Day 5: Five Laps at Costco!

Today I was introduced to the mega-sized mecca called "COSTCO."

My guide was friend SuperSaver. SuperSaver is a card-carrying member of this suburban club. A perfect example of SuperSaver's gift is when she turned to me while shopping and said, "So, do you keep a running total of all your purchases in your head as you go?"

My look of disbelief spoke for itself. She claims that this way, if the register's total is off, she knows the cashier rang something up wrong.

I am in good hands.

My first experience with member-only warehouse shopping was kind of amazing. SuperSaver was concerned Costco closed in an hour, so I was short of breath, and felt kind of panicky. So much to get in so little time! I pushed aside my sudden desire to purchase a tropical plant or two, maybe a hanging basket, a pallet of paper towels and a crate of mangoes. Instead, I stuck to my list and got 70 bottles of water, 98 cans of pop, 200 plates (yes, I'm gambling it will be 200, thanks to all the posts from yesterday!), 9 bottles of BBQ sauce, a crate of bananas (for the smoothie bar), 72 small containers of flavored yogurt (also for the smoothie bar) and seven large bags of chips. (Yes, there was more, but you get the idea). I picked up the bananas, pop and water early in the trip... and spent the rest of it having to get a running start to force my cart forward. I was sweating by checkout.

SuperSaver was an excellent guide. Not only did she help me navigate whether something was truly a good price or not (she warned that Costco might not give you better prices, but rather better quality for the same price you'd pay somewhere else), she simply couldn't stand to see other shoppers make poor consumer choices. In the process of loading up my yogurt, we overheard a wife tell her husband to "get out his cell phone" so he could calculate which yogurt was a better price. When the wife began reaching for brand A, SuperSaver knocked it out of her hand and yelled, "NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Not really. She restrained herself and simply said, "Well, that brand might be cheaper but it is actually a small size container so you aren't getting as much." They then got into a deep conversation about the "flavor" of plain yogurt. As we heaved our carts forward, SuperSaver met my incredulous look with a shrug. "They looked like they were having problems with their calculations." I guess just an average day for SuperSaver - helping one more person save a nickel per ounce of yogurt.

I like to tease SuperSaver, but in all seriousness she was fabulous! She patiently waited as I zigzagged several times through the same aisles looking for different things, she heaved lots of heavy stuff into the cart, and she even drove me back up to my park and ride lot and helped me unload. I hope you have a SuperSaver in your life - I don't know what I'd do without mine! (Probably buy small containers of yogurt for twice the cost...)



border="0" alt="Hit Counters">

Web Site Hit Counters