Costco is the biggest enigma to me. I both love it and hate it. For $50 a year, I have the privledge of taking a stroll through a warehouse in hopes of finding bargains and deals. As fascinating as the wandertog is on each visit, because of course you never know what you might find, I've learned through the years that Costco isn't necessarily a bargain. It's a convenience.
Frankly, I don't think McDonald's and its ilk are responsible for the supersizing of America. I actually think it happened at Costco. While a trip for a Happy Meal might not be a daily thing for many, shopping is a regular thing for us all. As the warehouse model became more available to shoppers (cause I can remember when you truly had to have a business to have a Costco membership), products in big boxes that filled oversized shopping carts became a way of shopping, and Costco became a destination.
But we didn't just snap to these bigger boxes of cereal, packages of pasta, and case packs of soda and energy drinks. We were lured in by the ladies with the white hairnets who politely asked if we'd like to try a sample. Costco has done a fabulous job marketing products by putting big portions of samples in the aisles. People line up and hover over a microwave with the gloved wonders behind the little station cut toast with scissors and spread jelly with sporks. We wait, we get impatient, we get ticked if someone cuts the line and snipes the last piece of Red Barron Single Serve Pepperoni Pizza. Sampling has become an integral part of the Costco shopping experience. We then shop with our stomachs, and we give way to any rational thought that the price of the product might be better at Albertsons or some other grocery store.
Grazing Through Costco is really about looking at how people are persuaded to purchase when they shop, and the love affair with warehouse shopping. From the $1.50 hotdog and soda special to "great deals" that fill our carts, warehouse shopping, and sampling, have changed how we think about and buy food. Interesting to note that both Costco and McDonald's, even in this volatile market, both have stocks trading at near 52-week highs. I think that says a little something about supersizing!
