Costco Membership

Day 28: Costco Membership

Twenty beautiful, sustainably
produced tulips for $10
What's so bad about that?

Costco does a fantastic job of getting me to buy stuff. So high quality! Such a good (unit) price! And their employees get health coverage! To give Costco its due, they not only politely cancelled my membership, they also refunded the $110 I paid for my renewal two months ago. No questions asked.

I spent $120, the exact amount
of my dividend check. Mixed nuts,
three cheeses, beer, dog food and tulips.
Not many items, but each one so good!

There has been a great deal of debate in our house about whether we save money or waste money at Costco. I'm sure you've had the same argument. Both sides make good points.

I have a friend who years ago had a credit problem. At credit counseling, their first and most urgent piece of advice: don't go shopping. It's essentially the same advice they offer alcoholics.

Everywhere I go, I'm being invited to buy, buy, buy! Stuff I don't need, or stuff I need in mind-numbing quantities. Even at work, sitting in my office with the door closed, I can go to the on-line store. Or the on-line store comes to me in the form of yet another email solicitation.

Costco is one big temptation. And lately I've been thinking a lot, not just about the stuff I have in my house right now, but about how it got there in the first place. I'm not an aesthete. I like stuff. But I am trying to get to a place where I intelligently populate my world with useful, pleasing and sturdy things that increase my utility. No more bright shiny objects. And Costco is a temple of bright shiny objects.

Copyrighted material. Sorry, New Yorker!
Not shown:all the items I put into my cart and took back out again. 
Six pairs of garden gloves. Thirty La Croix sparkling waters. A market umbrella. 
A gallon of seaweed salad. Individually-wrapped whole wheat fig newtons.