03/01/2004   English German
  Edition # 49  
San Francisco, 03-01-2004

Costco Nation
Figure [1]: Oprah Winfrey shops at Costco on her show.

Michael Who really enjoys shopping at the supermarket! However, when I get to go to the super-supermarket "Costco" once a month, the child in me comes alive. Because Costco, which you can only enter with a membership card (which costs $45 a year), doesn't just have groceries. I can spend hours strolling through the aisles and looking at the craziest things: A laser parking system for the car! A fire extinguisher! An illuminated neon sign that says "Open"! A new anti-saver showerhead that could easily shower elephants in the circus! The number of items is, similar to the German Aldi (which, by the way, has already made its way to the East Coast of the USA), quite limited. There is usually only one brand of something, but almost always the market leader.

With a shopping list for a cooking recipe, however, you would be out of place at Costco. Half of the products are not available (e.g., no horseradish or yogurt) and other items only come in huge quantities. Who needs a kilo of mustard, 52 pens, or a pack of 36 batteries?

The secret to Costco's success is that it offers top quality products not cheaply, but at reasonable prices. "Costco doesn't sell crap" - that's the favorite saying of the Costco CEO, who was recently interviewed in Money Magazine.

Take my flashlight: In the USA, the power grid is notoriously in the hands of clowns -- and having the lights go out for a while in the evening is already routine for us. When it happens again, we calmly go to our closet, which we call the "kabuff," and get the flashlight. Which flashlight brand? Of course, "MagLite." It's the most expensive flashlight in the world. But anyone who has ever held a "MagLite" in their hand, possibly in an unclear situation where the neighbors were running through the hallway with flickering cheap flashlights, will appreciate the cold, blackened steel casing of a "MagLite" with its bright white beam. In an emergency, you could use this flashlight to break a window, drive a nail into the wall, or defend your home against intruders. Once you've experienced the quality of this flashlight, you'll never settle for less. Of course, it's not exactly cheap: you have to shell out about 20 dollars. Where to buy it? At Costco, of course, in a set with a mini-Maglite torch for the car and a set of batteries, for, guess what? Exactly: 20 dollars.

Figure [2]: The best flashlight in the world: The Maglite

Costco has spread out across the entire country. They have even expanded to Japan. And although I am actually against the fact that every city now has the same department store, coffee shop, and fast-food chains, I immediately get a sense of home when I discover a Costco somewhere in the middle of nowhere. The slight local differences are also fantastic: for example, at the Costco on Oahu, Hawaii, I once bought car seat covers with Polynesian-inspired patterns -- super cool!

Costco speculates that people will buy gigantic quantities when there is top quality at low prices. The shopping carts there are oversized. Homeless people, who like to push around their belongings, value a Costco cart like a Mercedes Benz. Also, at Costco, there is no "Express Checkout Lane" at the register, as is common in other American supermarkets, where you are only allowed to line up if you have, for example, up to five or ten items and pay quickly, either in cash or with an ATM card.

I am a Costco fan and I'm not afraid to admit it publicly. If Costco ever starts an advertising campaign with famous people and wants me on a poster, I would immediately agree. I even put up with the completely un-American store closing times of this chain, although I find it totally unacceptable: They actually close at 5:00 PM on Sundays!

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