This week I'm on the road which gives me the perfect excuse to shop at Costco guilt free. Usually, I like to shop locally. In my travels the last few weeks, I've seen other small communities advertising the same slogan. "Shop local" But since I can't shop on the island this week, I've decided to save some money by shopping at Costco. It's a Friday afternoon and the place is packed. I wait my turn behind ten other shoppers in line to check out. "Oh yes" I think, "This is why I live on an island."
I often find perspective in the Costco checkout line, and if not that, then at least some mild entertainment. Today after procuring some modest, necessary items, and feeling pretty smug about it, I find myself in the checkout line behind someone purchasing the following: One large plastic flip top container of Tums. One economy pack of Alka Seltzer. One 1.75 liter bottle of Kirkland Vodka.
I can only guess at the reason for these purchases based on why I myself might buy them. And to be honest, on a bad day, I might be buying these very same items. It's a sign of the times. I know we are all supposed to be having a positive outlook to keep the great American consumer machine going, and I buy that. I literally buy that, by continuing to circulate money in the system, as every good American ought to do. But I don't think it's a big secret many people are anxious about the future including their finances these days. And that's the imaginary theme I assign to the purchases going out ahead of me at Costco. A pretty simple theme, but one with which I can sympathize.
My own Costco purchases today are as I said, modest and necessary, and thankfully different from those of the person ahead of me in line. Mainly, bottled water and, once I get outside and back in the car, gasoline. Can't get much more basic than that for a road trip. For now, I've given up those Starbuck's Frappuccinos in a bottle I could be buying at Costco for a dollar a piece. Despite that great price, water will do me just fine, even better than fine, actually. And gasoline, well it wouldn't be a road trip without that.
As I make my way to the gas pumps, I see there's a long lineup there as well. School isn't out yet in most places, but the sun is, and that gets people itchy to go someplace. Or perhaps the line can be explained as a sign of the times as well. I can't be the only one who drove past the other gas stations because I knew the price here would be a good fifteen cents per gallon lower. I know it has always been wise to shop this way, but I haven't always been so scrupulous.
The line moves slowly, an impatient driver in front of me puts her car in gear and quickly swerves around to the forward pump. No time to waste. I don't mind, that puts me one car further ahead. I can't help thinking what a short time ago it was I made most of my gas purchases in Oregon where they still have a "no self-service" law. I pull forward and get out of the car. I have my routine down to a science now. And so does everyone else. It seems like an odd dance to me, all these people, four pump-stations across, four pumps per station, that's sixteen amateurs pumping their own gas at break neck speed. It brings to mind a scene from the movie Zoolander. I put that thought away and watch what I do with the nozzle.
My two purchases complete, there's just one more task….making it out of the Costco parking lot alive. There are two things people do at Costco. One, they buy a lot of stuff. Two, after they're done, they get the heck out of there as fast as possible. I'm no innocent onlooker here. I want out of this place as badly as everyone else. Or perhaps it's a kind of mob mentality even I can't avoid, I don't know.
Whatever the reason, it's a case of "gentlemen start your engines please", only without the please. I'm exiting the vehicle fueling pit, along with about eight other drivers. We maneuver ourselves into a single line that merges with another line of exhausted shoppers coming from the parking lot, and miraculously make it out onto the street safely.
It might be the jitters I feel from the super cheap frozen coffee drink from the Costco canteen I just can't resist, or it could be Costco itself, or possibly it's the combination, but I find it necessary to do a little soul reclamation once I leave that place. I move over to the slower right hand lane of traffic and turn on the local smooth jazz station.
But finding the Costco experience to be somewhat soulless is just me. I don't judge the shoppers I've run into today. Or, thankfully, haven't run into today. That new big screen TV will look mighty fine I'm sure on the family room wall. And when the cousins come over for a meal prepared on that new gas barbeque, family time together is the real pay-off, not how much money was saved today at Costco.
It's just we all have to make a choice, either actively, or by default where it is we choose to live. And therefore, to some extent, how we choose to live. Today I realize I'm glad I've chosen slow, quiet, and for the most part a community where the emphasis is not on being a consumer. That's the life I like, with occasional reminder visits to Costco Nation.
© M.E. Rollins
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