Comment by nickjj | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nickjj | Hacker News Reader

Cult following is a good choice of words.

It's one of the few businesses where I feel like they get most things right. It's always a good experience going in there and walking out with a cart full of things. I'm happy to see them be successful.

I usually buy frozen meats and things that don't expire quickly in bulk and then they last for months. I reserve vegetables and fruits for a local grocery store since their quality is good and those things tend to go fast.

But at Costco sometimes you get lucky with clothes too. They were overstocked on Puma sneakers in my exact size. Each pair was $10 and they are exactly the style I like (low cut / not flashy) so I bought 2 pairs of them. I legit walk 3-5 miles a day with one of the pairs and over a year later of walking on concrete they are still fully in tact (no holes, good looking enough to wear them out to dinner, etc.). It's mind boggling. I've never had a pair of sneakers last this long while still looking presentable after that much usage. The 2nd pair I bought is still brand new.

Those sneakers alone cover the cost of like 2-3 years worth of membership fees.

Costco has better quality meat than the grocery stores -- although I don't find their prime grade meats to be significantly better than the choice cuts. The vegetables and fruits are high quality too, but I live with enough people to make it worthwhile.

I live across the street from a grocery store. Over the last 30 years, I've seen it transformed from a slightly upscale supermarket to a glorified mini-market. After every remodeling or floor space expansion, the selection and service would get a little worse. Now that Albertsons bought all of the supermarkets in the area they've significantly cut the quality in the last bastions of why I would shop there at all -- produce and bakery. They do have a large enough alcohol section that I get to see shoplifters running out of the store all the time.

So now I'm driving ten miles to Costco to get quality ingredients when I live across the street from a supermarket. The clerks read their script, "Did you find everything you need?" and I respond, "Well, I didn't find X and Y." Their response: "Oh." And people wonder why they're all losing ground to big box stores.

In retail you can compete on service, selection, and/or prices. Fry's Electronics chose the last two, but were undercut on both by Amazon. Local supermarkets seem to have yielded on all three to Costco which is freaking crazy.

I can't tell if Safeway has gotten worse or if I've just been shopping at the expensive organic place for too long.

I can go buy produce from Safeway on a Sunday, and have it be molding by Wednesday. And not even stuff that goes bad quickly (like, peaches mid summer are amazing but they're very fresh/ripe and will go bad in a few days). Apples. Potatoes. Onions. Things that, when fresh, last for months if kept in a cool dark place.

I have a Vons, they became pretty similar to sister brand Safeway in the past decade. It's definitely worse produce now.

Organic used to be things with more damage from insects and such, and have a shorter shelf life. Now it's food that costs more, so it has higher quality.

You aren't hallucinating, the quality of Safeway produce is and is increasingly shit. Last time I was in one, they had a pile of moldy ginger, and I have no idea how they managed it.

I spent a bit of time earlier trying to figure out who owned what in Seattle earlier. What I got out of it:

* QFC/Fred Meyer are owned by Kroger * Safeway/Albertsons are owned by a capital management company (Cerberus) * PCC, Red Apple, Town and Country, and Metro Market are local. * UNFI owns SuperValu, which is the main distributor for Whole Foods / IGA / possibly some others in the 'local' list.

The depressing part of this: most of grocery stores in the area are owned by 3 companies. And they've all turned into a complete garbage race to the bottom "what's the minimum quality we can sell and still consider food".

I disagree about the meat. Publix has much better quality chicken and pork, especially their Greenwise brand. Costco chicken is freakishly big, even compared to Tyson or Purdue at Kroger. I used to find weird spots on the chicken breast and thighs I haven’t seen elsewhere. The chicken is tougher as well.

The wild seafood is great. Choice Beef is the same as anywhere and I have no complaints. Prime beef is a great option but I rarely buy it.

Publix is a southeastern U.S. exclusive. I pity all the smug Bay Area folk who will never get to experience how wonderful this little grocery chain is.

Publix is opening a Greenwise Market store next to me. Can’t wait to see all the good stuff.

We rarely buy chicken at Costco for just that reason. Chicken at our local grocery store is comparable quality and it's frequently on sale (loss leader perhaps?).

Costco actually struggles to purchase small chickens, which it uses for its $4.99 rotisserie.

According to this article published last week, it’s opening a $450M poultry complex in Nebraska because suppliers aren’t providing enough small chickens.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/11/business/costco-5-dollar-chic...

> Fry's Electronics ....

Oh my gosh, I was in my local Fry's last week, and the store was in such bad shape.

It was mid-afternoon on a Saturday, and there were only a dozen cars in the parking lot. So I thought that was strange right off the bat.

We go in, and so many shelves were empty. I wanted to get a new PC power supply, and they had hardly any stock.

We went to a Microcenter later, and it was still a going concern. Chatted with a sales guy who actually seemed to know the products. I think it is the last decent computer store in the area.

Man, I wish I had a crappy Fry's in my area, all I have is Best Buy, and they overprice everything and don't care a good selection. I miss living near Fry's. I miss being able to want X and have it in the same day and also have a place where I can do a swap in the same day without dealing with postage.

I've been trying to limit how much I buy on Amazon because I don't want to worry about getting something different than I ordered (among other reasons), or have to worry about getting counterfeit stuff. So I'm basically down to Newegg, and while they're fairly prompt, I don't buy enough to make Premier worth it, so I don't have 2-day shipping, which makes it even less convenient.

I'm really quite sad that these stores seem to be going away.

Man, I wish I had a crappy Fry's in my area

No, no you don't. I noticed the same thing a few months ago and did a search then. I found this thread which I bookmarked. So this isn't a new phenomenon any more:

https://www.thelayoff.com/t/YbiPZw8

My experience with the store in Wilsonville Oregon matches those comments. QFT here:

The Wilsonville, Oregon store hasn't had stock for over 6 months. Even longer for desktops and laptops. Last month I visited and there were whole aisles empty. ENTIRE AISLES. This is no "remodel" or "change in inventory system". They're on their last legs.

Very sad. End of an era.

Everything retail is dying.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retail_apocalypse

OMG, I'm glad I mentioned Fry's. Maybe I'll stop by my local store one last time before it goes to the Great Mall in the Sky. From the comments listed there, it looks like my local store is already running out of things to sell.

I wouldn't recommend buying anything that you might ever need to return to the store...

Given the customer service at the returns counter, that was already my approach. Compare the experience at Costco, which someone probably mentioned in this thread.

>Oh my gosh, I was in my local Fry's last week, and the store was in such bad shape.

The one in Las Vegas has been going downhill for a while, but the last six months were really staggering. Last August I got a good deal on a Garmin dash cam there. Saturday I was in looking for some other stuff and passed by that section and they didn't have one dash cam anywhere. Not even one! In one isle of car stereo components I guess one enterprising employee had spread out single bags of the same components up and down the isle to fill it in, but the general state of the store was beyond pathetic. There were only Samsung TV's and monitors in the store - no other brand (probably because Samsung is paying them).

Oh how the mighty have fallen. Sadly Vegas doesn't have a Microcenter. There are a few local stores like outletpc.com - but those guys aren't open on the weekend.

> The clerks read their script, "Did you find everything you need?" and I respond, "Well, I didn't find X and Y." Their response: "Oh."

As someone who worked retail for several years...

The cash register is literally the worst time and place to get help finding something. I often end up having to wait and hold up the line while waiting for someone on the floor to bring a product up, and god help us all if they grabbed the wrong thing and need to go back, holding up my line even more.

The cash register had the ability to suspend a transaction so I could start ringing up someone else while we waited, but doing so required a manager override, which involved a manager putting their key into the register and typing in their PIN code.

If you need help finding something, find someone on the floor. If you can't find someone on the floor, ask a cashier to find someone. But starting to check out and then asking for help finding something makes your cashier want to cry.

If it's that much of a pain, why do the clerks always specifically ask if I found everything I need? Why not something more generic like "how was your shopping experience today?" or similar?

Because the managers that create the policies requiring clerks to ask the question have either never worked as a clerk or have forgotten what it's like.

One life hack tip I got was that if you really like a pair of shoes (e.g. a daily driver), then you should always buy two pairs and alternate wearing them.

The big shoe brands constant change their lines to support just this. It's not a hack, it's an intended consumer response by the manufacturer.

I am not sure if I understand your first sentence. Regarding the second, no, they encourage wearing out shoes quickly and repurchasing often or purchasing many pairs. Two pairs purchased to alternate is something done to maximize longevity, so in the long run it is cheaper than buying one pair and wearing it daily. It is in a shoe repair shop’s interest, though, and that’s where I first heard the tip.

I misunderstood the original comment. The person was posting a strategy to keep shoes from wearing out too quickly. So you're right, my comment does not make sense, sorry.

Yes, shoe companies generally want people to wear out their shoes quickly to sell more shoes, and they also change up the models offered so that when a serious runner sees their shoe is no longer going to be offered, they buy up as many as possible.

I see! No worries.

I understand what you’re saying about changing lines/models now and I do agree this happens. I experienced this recently when attempting to replace some 2017 Merells. Even Walmart does it with their cheap yard shoes, I suspect.

it's called the Church of Costco :)

seriously now, the gas is at least 30 cents cheaper than anything around, I love the prime beef, organic chicken, cheese, eggs, mushrooms, macadamia nuts, vitamins and paper towels - it's top quality. on top of that stack the food court and the rotisserie chicken, travel + tires and the insane credit card benefits and you've got yourself a customer for life.

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