Why didn’t we think of it before?…
• Go to Costco about 6 or 7 p.m., and you avoid the crowds. The place stays open until 8:30, but by 6:00 or so, the mob has gone home to dinner.
• Those clear plastic boxes that hold pre-picked and supposedly washed lettuce? Emptied and washed, they’re perfect to hold your salad makings: a bag of carrots, a couple bunches of green onions, a half-used cucumber, a bunch of radishes, a bell pepper, a small jar of artichoke hearts. No more rummaging through refrigerator drawers every time you want to make a tossed salad!
• Salad greens that come in those clear plastic boxes usually wilt soon and often end up half-spoiled. One could avoid that and still have convenience by saving the boxes, then buying whole heads of lettuce, washing them, breaking off the leaves, patting them dry, and storing them in the boxes. Put a paper towel in there to help stabilize humidity in the box.
• A digital tool that runs on batteries needs to have fresh batteries. Change the batteries in the bathroom scale, known to run two or three pounds lighter than the balance scale in the doc’s office, and lo! It comes up with a number half-a-pound heavier than it did. Still not accurate, but closer.
• Members of the One Percent are exempt from ordinary laws that apply to the hoi polloi.
Case in point: woman is walking her large dog through the park, off the leash. I have to maneuver Cassie away from Poopsie, who approaches us aggressively and does not come to call. Later, as I come around the last leg of my jog around the park, I see Poopsie running loose in the park, no sign of his human. She’s across the street opening the back door of her vehicle for him. He runs across the road — a feeder street through the neighborhood, and this is now high rush hour — and jumps in. The oncoming car, fortunately, is far enough away to miss hitting him. She climbs into the driver’s seat and, smiling, drives contentedly away in her Mercedes SUV.
Wonder what a permit to let your dog run loose costs?
• If I would not check e-mail at 5:00 a.m., I wouldn’t be sucked into the client’s vortex of confusing changes in proof 3 (!!!) and then maybe I could get out the door before 6:30, when the sun is glaring in everyone’s eyes and the thermometer is already pushing Hotter Than Hell.
• If I would jog first and then walk Cassie, that would circumvent her occasional not-gonna-do-this mood, and then I wouldn’t have to drag her back from the park, put her in the house, and start over again.
• The brand-new, very nice Sprouts is on the canal. I could ride my bike down there, if there’s a place to lock it up at the store. Come to think of it, after the weather cools off, I could walk to that Sprouts! And that would be a long enough hike to make up the day’s required aerobic self-abuse.
• If one would not take on any new clients, one wouldn’t have the issue of having too g.d. much work to do. Betcha one wouldn’t see any more mind-boggling, byzantine labyrinths of corrects on corrects on corrects on corrects, either.
You hit it on the head with the Costco one! We traditionally go at 7:30 and almost have the place to ourselves.
My question … is the Costco membership worth it? I have been to Sam’s Club, Bj’s and Costco….and it just makes no sense to me. The sizes of things are huge and not all are bargains. I’m trying to spend less…not more….
@ jestjack: Compare Costco’s gasoline costs with those of the gas stations near your house. Over a year, the amount you save on gasoline alone pays for a membership.
You do need to know what things cost on the street, because sometimes Costco prices are no bargain. On the other hand, sometimes they’re incredible, especially on food and household products.
Personally, I like to buy things en masse. What could be more annoying and time-wasting than to have to traipse to a grocery store every time you turn around for things like toilet paper, paper towels and laundry detergent? Or to have to pay Safeway through the wazoo for a handful of pecans or walnuts, when you use those items all the time?
The price of meat is about the same as it is at a regular grocery store (although their chicken is cheaper) — but the quality of the beef and lamb is far superior.
Office supplies are much cheaper. I pay a fraction of what Staples and OfficeMax charge for paper, and could get it even cheaper if I could still lift the big boxes full of reams of paper.
A freezer and a set of garage cabinets easily accommodate the lifetime supplies. If you live in an apartment or a house with limited storage, that would limit the usefulness of a Costco membership.