Thursday, June 16, 2005

Reason Number 468 Why I Love Costco

I have a love/hate relationship with Costco. For starters, it will always be Price Club in my head. Why the name change, people? I remember being dragged to this dark, cement warehouse as a kid by my parents. There was only one store in the whole area and it took a year and a half to drive there. Or, translated from seven year old brain: 30 minutes. It was boring, there was nothing cool to look at (who cares about a 5 gallon container of pickle chips?) and it took way too long to finish whatever it was we were doing there. And then, I saw it. In all it's pink splendor. It was--The Barbie Dreamhouse. Oh, how I ached for that plastic mansion. Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleeeeeeeeease can I have it? It's oooonly $50!

No.

Puhhhleeeease???? I'll do anything!

No.

But moooooooom!

Noooooooo.

Costco, you evil beast you. Dragging kids in and then not letting us get the only thing our little heart's ever desired.

A few years later I ended up being the stationary point in the frozen section while my dad and step-grandma ran around the store getting stuff for a huge get together. Let me tell you what a barrel of laughs that was. They told me how wonderful it was to have me just stand there so they didn't have to worry about manuevering a monstrous cart around the aisles. So glad I can be of help.

As an adult, I know the value of a dollar, or at least that's what I tell my mom. For some reason, I love to have things in bulk. Some psychologists would say that people who were in risk of doing without in their childhood, or lacked certain basic necessities growing up tend to be Costco junkies. I never went without necessities but times were tight for a few years so I love to see six toothbrushes ready to go when I need them and plenty of toilet paper stored in my garage. I love the fact that they are so inexpensive and have no problem buying "Kirkland", or Costco brand. I may not remember a whole heck of a lot from college, but the thing I do remember in all of my business and CEO classes (yeah right, like I'd ever be a CEO, hahahahaha) is that generic brands are often manufactured by name brands and sold to the store so the big guys can still make a profit while the consumer saves by buying store brand. Paper towels, toilet paper, baby wipes, contact solution, batteries, antibacterial kitchen wipes, juice boxes (manufactured by Hansen's), tortilla chips, luggage: all Kirkland brand. And now....the best of the best and the whole reason for this post:

Costco has started carrying.....

Diapers! Kirkland brand diapers that are just as good as Pampers and I got a box of 284 for $29.99. Oh yeah, baby. That's a whopping 11 cents per diaper. Better priced than Wal Mart. I'm doin' the happy dance.

Now, if Costco would start carrying Downy wrinkle release in gallon form, I'll be even happier.

4 comments:

Judy said...

I love love love Costco, but it is over an hour's drive from here. We have a Sam's Club (a la Wal Mart) that is about 30 minutes away. I figure what I would save by shopping at these places would be eaten up in gasoline, so I'll suffer through with my usual discount stores (until someone wises up and builds one closer to me!).

Tammy said...

Yeah, I love Costco's but the closest one is 45 minutes. Where my parents live. So whenever I go see them, I take Daddy with me (because I don't have my own card to get in) and we buy what I need. Mario won't pay for a membership because we don't use it enough. If we had one here where I live then I would probably get one.

Anonymous said...

How do you like the Costco diapers? I heard they are made by Huggies and I currently buy Huggies from Costco. I stood in the diaper isle earlier this week, staring at the boxes and trying to decide whether to buy Huggies or Kirkland brand. I went with the Huggies thinking I would ask around about the others. I don't want to get stuck with 184 diapers if they are no good, you know? Sounds like you like them, though.

Jen said...

I've heard that Kirkland's diapers are made by Huggies, too. They're really similar except for the fact that you're stuck with the same design on every single diaper and there's "Kirkland" stamped on the back. So far, no leaks, no blowouts, no icky gel stuff on the butt. They're awesome.