same time. They jockey there carts to get into position to wait in line to get their free sample. No more than a quarter of a gold fish cracker at that. They will stand around the sample table trying to get more than one and they don’t care if they are blocking the whole aisle or not. I even heard one guy argue with the sample lady. She was trying to tell him the sample was not completely cook yet and he kept insisting he want a sample anyway and would wait even if it took 15 minutes or longer.

Then there is the family who just got out of church and insists that they are able to get enough samples to feed the entire congregation. I just feel like I should stand by the sample table and start giving out $1.50 so they can get a hotdog and a soda and at least have a decent meal.

The check-out process is painless, except for paying the bill. Thank goodness that Costco has well trained polite employees and that I haven’t reached the limit yet on my American Express.

On the way out the door you pass the concession stand and it is amazing how many of the people you saw stuffing their faces at the sampling table are now stuffing their faces, with hot dogs, pizza, stuffed chicken bake and ice cream sundaes.

Getting out to the parking lot I start loading my car, trying to figure out how to make it all fit. I look up and notice a car waiting for me to finish up so they can have my spot. So I take my time finishing loading, taking the cart back to the return, getting into the car, putting on my seat belt and slowly backing out the car like it was my first time doing so.