Costco Update

Wow!!  Usually no one reads my blog or my crappy little reviews of places I like/don’t like.  Ok, so maybe Ben reads it (mostly because I logged into his email and changed his settings so that my blogs get emailed to him) and usually my sister or mum will read them. 

But gee whiz!!  My thoughts and experiences with Costco went positively viral!!  By viral I mean a few people that I DON’T KNOW read it!!!!  It got shared around a bit because some people found it funny… but I assure you it definitely wasn’t a ‘funny’ experience for me!!

I would just like to clarify that this is only MY experience with Costco and only MY thoughts on the whole paying someone to ALLOW me to shop. 

I have received a lot of comments lately calling me all sorts of nasty names and telling me that I should have done my research before going to the Costco opening.  These trouble me for a few reasons. 

Firstly, they are either coming from Costco employees (who I’m sure could track down all my details as my membership is registered with them) or they are from diehard Costco fans – who do nothing to dispel my suspicion that it is a giant cult.

Perhaps if you lived near a Costco it would be totally worth it for you to become a member because of fuel etc.  Or maybe you have 8 kids who would eat an entire box of Mars Bars every week so in that case it would totally be for you!!  

And perhaps I SHOULD have done my research before I went.  I’m not sure what I could have typed into Google to find out how rudely we would be treated but I’m sure if I spent a bit of time reading I could have clarified those membership rules.  I’m terribly sorry that I did not read the membership rules.  I already admitted in my last blog that I’m an idiot so I don’t know what more they are expecting?!? 

I’m just not used to being subjected to a whole heap of rules when I walk into a store.  Usually I feel like they WANT me to spend money.  I was quite happy to pay for my membership before I went and not opposed to the idea of paying to shop.  I didn’t realise however, that I would feel the way I did when I was there.  It was like some kind of epiphany hit me somewhere between the toilet rolls and my inability to find the 5kg Nutella jar.  I felt like I had been tricked by really clever marketing.  I like being rewarded to be loyal to a company.  For me personally, I don’t like paying to be loyal.  It just does not make sense to me or sit right with me.  Maybe it was because I was made to feel so unwelcome?  Who knows how I work!!

I do have the option of cancelling my membership and getting a full refund, as has also been pointed out.  But you know what?  The thought of going through all the rigmarole to do that makes me want to vomit.  Frankly I would rather pay another $60 than have anything more to do with them.  If they yell at eager, excited customers I dread to think what they say to unhappy ones!  Do I want to subject myself to that? No.  I’m still a little upset by all my haters and the names that I have been called (although secretly a little bit excited to have haters in the first place).    

While there were some employees that were extremely rude to me, I’m not saying that every Costco employee is rude.  In fact, some were lovely!!  The only one who was rude to me, who wasn’t a part of the elite management team, was a checkout boy.  I’m quite partial to the idea of forgiving him because it must have been an extremely stressful day and I would hate to be working under management that has no issues yelling at potential customers.  Imagine how they speak to their staff!!

Perhaps it was just me.  My older sister has always seemed to find that I can be extremely irritating (Love you Nicky!!) as I’m quite sure I can be.  But it is strange that Paul had the exact same issues with management speaking to him rudely (and I was nowhere near by to evoke irritation in them).  I have also been contacted by a lot of people who said they found the same thing. 

I was really let down by the whole Costco experience as I was SO EXCITED in the lead up to the opening.  My friends will confirm that I spent the entire time on our girls night talking about how excited I was and trying to pry information out of my friend who has spent time in America.

I do regret that I may have wrongly assumed that all the management were ‘imported’ because every single one that I had any dealings with had an accent.  It does make sense that Costco would bring management from pre-existing stores in America or Europe to manage their new stores in Australia.   So I apologise for saying that but at the time of writing the previous blog I was sleep deprived and fired up about a crappy experience and a huge disappointment.  I also realise that many Australians have accents so there is a chance that they were newly employed by Costco. 

In conclusion I whole heartedly support the ideas put forward by my ‘haters’ that you do your research before you go to Costco.  You can use my experience as part of your research, maybe you will stumble across a blog someone has written who has had an excellent experience, or maybe you will just read the terms and conditions and compare prices yourself. 

I am so over Costco.  This is my last blog about it.  In future I will stick to boring topics such as campsite reviews and crappy ramblings about cakes I’ve made or the daily chaos that is my life.   

B xx

P.S.  Just a disclaimer… I have promised in the past to not blog about something anymore and then gone back on my promise and kept blogging about it. 

P.P.S.  Unfortunately I have had to disable comments unless you follow my blog. This is due to all the charming individuals who identify themselves as ‘Anon’ and have been writing nasty things (which have since been deleted).