WhyFi

Saw this at Costco. Was going to pick one up but then I remembered that I don't have swanky parties with hundreds of friends.

Velo Vol 

I only remember people saying rock salt when I witnessed it being made. But that's been a long time ago. So long that I wonder if people still do it. So I set up a very scientific Twitter poll.

My vote, if I could vote, would be 10+ years.

rjones28 

Blackout trumpeter?

LesterOfPuppets

What was the sell by date on those? I wonder we could kill it in time...

LesterOfPuppets

Is the mobile version of BF Gonzo, or is my phone playing up?

WhyFi

I'd be pretty enthusiastic out of the gate, but I'm pretty certain that'd peter out after a couple pounds.

Velo Vol 

wut

Bah Humbug

Had a bit of coffee?

Though that reminds me; I have to go cancel Costco. I brought my card to Maui, but not my Visa, since I was bringing some other cards for travel (and the Costco card, which is not normally in my wallet). AG, on the other hand, does travel with a Visa, so I figured we were fine. We get a bunch of stuff and get to the checkout. When AG pulls out her Visa to pay, the checkout clerk insists that she can't pay unless she has her card with her. Absent her card (which she didn't bring...) they had to take her driver's license and go look her up on the system. For some reason they couldn't find her, even though the account is in her name. Apparently they're now so concerned that someone might bring a friend to use their membership that one half of a marriage can't pay if they other brought the membership card. We are offended.

Bah Humbug

It is raining outside.

The rest of town seems to think it is the apocalypse.

Velo Vol 

Is it true that Costco only breaks even in its stores? The profit comes from membership fees?

WhyFi

Yeah, I don't know how that happened..

That's... dumb. I have to think that you ran in to some crazy stickler and that this isn't representative. Hell, I scanned my membership card today and my wife paid... of course, this was on the self-checkout.

On a related note, we just renewed our membership today. As my wife was doing that, I was in the liquor store (do they generally have separate liquor sections, or just in the blue law states [formerly, in our case]?) and I found out that one doesn't need a Costco membership to shop in their liquor store. We seem to flirt with not renewing each year, this could be another reason to let it slide.

LesterOfPuppets

I guess on the last week of use by, I could bring it in to work and throw a ham party.

DougRNS

you decide.

MoAlpha

That’s up at about 5,000 ft., but it’s still going to blow like stink at sea level up the Mississippi Valley.

Bah Humbug

Yes, that's likely. That it happened on vacation, in front of her parents, and that they were too incompetent to find her in their system makes it hard to look past. Pointedly, when she first moved here (before a stint in CA), she stocked her apartment with a friend. The checkout lady did say it was a new policy, and certainly someone else could have said "look at his card and their rings, they're fine", but no.

As for the liquor side, at least in Texas the liquor has to be outside the member area. It's not just a blue laws thing; I believe it's a holdover from Prohibition, and laws specifically banning members-only alcohol sales to prevent speakeasys and similar clubs.

LAJ

A lot of people share the membership with other family members. I don't have a Costco card, because Mrs. LAJ shares it with her brother. That's more than fine, because the last time I was in one, it was horrible. Carts as big as a strip mine dump truck, being pushed by equally big engines, all blocking the aisle to get their free taste of whatever they were shilling.

Velo Vol 

So the while very significant, the YouTube video I watched was wrong about membership revenue. Imagine that.

BillyD

My wife has two of them sitting in the basement freezer. I can’t even remember the last time she used one of them, much less two. SMH

Velo Vol 

Tennessee Valley/Ohio River basin. Did you miss class the other day? SMH.

Also, what's up with the Morse code in your bio?

DougRNS

I lived in the ORB for 47+ years. I have lived in the land of awesome shovels since Feb 2011. I prefer the latter to the former.

I am guessing that your YouTube video was saying net income and membership revenue were about the same and that was why they assert the stores breakeven. If you consider 11% gross profit less 10% SG&A and other expenses,prolly taxes of 1%, then yes stores are breakeven.

This assumes membership fees essentially have no cost.

The real question is; do they sell awesome shovels at Costco?

DougRNS

You ask a lot of questions.
Ask me no questions I'll tell you no lies.

MoAlpha

I just read the weather maps.

Morse A, or “alpha” in the NATO phonetic alphabet, is the flash pattern emitted by the “sea buoy” marking the deep water at the seaward end of a harbor or river entrance channel and is abbreviated “MoA” on a navigational chart. Sea buoys are sometimes referred to colloquially as “mo alphas.”

LesterOfPuppets

Wonder how many pounds of the 15.4 is bone...

Metallifan33

I just came here to say I like your username

LesterOfPuppets