I don't see how Costco prevents you from making rational decisions. If anything the incredibly plain atmosphere (wide open spaces, no flashing lights, no loud music) feels much more calm than the typical retail experience.

My average food waste from a Costco trip is significantly lower than other grocery stores.

Also Costco has a really annoying "treasure hunt" strategy where goods are re-arranged around the store trying to get you to explore aisles (aka get lost and waste time) to impulse buy more stuff.

Other stores (Target, Walmart, etc) will let you look up the item's aisle in their app and be considerate of your time.