
The Anti-Store: How Price Club and Costco Made Shopping Harder [audio] - finnn
http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/09/25/443519599/episode-653-the-anti-store
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daxelrod
Transcript:
[http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?story...](http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=443519599)

This is fascinating for me because I just shopped at Costco for the first time
yesterday.

It was completely overwhelming. I was lost in a huge store with no signage.
The large packages of merchandise meant my usual heuristics for whether
something was a good price went out the window. Everything was utilitarian,
streamlined, and huge.

Now I understand that it was deliberately designed this way.

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gohrt
Costco prints the unit cost on every price tag. That's not enough for your
heuristics?

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droopyEyelids
I'm not familiar with planet money, but I'm fascinated by how they never
challenged the assumption that warehouse stores & buying in bulk save you
money. The closest they come is when one of the hosts admits he impulse-
purchased 12 gallons of carrot juice and the interviewee laughs.

Then the story goes into how Jet.com and Costco are cheaper than Amazon, gets
a couple other types of digs in on Amazon, and proceeds to expound on the
wonders of how Jet.com gives you 24¢ off for each box you buy that ships from
the same warehouse.

It really made the whole thing come off like a native advertisement, to my
ears.

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Malician
I don't go to Costco primarily to save money. (Most of the time.) Of course,
if you're able to plan your meals out enough to use 100% of what you buy from
Costco it's impossible to beat them. (Exception: if you're an extreme couponer
who has the time and energy to watch grocery store sales, which are rarely on
items I actually want to buy.)

I go to Costco because I know I will get something good for a decent price. At
the grocery store, it will (probably) cost more and very likely be mediocre if
not strikingly bad.

For example, the lowest grade of steak Costco stocks is Choice. Until
recently, Costco was the only place in my town you could get choice ribeye for
under $17/lb (Costco was $8 or 9 at the time.) Recently, the groceries have
started stocking that grade - according to the packaging, but the meat is
visibly inferior and it's still more expensive.

I'm not saying everything there is great, but I can buy a product off the
shelf because it looks tasty and it will almost invariably be good.

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gohrt
> Today, Costco alone sells more stuff every year than Amazon by far.

Perspective

