Warehouse Shopping

I think I need to write something for my favorite wholesale store in the United States. Gang and I have been its loyal (?) customers for more than three years and are still largely depending on it for our daily necessities, including toasts, soy-milk, vegetables, fruits, seafood, meat, snacks, desserts and even entertainment like movie tickets and restaurant coupons.

My first visit there was in 2009 right after my arrival in California. Lived in crowded metropolitan like Beijing for almost eight years, I was surprised at the sizable warehouse and incredibly huge packages - there is no way to shop in Costco without a car. People walked around with carts twice the size of normal ones, picking up coffee beans in 4lb-package and sugar in 10lb-package. Cheesecakes are served in 12-inch pans, and ribs are packed in 10-lb boxes. Even the smallest package of chocolate chips contain at least 30 of them. I pushed the carts around, as if shopping in the Country of Giants, and dragged the 50lb package of rice laboriously to my cart.


Once you're used to its size, Costco can be pretty addictive. The items are cheap. My favorite Elizabeth Arden facial cream, which costs $42 on its website and cosmetic stores, is priced at $26 for two in Costco. Calvin Klein's underwear and UGG's boots are about half price lower than in other stores. Other stuff, for example a 4lb package of dark red cherries cost only $3.99 in 2009 (though unfortunately inflated to $9.99 this year), and a package of 24 extra large eggs cost $3. Even Costco's gas is usually 10-30 cents lower per gallon. When my mother visited us in 2009, she bought dozens of fish oil from Costco for her friends and relatives at half the normal price. This year she traveled in New York, and complained to me that the same fish oil she got in groceries there were much more expensive. 


Cheap commodities are not provided at the cost of quality. Costco's seafood - clam, shrimp, salmon, crab and lobster - is so far the best I could get from groceries or wholesale stores. Food and fruit are always kept fresh and designers' clothes are sold at quite reasonable prices. No wonder it's always so difficult to find a parking spot during weekends.


Another advantage is its return policy: as long as you haven't consumed more than half of the commodities, you can always return it and get full refund. There was a time when I was obsessed with almonds and bought a 3lb package from Costco. But I wasn't fond of the too salty new flavor. I finished about a quarter of them, but didn't think I could finish the rest. I brought the leftovers to the counter and got fully refunded without even being asked for reasons. This is a very smart policy. I tried a lot of new things in Costco, because I knew I could always return them if I didn't enjoy the new experience. But Costco seldom disappointed me: I get used to most of them, and now they are part of my life.


But you may want to pay special attention to your weight if you decide to shop in Costco. Everything is doubled or tripled in their size, accordingly the calorie is doubled as well. The cheesecake I get there contains 16 servings with 400 calories each. It always takes weeks for me to finish. And the marginal utility can be so low in the end that I always make up my mind to stop buying it anymore when struggling with the last few pieces, though I immediately forget my determination when I see a new one. So watch out for your weight, it's not fun to get an extra 400 calories everyday continuously for two weeks!


Besides, you may feel guilty if the shopping is not well planned and you are not able to finish the food before they start to go bad. This won't be a concern for big families, but for a young couple with no children, I need to do some planning before we go: check what's left in the fridge, and think about what food I may cook in the next week. I once bought a 2.5-lb package of microwavable spinach at $3.7, but could only finish half of it before it started to rotten.


More demand is also created by bigger packages and it's hard for me to switch back to small packages once I'm used to Costco. When the "reference point"is changed, food packages in Safeway and Wholefoods do not seem big enough, even their club packages look like a supply for merely one meal. Now when I look back, I might have over consumed since I probably don't need that much: I'm still using the tin foil and Vaseline I bought three years ago. 


The bigger the better? Not the case. But it makes more economic sense to choose bigger packages if well planned. When I was on my way from Costco yesterday, will cherries, lobsters, chicken wings, Chocolate mousse and truffle in my trunk, I suddenly had a strong feeling that I'm back to my husband, and I could finally buy big packages for my family.