Thanks all! I definitely don’t plan on handing my card to someone else–it has the nicest picture of me on it, lol!
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I bought a Dyson air purifier/fan from Costco.
FYI I thought it was a little cheap but I have been using it. Earlier this week, it stopped working. I got a triangle with an exclamation point. I did chat with Dyson, they said maybe it was the filter, changed the filter. I thought maybe the remote battery was dead, replaced that. Could not get it to hard reset. Would not work.
I felt like it was too expensive not to get even a year out of a stupid expensive fan. Brought it back to Costco yesterday, they returned it.
I don’t return things very often like that. But I thought this was warranted.
Costco customer for life!
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A pair of corporate geeks have a podcast called Acquired where they do a really in-depth analysis of companies (mostly tech companies). They did an analysis of Costco and its extraordinary business strategy. It is a little long but was absolutely fascinating to me. Even though I’m a Costco aficionado and a strategy guy generally, there were some remarkable aspects of the strategy and why it works better than any competitors (e.g. Sam’s Club) that I did not know.
Let me know what you think.
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It is a fascinating listen. Halfway through and my two kids who are on spring break are listening to the podcast as well.
Highly recommend.
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As an aside, if you’re a Costco member you can add another person in your household to your membership. Two parent households typically put the two adults on the membership, but if you have a college student with a Costco near their school it may be worth switching one of the adults on the membership out for the college student (especially if the two adults typically go to Costco together—in that case there’s no reason for both of them to be members, as you only need one of any group to hold membership when you shop).
I added my kiddo to my membership, and in a couple weeks he will be climbing Red Rocks during spring break with his college’s climbing club, and they’ll be shopping at Costco for a bunch of group food when they arrive in the area.
You don’t need to do this in person. I first added him online via “Account Details” and then he (via the website), needed to create his own account with his email and a password, and my membership number. He was then able to verify my account online (with a brief series of multiple choice security questions regarding me such as: “what street have you lived on: Poplar, 14th, Deacon, Broadway, or none of the above”) and became my second household member. Now he has a digital membership card via the app on his phone.
Yes, my S in NYC has D in LA as his 2ndary member. He is the main Costco shopper since he is the one who mostly drives their car and with Costco, it’s always helpful to have a car to lug the purchases. We went there with him and he bought paper goods—paper towels, TP & Kleenex, plus a few other items. He lives too far away to get there easily via walking or subway and the car was great for all the bulky purchases.
Costco Instacart might work for your NYC son. My boys live in cities, and have used Costco Instacart. The prices are higher than in the warehouse, but Costco sells Instacart GCs for 20% off–can buy online and then use to place the delivery order. Costco periodically runs a promo of $15 off a $50 Instacart purchase, bringing costs down further.
Sale prices advertised in the monthly sale catalog are available on Instacart.
They also offer two day delivery in some places, but different items are available for sale. It works well for Bounty & TP delivery though.
My ancient Pixel 6a suddenly stopped holding a charge. Today I went to Costco and got a good deal on a Pixel 9 Pro XL, trading in the 6a, paying less every month than I was with Google Fi. plus a Costco Shop (gift) card. Of course I bought other stuff as long as I was there. Subway there, bus home, big schlep but worth it!
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My S is fine with driving—he has a car and he drives to places that are inconvenient to metro to. He is fine with catching metro too and they did use delivery during covid but not so much since.
Went to Costco today. Had to return two items—one was a huge lovely unopened jar of dark chocolate covered caramels with sea salt (we all OD’d on sugar this holiday season) and the other was a very cozy warm jogger with velour lining (it shrank & pilled). Of course Costco was fine with my returning it, no receipt & having washed the jogger, no problem!
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Thanks for posting - Interesting.
As a federal retiree, I remember some version of Costco only being available to federal employees (and maybe some other “special” groups) near me, way back in the 80s.
I read it, then I started reading the Nike, and realized I was already up way too late. Will likely read more as I have time.
We listened to this podcast while driving home from a camping trip. At almost 3 hours it is very long! However, I enjoyed the history and the strategy and came away really respecting this business and the people involved. The careful planning, the thoughtfulness, the respect - all in such short supply in the business world today. It also helped me understand why some products are only there once and others may disappear for months only to appear again. It’s amazing how long employees stay with the company and how they really do focus on promoting from within. Thanks for the recommendation.
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Usually I like podcasts for running… ideally about 45 minutes. When I saw the Acquired/Costco podcast is 2 hrs 59 minutes I thought “saving that for a road trip”
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