"the absolute worst shopping experience I can think of"

Indeed:

* Short opening hours

* checking the membership card at the entrance

* cell phone salesmen inside

* item locations change randomly

* items randomly disappear for weeks at a time, as if Leonid Brezhnev was in charge of restocking

* waiting at the exit for someone to check your receipt

* for a while, they'd check your receipt at the self-checkout and then check it again at the exit

* 1970s level IT, inaccurate inventory information

Microsoft used to give a cash bonus for patents; I imagine Costco has a bonus program for new ideas to make the shopping experience worse. Some ideas:

* throw lit firecrackers into the crowd

* pour oil on the floor so people slip

* complete darkness inside the store

* every 10th person at the checkout has their credit card cut into pieces

It's because they are so busy. Yeah, costco is the one store I go to that people seem to have 0 spatial awareness. Every time I go, someone will just stop moving in the middle of the aisle, creating backups, without any shame. But I bet if your other local grocery stores were as busy as costco, they would have the same issues.

Agreed. The entire store is wired to encourage impulse buying and keep you from making rational decisions about whether you'll be able to finish that 3lb container of guacamole before it goes bad.

Go within an hour or so of opening.

I used to work right across the st from one and would spend most of my shift looking out at their parking lot and you could see it get more packed throughout the day, thin out a little bit in the early afternoon and then slowly drain towards closing.

It's always least crowded right at open and then an hour (? or maybe two?) later they open for the "regular" people and once that's the case, it fills quickly.

As someone who lives in central San Francisco: Costco is amazing with a cargo bike (or Waymo off-peak).

Haven't had Amazon Prime for 2+ years and don't miss it, but would definitely miss my Costco membership.

Agreed. We have two Costco's within 6 minutes driving distance, my wife visits them once a week, like Walmart and Whole Foods. We also shop regularly on Amazon. We don't buy weeks of food at a time.

Yeah that’s pretty not bad. They just need to deposit them along the interstate system.

It’s a chain of gas stations along interstate highways, either mostly or entirely in the south. Many are contenders for, and one of them is, the world’s largest gas station— not hyperbole. One has 120 gas pumps and they do so much volume, they have a team of attendants running around outside to deal with card/pump problems. They’re open 24/7/365 and constantly have dozens of fresh, made on-site BBQ items and sides ready to go for very reasonable prices, roasted nuts and other snacky confections being made fresh constantly, plus a huge line of high quality prepackaged snacks, a full clothing store worth of merch bearing Buc-ee the beaver, and a separate convenience store that itself would make an incredible American gas station.

In Florida, driving up through Georgia, the billboard advertisements start 200 miles away.

Truly shocking thing is that it’s genuinely high quality (considering the venue) and reasonably priced. It’s exactly the sort of product American capitalism is supposed to produce, but almost never does.

There are lots of videos on YouTube.