Not so much. Actually, Costco is very well organized, for their purposes. The appearance of not being well organized is strategic. Note that there are no aisle labels, such as “Office Supplies,” either. That is deliberate, to make you wander and explore the store more. Same goes with having the toilet paper and paper towels at the very farthest place from the entrance.
I like Costco a lot, so I was a bit surprised to find out that in spite of the crude, minimalist graphics and displays, Costco is actually deliberately manipulative in their store lay out. (The giant Wall of Flatscreen TVs at the entrance is really the first clue to that).
You can’t make it to a store once every other year?
All the stuff they’re hawking buttons for is the kind of stuff that I go to Costco to stock up on when I move into a new place. Then, typically, I’ll discover that the previous resident left half of their Costco box/bottle, and I wind up using that instead, usually only having to start using my own shortly before I’m ready to move out…
You know, that makes sense, now that I think about it. Very interesting! Honestly, I don’t mind. A business has to make money. Also, I easily memorize the layout of stores once I’ve gone in one time. So I basically know where everything is, now, and can get in and out very quickly, even if I’m only going to buy milk (which is literally HALF as expensive as at the local grocers).
I worked at Staples when I first moved to Phoenix mumble mumble years ago and I was always the go-to person when it came to the layout, even for obscure shit.
I went like 10+ years in Phoenix without a car. I could make it to the store semi-regularly but it was difficult in Phoenix, because, especially when I first moved there, the public transportation sucked, and everything was far away from each other, even when you were smack dab in the middle of the city. It was also REALLY hot. Safeway.com started delivering soon after I moved to the city, and it was a life-saver. Especially for heavy stuff, like litter and beer.
Indeed, I probably wouldn’t be as self-sufficient and independent if online ordering hadn’t become a thing over the last 10+ years. I rely a lot on online ordering and it makes not having a car that much simpler, and gives me one less thing to worry about. (Not having a car is a choice, btw.)
If you’re going to ask, we do our grocery shopping at a NYC-based store that opened in 1934. Except for our meat, which we buy at a local butcher, so yeah, i don’t subscribe to the mass produced food things as much as possible. Do I need to go into Kirkland Signature meat?
Aren’t you super superior and elite and such a perfect person!
We actually generally try to eat local meat, which is pretty easy to do in Vermont. When we’re too broke for that, my roommate makes his own seiten. But sometimes we just want some fucking bacon and Shaw’s is far closer than the local meat guy on a Sunday morning when we’re hungover. But we’re not super superior, elite, perfect people such as yourself.
ETA: Are you aware that Costco actually utilizes local resources quite a lot? Same with Trader Joe’s, actually.
Every store does this. That’s why milk is always in the back of a grocery store. Not having aisle signs probably has more to do with them having so many kinds of things that coming up with labels for one aisle isn’t terribly helpful.
I do use Amazon at times. Our household rule is that we try to buy something that we need locally and independent twice before resorting to the convenience (or corporatism) of these monster companies. If our local pet store doesn’t have the dog food we need after two visits, we buy it online, but mindlessly pressing a wifi button to make purchases seems like a convenient way to not have to think about the repercussions of not supporting local businesses.
Man, you must have a lot of free time, a car (maybe not in NYC, but you don’t need one there), and are probably doing at least fairly well financially and also have someone (a spouse) to help. AND you probably live in an area with plenty of resources (NYC, somehow I’m not surprised), rather than a more rural area (like myself). Unfortunately, a lot of us aren’t as lucky and privileged as you are.
Actually, we do a lot of shopping at the local little markets, and the local asian markets. The East Coast is flush with that kind of thing and they are often easier to get to than the big-box grocery store.
Yes, it is quite common. But Costco goes further, such as in deliberately not labeling the content of the aisles - and, IIRC, they actually admit the purpose of the sign omissions in the Q&A with Consumer Reports (but I might be misremembering)… As with @marilove, the apparent crudeness of the layout and store graphics mislead me into thinking the layouts were happenstance rather than manipulative metrics-based strategy.
I am very lucky with an amazing wife in a great city full of great resources. We both work hard and enjoy local things. I’ve never really afforded the time to have this back and forth on Boing Boing before, I should probably get back to work.
I would suggest not mocking people who aren’t as privileged as you in the future. Not everyone can shop locally. Have you ever heard of a “food desert”? Perhaps you should do some research on how difficult it is for most Americans to shop practically and locally. “Working hard” doesn’t have fuck all to do with it, either. Plenty of poor people work plenty hard and still can’t get to all of those lovely resources you take for granted.
Quote me where I mocked you. I just don’t believe in industrial foods. I didn’t swear or name call like you have. I have struggled at work for a decade and it’s just beginning to pay off. Good day.
Your first reply to me was pretty clearly a judgement on your part and full of snark. I can read behind the lines, even if you are trying to act coy about it.
A lot of people struggle for a life time and it never pays off. You’re lucky and that’s great but not everyone is.
Most people don’t have the fucking luxury to not believe in industrial foods. Life just doesn’t work that way for most of us.
Maybe it was your second reply, then, when you insinuated that because I shop at Costco, I must therefore never shop locally (which is exactly what you implied with your snark). I thought you were leaving?
