Good day all, this is the Angry Systems Administrator issuing a small rant of my own. For almost 20 years I have been a member of Costco. The local Costco does not have discount gas pumps, (City issues), but otherwise is like any other Costco. Lately they have been suffering some serious growth issues.
About a week ago, I went to Costco, as I generally do about once a month to stock up on supplies, and arrived about 40 minutes after it opened. Generally I have to go on weekends due to having a real world jobs that both the Angry Idiot Webmaster and have in order to keep the lights on. I accept that it’s going to be busy, however, what I encountered this time was unbelievable.
To begin with, I wasn’t able to find a parking spot. The entire lot was filled and there were 15-20 cars, including myself, driving around looking for a spot or stopped and blocking a lane waiting for someone to pack up and leave. I decided to leave and come back later since I had some errands to run in addition to Costco.
I came back an hour later and the lot was still jammed. However, I lucked out and found a spot, parked and went in. As I expected, the warehouse store was packed. I did my shopping and started looking for a check out line. What I found shocked me. All the checkout lines were open and backed up to the rear wall of the building and curling around to the sides. I estimated that I would have had to wait at least an hour and probably closer to two just to pay and leave.
I did something I’ve only done once or twice before in this situation. I abandoned my cart and left the store. To say I was angry would be a bit of an understatement. I have a suspicion that the local Costco had far exceeded their occupancy permits. I’ve known for a while that the local Costco had pretty much outgrown the site and need to expand. The problem here is that there is no place where they can expand in their current location.
That Costco is also the only one in the State of New Hampshire as well. I know that there are at least three in Massachusetts. The problem there is that Massachusetts is a Communist controlled state and taxes everything they can. This benefits New Hampshire as all the Massholes come up here to do their heavy spending. Whoever is running Costco’s building plans should come up here and look around.
This brings me to Sam’s Club. I’ve known about it for years since there is a Walmart across the street from it. I almost never go into Walmart, so I never gave any thought to Sam’s Club, until now. I started researching the memberships and benefits. It’s actually a bit cheaper then Costco, and they also sell gas for significantly less they most of the stations near me. I decided to push the button and got a membership.
I downloaded the app and went to the local Sam’s Club. I went to the service desk and got my card and started shopping. Some of the prices were better then Costco’s others worse. What I did see was a far large building and a far larger parking lot. Additionally, unlike the Costco app, The Sam’s Club app lets you pay for your items and skip the actual checkout lines. Simply show your phone with the receipt to the people at the door, (Costco has the same deal only they use paper receipts), and leave.
I then went to buy gas. Now the station was backed up a bit, but that wasn’t surprising. I got to the pump and again used the app and filled the tank for a lot less then Joe Biden would have liked. I also showed this to “She Who Must Be Obeyed,” since she is a good friend and has a much nicer personality then the blivet she’s with, the Angry Webmaster. She is thinking about it but likes the idea of cheap gas.
Now the question is, will I give up Costco? I don’t think so. I do see going back and forth between them, and they’re only about a mile apart. Some days Costco will have better deals and other days it will be Sam’s Club. However, if Costco Corporate doesn’t do something about expansion, they are going to have significant issues, up to and including the City looking into the traffic patterns and the number of people in the building at one time. Sam’s Club appears to have though of this when they selected and built their location. We shall see if someone in Costco Corporate realizes that they are missing out in potential profits.
Thank you
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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~The Angry Systems Administrator~
