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Comment by imoverclocked | Hacker News Reader

I go to Costco when I have something else to do in the area; It's almost never a "trip to Costco" for me.

Others have mentioned the parking lot sizes. If we wanted the best of both worlds, we could have online shopping at Costco with curbside delivery. There has to be a warehouse somewhere which means there are trucks/trains/planes moving goods around regardless. Even Amazon builds warehouses closer to where things need to end up eventually to optimize costs. You are comparing apples to oranges.

Finally, Costco delivers if you really don't want to leave your house. Now we are back to the same model but with far more flexibility.

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Exact opposite for me, a weekend day is explicitly a Costco day to rack up for the week or month. Anything else I have to do that day is incidental. I assume this is many people's experience too rather than the other way around.

If I'm grabbing a couple items, I can be in and out of my Costco on the way back from work in 10m if the timing is right.

But yeah the wrong day, and it's 30m at least.

People go to Costco and only get a couple of things and not a cart load? You've got more self control than I.

I find it easier to do when I bike to Costco _without_ my trailer.

(I have two good sized panniers and can end up with ~$150 of foodstuffs packed well in them no problem. More often than not, I get less than that and add more stops to the trip to pick up from 3-4 places while out. And I get my exercise while I'm at it.)

When I lived closer to a Costco and had my membership, I used to do what I called cartless runs. Go into Costco, only buy what you can carry. Usually just the thing I needed and maybe one or two other things.

I do a similar thing. Stop at Costco to fill the gas tank, then buy a few things with no shopping cart.

Prevents wasting money on things I don't need, and makes the trip quick.

We live two hours from the closest Costco. We make a day of it once every 45-60 days plus shop at other stores we don’t have in our small town and see some family. We don’t have an Amazon account and maybe order something online once a month. We prefer shopping locally or waiting for Costco Day.

We’re an hour out and I had to do a deep dive and finally admit to myself that the savings just really weren’t there, including membership and gas.

On the other hand, I drive to Target to pick up curbside deliveries quite a few times a month, and I am almost only driving there just for that one trip. I would probably do the same if I was going to Costco rather than Target, I just hate the Costco parking lots in my city so I don't use Costco.

I don't know which of us is the more common scenario. What other sorts of things are you doing in the area when you go to Costo? I simply don't have that many things I have to drive for, so I don't have other errands to combine with my bulk good pickups.

Nobody does Costco and something else. That’s insane. Like going to IKEA and then somewhere else. Impossible.

I live 5 min from my closest Costco, and I go 2-3 times per week for a handful of items. It’s like any other store.

I actually saw a man check out at Costco once with just a chicken and some milk what a legend.

Did he at least get a hot dog on the way out?!

That was me

Depends on your Costco, I can make a 10m run after work (to from parking lot) if the day is good.

I hit Costco once a month just because they have the only pharmacy near me that always has my prescription medications in stock. Then I hit the bakery section for the blueberry muffins, speed through self-checkout, and then get a hot dog and scroll Hacker News or something like that while I eat it.

In and out in 30 minutes at most. But I've done the same thing at Ikea. You can just go there for the meatballs! You don't have to buy furniture too!

What? Like you plan a day of shopping at Costco? That's insane to me.

I have never spent more than 30 minutes inside a Costco.

Why the rush? Why even plan? Just go in and wander around without a mission.

Interesting how people view shopping at Costco differently. My goal is to spend the least amount of time as possible in there.

This thread was similarly eye opening to me. But it explains why that store is always packed, apparently people just do weekend trips to Costco.

> Finally, Costco delivers

Yes, via a service called Instacart.

You can transform anything the Amazon last-mile model if you want to.

We go twice a month to fill up and re-up on things while there. Gas is cheapest at Costco. The parking lot is a war zone. Don't go to the one in Davie, FL if you can help it, you will discover road rage you didn't think you had. Many inconsiderate shoppers who pull up to the main entrance and turn their emergency lights on to load the car and block the traffic for minutes. I like Costco, but I despise going there. Fix parking, install EV chargers, canopies.

> There has to be a warehouse somewhere which means there are trucks/trains/planes moving goods around regardless.

Do you want an 18-wheeler truck to do your curb-side deliveries? Or a personal train?

If I had a nickel for every time an 18 wheeler dropped something off at my house I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t much, but it’s weird it happened twice.

What?

I think to clarify your point, curbside pickup is the curb of the store/warehouse, not the curb of your house, correct? I think the netizen above thought it was your house's curbside?

That's correct, with curbside pickup you drive to the store, pop open your trunk, and in principle someone from the store's staff is ready and waiting to verify your identity and then load your pre-staged shopping right into your trunk, and you drive off.

So you still have to go to the store but it can be an in-and-out if everything works.

Ah. I've always interpreted curvside pick up as home delivery :)

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