Do you mind gifts from Costco?

[Anonymous]

How do you even know it’s a Costco gift? They don’t give out bags and all the chocolate is not branded Costco.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've never bought anyone a gift from Costco. Different class/wealth circles, I suspect.

When I was teaching at a boarding school in the UK, I had a student who was a titled aristocrat. She was literally a "Lady."

I bought her mother a hot water bottle she found at a local grocery store for Christmas. At her family Christmas, her parents gave her a set of cooking items from Amazon (not particularly high end) and a large gift card to Asos, which is a cheap, fast-fashion online platform UK kids use to buy (cheap, fast-fashion) clothes. The girl loved Asos and that was what she wore on weekends/non-uniform times: cheap polyester fast-fashion items, and she just threw stuff away instead of laundering anything, since as she observed, "It just falls apart if you try to wash it one time." Another teacher remarked that the girl "looks homeless" sometimes, which was accurate. Friendly, intelligent, popular girl with zero regard or care for "status items" or concern with what anything she did signalled about her social class, because, well, nothing she did or said or wore had any impact on her social class.

We had two other aristocrat families (as in, actual titled aristocrats), and they and their parents put zero effort into fashion or clothing at all. One mother (titled aristocrat) wore a tattered sweater with a small hole in the shoulder one Friday when she came to pick up her son for the weekend, and rubber wellies. Their car was covered with mud.

My experience with them changed my understanding of what "old money" looks like. They truly do not care about impressing anyone. Sometimes they look almost deliberately shabby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never bought anyone a gift from Costco. Different class/wealth circles, I suspect.

When I was teaching at a boarding school in the UK, I had a student who was a titled aristocrat. She was literally a "Lady."

I bought her mother a hot water bottle she found at a local grocery store for Christmas. At her family Christmas, her parents gave her a set of cooking items from Amazon (not particularly high end) and a large gift card to Asos, which is a cheap, fast-fashion online platform UK kids use to buy (cheap, fast-fashion) clothes. The girl loved Asos and that was what she wore on weekends/non-uniform times: cheap polyester fast-fashion items, and she just threw stuff away instead of laundering anything, since as she observed, "It just falls apart if you try to wash it one time." Another teacher remarked that the girl "looks homeless" sometimes, which was accurate. Friendly, intelligent, popular girl with zero regard or care for "status items" or concern with what anything she did signalled about her social class, because, well, nothing she did or said or wore had any impact on her social class.

We had two other aristocrat families (as in, actual titled aristocrats), and they and their parents put zero effort into fashion or clothing at all. One mother (titled aristocrat) wore a tattered sweater with a small hole in the shoulder one Friday when she came to pick up her son for the weekend, and rubber wellies. Their car was covered with mud.

My experience with them changed my understanding of what "old money" looks like. They truly do not care about impressing anyone. Sometimes they look almost deliberately shabby.

It's one of the reasons Costco is so successful. There are a BUNCH of well off people who don't care about impressing anyone. They're happy with something that is total junk, but also not paying extra for some high end name brand that's marginally better than the next option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you even know it’s a Costco gift? They don’t give out bags and all the chocolate is not branded Costco.

Many of their chocolates are packaged in certain way or size that we all recognize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you even know it’s a Costco gift? They don’t give out bags and all the chocolate is not branded Costco.

Oh, how lovely, a box of 156 Ferraro roches! Wait, what’s that? You say you got it at Costco? I would have never guessed!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My MIL was upset my BIL and kids brought her items from Costco.

So ungrateful. I don’t mind them. Chocolate is chocolate

I don’t mind gifts from Costco. However, chocolate is not chocolate.

Good chocolate is worth it. Bad chocolate should be thrown out uneaten.

Don’t be a POS. If you don’t want the new-in-box chocolate because it isn’t expensive enough, take the time to gift it to people who will eat it.

Seriously. Do these people not work? If I get a snack or sweet I don’t want, I just bring it into the office kitchen where it is happily consumed. You could at least donate it to a food pantry and some poor kid that doesn’t get treats or old lady living on social security can eat your rejected box of Ghirardelli chocolates or Lindt truffles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you even know it’s a Costco gift? They don’t give out bags and all the chocolate is not branded Costco.

Oh, how lovely, a box of 156 Ferraro roches! Wait, what’s that? You say you got it at Costco? I would have never guessed!!

OMG. I would be so freaking happy with this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never bought anyone a gift from Costco. Different class/wealth circles, I suspect.

When I was teaching at a boarding school in the UK, I had a student who was a titled aristocrat. She was literally a "Lady."

I bought her mother a hot water bottle she found at a local grocery store for Christmas. At her family Christmas, her parents gave her a set of cooking items from Amazon (not particularly high end) and a large gift card to Asos, which is a cheap, fast-fashion online platform UK kids use to buy (cheap, fast-fashion) clothes. The girl loved Asos and that was what she wore on weekends/non-uniform times: cheap polyester fast-fashion items, and she just threw stuff away instead of laundering anything, since as she observed, "It just falls apart if you try to wash it one time." Another teacher remarked that the girl "looks homeless" sometimes, which was accurate. Friendly, intelligent, popular girl with zero regard or care for "status items" or concern with what anything she did signalled about her social class, because, well, nothing she did or said or wore had any impact on her social class.

We had two other aristocrat families (as in, actual titled aristocrats), and they and their parents put zero effort into fashion or clothing at all. One mother (titled aristocrat) wore a tattered sweater with a small hole in the shoulder one Friday when she came to pick up her son for the weekend, and rubber wellies. Their car was covered with mud.

My experience with them changed my understanding of what "old money" looks like. They truly do not care about impressing anyone. Sometimes they look almost deliberately shabby.

My rich af DH is in a t-shirt with multiple holes in it right now, and his 18-yr old blazer hasn't been washed in years. This is a thing. Not sure why, but it is.

[Anonymous]

I love Costco and Costco gifts and everything about Costco.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never bought anyone a gift from Costco. Different class/wealth circles, I suspect.

When I was teaching at a boarding school in the UK, I had a student who was a titled aristocrat. She was literally a "Lady."

I bought her mother a hot water bottle she found at a local grocery store for Christmas. At her family Christmas, her parents gave her a set of cooking items from Amazon (not particularly high end) and a large gift card to Asos, which is a cheap, fast-fashion online platform UK kids use to buy (cheap, fast-fashion) clothes. The girl loved Asos and that was what she wore on weekends/non-uniform times: cheap polyester fast-fashion items, and she just threw stuff away instead of laundering anything, since as she observed, "It just falls apart if you try to wash it one time." Another teacher remarked that the girl "looks homeless" sometimes, which was accurate. Friendly, intelligent, popular girl with zero regard or care for "status items" or concern with what anything she did signalled about her social class, because, well, nothing she did or said or wore had any impact on her social class.

We had two other aristocrat families (as in, actual titled aristocrats), and they and their parents put zero effort into fashion or clothing at all. One mother (titled aristocrat) wore a tattered sweater with a small hole in the shoulder one Friday when she came to pick up her son for the weekend, and rubber wellies. Their car was covered with mud.

My experience with them changed my understanding of what "old money" looks like. They truly do not care about impressing anyone. Sometimes they look almost deliberately shabby.

It's one of the reasons Costco is so successful. There are a BUNCH of well off people who don't care about impressing anyone. They're happy with something that is total junk, but also not paying extra for some high end name brand that's marginally better than the next option.

I think you’ve missed the magic of Costco and why it is so popular with rich people. It’s not that we’re happy with junk. We are happy with someone doing the work to narrow down options to save us time. I don’t really want to spend a lot of time trying different items, but am happy that someone at Costco has done so to present me with a relatively curated selection of items. I can easily ignore the items that are more junky (the fast food crap and the kitchen appliances from Samsung) while I’m grabbing things like the pesto, nuts, coffee, wool socks, jogging gloves, etc. Prices on things like Apple products or Pyrex or mattresses will basically match the prices other retailers have for basic sales, so it saves me trying to shop sales — Costco prices will often be a bit higher than the mega sales at other retailers, but that’s okay if it saves me time and effort. I love Costco!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never bought anyone a gift from Costco. Different class/wealth circles, I suspect.

When I was teaching at a boarding school in the UK, I had a student who was a titled aristocrat. She was literally a "Lady."

I bought her mother a hot water bottle she found at a local grocery store for Christmas. At her family Christmas, her parents gave her a set of cooking items from Amazon (not particularly high end) and a large gift card to Asos, which is a cheap, fast-fashion online platform UK kids use to buy (cheap, fast-fashion) clothes. The girl loved Asos and that was what she wore on weekends/non-uniform times: cheap polyester fast-fashion items, and she just threw stuff away instead of laundering anything, since as she observed, "It just falls apart if you try to wash it one time." Another teacher remarked that the girl "looks homeless" sometimes, which was accurate. Friendly, intelligent, popular girl with zero regard or care for "status items" or concern with what anything she did signalled about her social class, because, well, nothing she did or said or wore had any impact on her social class.

We had two other aristocrat families (as in, actual titled aristocrats), and they and their parents put zero effort into fashion or clothing at all. One mother (titled aristocrat) wore a tattered sweater with a small hole in the shoulder one Friday when she came to pick up her son for the weekend, and rubber wellies. Their car was covered with mud.

My experience with them changed my understanding of what "old money" looks like. They truly do not care about impressing anyone. Sometimes they look almost deliberately shabby.

It's one of the reasons Costco is so successful. There are a BUNCH of well off people who don't care about impressing anyone. They're happy with something that is total junk, but also not paying extra for some high end name brand that's marginally better than the next option.

One of Costco’s best practices is how they vet what they carry and what they put their name on. They do not sell garbage.

People who value quality and don’t care about brands love Costco. Someone did a segment or documentary on how they choose which wines to carry under the Kirkland label. It spoke to my heart about finding value in what I buy. Some fancy labels are worth it. Some are not. Costco knows the difference and so do their fans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Ninja Creami and the shark hair tool from Costco were my teen daughters' favorite gifts this Christmas.

And if anything goes wrong with them we can take advantage of their kick-ass return policy!

Which shark hair tool?

Man, my 10y old would have LOVED the ninja thing. I didn’t even know it existed…. She is always making creams, smoothies (whatever) and putting them on the freezer to try to make Ice cream.

We do have a Cuisinart ice cream maker, but it is too big for her various individual creations.

[Anonymous]

Agree with the posters that value saving time. Anything decent at Costco means that I don't have to shop around. And many of the prices are easily observed to be better than the regular grocery store.

Though, I do pass on bulk items that take up too much space or I can't be certain that we'll use it all.

[Anonymous]

Consumerism at it’s best. Shame on all of you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Consumerism at it’s best. Shame on all of you.

Why?
Because Costco allows you to stock up on essentials like toilet paper, soap, and laundry detergent? Or offers savings on a hair dryer and vacuum cleaner that my DD needs as she's moving to her own apartment? Or that I saved an extra $1500 on Subaru? Also, Costco allows me to buy food items in bulk and batch cook so I have meal prep done for the week.
Since you sneer at Costco, are we to assume that your food and household essentials are free and flown directly into you home on the wings of angels?