I let slip yesterday that I no longer maintain a COSTCO membership. Folks were quick to jump on me and ask why? In answer to your questions – and, in some cases, outright accusations of ‘disloyalty’ – COVID made me do it!
Not having to deal with the peak-time chaos of the COSTCO
checkout lines is something I don’t miss at all…
I am not a traitor. Nor am I a run-of-the-mill ‘hater’. Nor am I one who – like my parents – always said there must be ‘something not quite right’ about a ‘retail store’ that could offer ‘warehouse’ prices to the public without going out of business…
‘Irreconcilable differences’
We’re like an old married couple who – after many years of trying – have finally admitted to one an-other that their union can’t be made to work. And if you have to try so hard to ‘make’ it work, what kind of marriage is it, anyway?
It was shortly after my actual divorce – many years ago, now, that I realized the COSTCO concept no longer worked for me.
But then, there was a time of renewal, both in spirit and purpose, in the relationship, when Sister Erin and I started out catering business, post culinary school. The little red, white and blue card was a great ‘portal’ to savings on all sorts of items we needed in quantities for the business – but not in the huge case-lot volumes a regular restaurant that operated every day would go through.
One thing we loved was the choice of brands in larger ‘bulk’ sizes of items such as condiments, which the usual resto supply wholesalers didn’t always offer.
But after the COVID crisis shut down the business, our ‘needs changed dramatically. Suddenly, we were like a couple of empty-nesters, cooking and eating for two. Our requirements shrank from the ‘bulk’ end of the spectrum to the minimalist end so fast we didn’t realize what was happening for the first few weeks, back in the spring of 2020.
But it dawned upon us one day that our whole income and expenses picture had been upended… COSTCO and our little family had, overnight, developed what divorce lawyers call ‘irreconcilable differences’.
Volumes and varieties
We no longer needed the volumes of consumables – and disposables – we had gone through when we were serving hundreds a week, rather than just us (and occasionally, some hungry neighbours).
For one thing, we were no longer using nearly enough of the aforementioned condiments to justify buying the monster ‘refill’-sized packages we routinely purchased before.
At the same time, ‘Club’ and ‘Family’ packs of perishables no longer made sense for us. Even bags of daily necessities such as fresh fruits and and veggies designed to meet the needs of a family of 4 didn’t make sense for us.
That reality finally struck when all of our at-home freezer, fridge and pantry space had filled up. Which was about the same point that the world was realizing COVID was going to be a long-haul proposition – not just your usual ‘flu season’ on steroids.
Actually costing us money
In fact there was a relatively brief time when continuing to shop ‘the COSTCO way’ was actually cost-ing us money. And contributing to our portion of the food waste problem.
When we were still buying in large quantities, but not in the variety that running the business had required, we realized were losing food to freezer burn and day-to-day spoilage at a rate that we could not support – either ethically or economically.
My take
That was when Erin and I both came to the conclusion – pretty much simultaneously – that a COSTCO membership was something that simply didn’t fit our lifestyle any more.
Old habits die hard. But it really didn’t talk long for us to slip into a more compact lifestyle, espe-cially when we saw how much cash we were able to shift to covering other expenses – and the occas-ional treat – after ‘downsizing our grocery shops’.
The bottom line is: Your situation may not have changed as dramatically as ours did after the business died. But if you’re a empty-nesters or a retired couple who longer entertain as much as you used to, it may make sense to rethink your relationship with COSTCO…
And what better time to reconsider renewing – since COSTCO recently raised the price of it’s most popular membership by $5?
~ Maggie J.