Many of us have it… a membership to Costco. That big, giant, massive warehouse store we both love, and hate shopping at. After a recent shopping excursion there I decided to compile a list of some of the reasons why I have a love/hate relationship with Costco.
LOVE the parking spots. Thank you for making many of your locations have the extra wide parking spots with safety zone markings on the ground beside them. This makes a huge difference for parents who are needing to load and unload children from vehicles. I never have to worry about someone parking beside me, and my not being able to open the door to get the infant car seat in or out. Plus, these spots make parking more user friendly for those who may not be so great at keeping their car within the lines.
HATE the parking lot after the first 30 minutes of opening time. If you’re not there early, especially this time of year with it being the holiday season, you can forget about finding a spot anywhere in the lot. You might as well go down the street at the neighbouring store to park, and then walk back to Costco. If you do decided to tough it out and wait for a spot, best of luck to you. You’ll find yourself playing a game of chicken with other drivers who have also been waiting for a spot, and will jump on the gas the instant they see a vehicle with reverse lights on. Don’t even get me started on the cars who stalk shoppers returning to their vehicles, and the driver catches a glimpse of their car keys in hands. They just become way to hopeful that their spot is near.
LOVE/HATE diapers and wipes. If you are using disposables, this is the place to go to get them. A box full of hundreds of thousands (okay maybe not actually that many) of diapers in the current size your child needs. Pooh-explosion? No problem, you’ve got 200 other diapers in the same size. This however, is also the hate. The instant your child has a growth spurt you will find your stash of diapers no longer fit. Don’t you dare try making your child wear those past their sizing or you will be in for some serious leak issue. Your next step is attempting to sell the remaining diapers on the local kids swap so that you can go get the next size up in diapers, and continue your stash. The wipes are definitely a love because you can never have too many of those. Use those suckers to wipe everything from bottoms, to the moulding in your!
LOVE all of the samples. If you managed to find parking around lunch time, and on a weekend you are in for a treat with all of the sample that are available. Forget having lunch, just go to Costco and try everything! Cheese samples. Sure. Weird coconut greek yogurt. Why not. That really odd granola thingy you have no idea what it is. Go for it. Just eat it all.
HATE how no one follows the rules of the road when it comes to guiding a shopping cart through the store. You thought the driving in the parking lot was bothersome, just wait til you get inside the store. It is a free for all when it comes to driving a shopping cart. I wish those things came with air horns for fear I may get cut off and not be able to suddenly stop my overloaded Costco cart. No one can see while driving those things around the tall towers of Costco merchandise that is stacked towering up to the ceiling of the store. It is likely you will be run into at least once during each visit to the store. Please people, try to keep to the right, it would make things so much easier, and more civil.
LOVE the giant shopping carts solely for the fact that you can fit multiple kids in it, and all the stuff you want to purchase. I wish more places had these.
LOVE/HATE that the holidays arrive 6 months before their due date on the calendar. You want Halloween costumes for your kids, head to Costco at April if you want the best selection. Need Christmas cards? Stock up in July. You know by November there will be none left in store and you will have missed your window of opportunity. The hate in this is you feel the pressure of the holidays very early, but it is nice to get to spread out the cost of the holiday thanks to this. No need to purchase everything the month before the holiday.
HATE the checkout on a busy day. It’s worse than a multivehicle car accident. You do not know which row of carts leads to while checkout line. Forget rushing in and out of Costco for one thing, you will be stuck here for well over half an hour as people unload their multiple carts to pay for their purchases, and then pack them into boxes in a Jenga-like fashion. This is when I seriously wish Costco had a 5 item or less express lane that was always open, or even a 5 item or less self checkout?
LOVE their food. Pizza, ice cream, hot dogs, and poutine… all classic items you can get served hot and ready. True to its style, everything is Costco sized. The poutine serves three. The ice cream cone is big enough for two people. The hot dog comes with a pop. Looking for a bit of a budget friendly family meal? Grab dinner there after your next trip to Costco.
HATE expiry dates and ID photos. Do any of us really know when the actual expiry date of our card is? I sure don’t. I always get surprised at checkout when they tell me I need to renew my membership immediately or they cannot ring my transaction through. There goes another $75 I wasn’t expecting to spend at Costco. Also, why even bother taking our photos we no one actually looks like the image on the back? Its so distorted from the printing process you end up looking like a child’s connect the dots colouring sheet.
HATE having to wait in line to leave the store. Why do they have people waiting to “check” your purchase at the exit? They don’t truly look the receipt and the cart contents over. I’m sorry but there is no way you can read my mile long receipt, and check the boxes that have been crammed full in my cart in order to fit everything to make sure I am not sneaking out an extra gigantic bag of toilet paper rolls. There is just no possible way. Please, do not forget to draw a picture on the back of the receipt while my preschooler is with me. If you do, this will cause a royal melt down and make getting her back in the car next to impossible.
LOVE… Costco. Plain and simple, despite all the craziness I still love it and will continue to shop there.
If you shop there, what is on your love/hate list?
I think I have only love for Costco. 🙂
Yeah, it might be difficult to find a decent spot half hour after opening, but it’s just an extra minute of walking. Plus, if you go at opening, you don’t get the samples, which are obviously a love. My boys eat better at Costco than they do at home. Apparently their salad is magical!
As much as it would be nice if the aisles work like a highway, the reality is that it’s unfeasable. You don’t need to go all the way to the end, or you forget something, so you turn around, but you can’t sqeeze past to get to the other side. I find a polite “excuse me” works every time. 🙂
The carts are the best!! It’s the only place I can shop where I can fit all three in the cart (Patrick still in his infant seat) and have room for a ton of groceries. I’m not a huge baby-wearer. I find it super cumbersome while shopping.
The lineups aren’t too bad either. I’m never in a rush, and my boys entertain the people behind them, which entertains me. And I love that the staff are usually friendly with them.
Diapers! Love them! Patrick is the first we have used disposables on, and I love that the Kirkland ones don’t have characters on them, just cute animals. Just by chance we have finished one box of each size right at the same time we needed to move up. But if we had leftovers, I have plenty of friends who I could gift them to. The wipes are the best on the planet! Thick and sturdy and unscented. Mmm!
Well, it seems I could’ve written a whole post for myself! Haha!
LOL. I’m so with you on all fronts! The best time to get to Costco is about 20 minutes BEFORE they open! Then you run thru and get everything you want, and make it to the til before everyone else does! lol. I remember growing up, Long before costco food was really even a thing, it was literally a hot dog cart, we’d go sunday after church, get appy’s of samples while mom and dad shopped and then grab lunch of a nice polish hot dog! Good times!
The only thing I disagree on is the freaking smiley face they insist on drawing when my child is having a melt down. I don’t want to stand there for the extra 3o seconds listening to my kid scream while you take your time drawing, I want to get to my car and give him some of the snacks I just bought!
HATE: people that hover around the food samples and block aisles, or better yet push small children out of the way to get the last sample instead of offering it to the little person. Costco makes me homicidal from November -February lol
I love planning my Costco trips around Ben craving pizza. Lunch for $3 for 2? Umm yes please!!!
And totally agree on the parking spaces! Love the extra wideness of them. Especially with all the folks in texas who drive over sized trucks & can’t park them lol
I adore Costco, so I approached this post anticipating needing a grain of salt. YES to EVERY LAST WORD!!!!!!! Is it weird that (once I get parking) those large spots you mentioned actually seem like a mini-vacation. Errants with toddlers are NO FUN. Costco parking spots make it just a little bit easier to wrangle your jumping toddler into their seat.
GREAT POST!!!!!!!
Nailed it! The parking spots are the BEST for getting kids in and out of the car, the carts great for fitting the kids AND the purchases…. but why does is Costco ALWAYS SO JAM PACKED?!
I can relate to so many of these although I love it way more than I hate it. Costco is the only American grocery store we have here in Japan so I’m so thankful for it!
LiveLifeWell,
Allison
I definitely have a love/hate with their polish dogs! I lived on those (and their samples) while I was in college!
Haha I can definitely relate to most of these! I do love the amazing savings you can get by purchasing in bulk, however, living in NYC, it can be difficult to find places to stash all your new goodies. The checkout at Costco is the worst!
You bring up EXTREMELY valid love/hate points.. I’m also with Tara on the food samples! My biggest love/hate is the frugal mom in me that has to weight the pro’s and con’s on buying a large pack vs what I need right now. I’m also just cheap lol
OH YES! Not following the rules about shopping cart etiquette is the WORST! That is the thing that drives me the most nuts about Costco. Not following the direction of traffic, stopping in the middle of the aisle with no warning, blocking both ways….uuuuggghhh
It is great for kids! Big spots and carts as you said. But oh the toys! So hard to tear them away!
I don’t shop at Costco. We really don’t need the “bulk” they offer but I’ve been a few times and this post is exactly what my experience was when we visited.
So true! We just got a membership a couple months ago, and I was shopping there today. They actually don’t have as big of carts as Sam’s Club, so one of my boys has to ride in the actual cart. The boys were also upset there were no sweet samples today. Other than that, we got some big bulk stuff we probably don’t need 😉
I don’t like that you can’t pay for your purchase with ALL of the major credit cards. I LOVE Costco clothing, the massive bottles of shampoo and conditioner (because these always have my hubby cursing when we’re travelling), and HATE the sample vultures!
I always end up spending way more than I intended and feel my soul was sucked out of me slowly aisle by aisle. I super love having cupboards and freezers full until near bursting. And so with you on the picture on the receipt, and my youngest is 5 next month lol