I Mean, How Dim Am I...? Don't Answer That

 Maybe it was because we had been shopping most of the morning and I was tired. Maybe it was because we hadn't had our Costco pizza slice (the ABSOLUTE best meal value, by the way...), or maybe it's because I was dim. Whatever the reason, I looked at something while taking a break on one of Costco's comfy chairs.

Look at the above picture. What do you see?

I see a backyard gym that will hopefully provide hours and hours of enjoyment and will act as a deterrent to screen time. I see the price, a dollar under $1200. I see a huge assembly headache. I see lots and lots of creative options for the youngsters. 

But I saw something else...

I saw a potential dangerous situation, and I thought..."How could they build something so dangerous?"

If you notice, as I did, there's a tic-tac-toe game on the second floor of the amazing structure. I looked at that and thought how dangerous it is to have kids hanging on the outside of the second story playing tic-tac-toe. It took me a minute to realize there's two sides to the game. Yes, if kids could only access the game from the outside, it's dangerous and irresponsible. But, if they play from inside--totally fine.

Funny how you think you understand life, and then you realize, not always.

It's a good lesson, but it looking at an expensive children's toy, or when thinking about things that really matter.

Yeah, We Went To Costco...But We Didn't Go Crazy

We went to Costco last Friday, not Saturday when apparently everyone went and cleaned the store out of toilet paper and bottled water. No, things were much tamer the day before. 

A couple of observations...

Almost every cart had a couple of things, a five-pack package of Clorox Wipes, and a package of toilet paper.

Most people looked like they were doing their regular Costco shopping, like us.

A few were loading up on cases and cases of bottled water. My first thought, when I saw flatbed carts full of water was those people must be in charge of a 5K charity event and they were buying water for the runners, or maybe they owned several vending machines and needed to re-stock.

It never occurred to either me or my wife that people were buying water because of a possible pandemic. The toilet paper I can understand, but water...really? That never crossed our minds.

No, my wife and I got our regular things, and a couple of things it would be nice to have--extra dog food, extra sugar. Other than that, the stuff we jammed into the back of Donk the Subaru was pretty much what we usually get.

There are two kinds of people in this world, those who rush to Costco and buy all the toilet paper and bottled water they can grab, and those who say too themselves, they'd never be caught dead at Costco while the first group are there. I'm glad we went and experienced something that thankfully, doesn't happen very often. It was like participating in Black Friday before the internet, when scores of people are out in force, fighting others for the best deals. If you just hung back and observed, just being there, seeing what people think are "necessities," watching others prepare for bad times ahead, taking it all in (while others take it all out...).

Yes, I'm glad we went, and I'm glad we didn't go crazy. We'll leave that to those who have garages full of bottled water.

So Few Cars In The Costco Parking Lot...But, Why?

We had it all figured out. We had several places to go this morning and we thought it best if we plotted out the route we'd take (my wife and I had slightly different ideas of the route we'd take...). In the end, we were able to make it to the three locations with few issues.

At least, until we came to the last one.

I have been working the same shift for years--Monday through Thursday, then Friday off. Personally, I can't think of having it any other way. I'm so used to putting in ten-hour shifts, it hardly phases me anymore. Beginning before 7am helps. By the time noon hits, I'm more than halfway done. Do that four times in a row and you've got your forty hours.

So, Friday mornings are great for running errands. This morning was no different. We hit the first place (to get a quick yummy breakfast...), then we hit the second place (to pick up groceries...). Finally, we needed to stop by Costco. For us, Costco is a "need" store, because the store is so dangerous. There's a lot under that roof that can be considered wants and not needs. If we stick to the needs, we can afford to stay in our house.

At 9:30am we turned into the Costco parking lot and we were blown away--six cars. That's all we saw, six cars. My wife and I chatted about why so few. We'd been at Costco when it opened at 9:30am before. Sure, the parking lot wasn't full, but it was more crowded than it was today. Still, we thought we had hit the "Costco Not Crowded" jackpot. We'd have the whole store for ourselves!

Turns out, that didn't happen.

Costco opens at 9:30am...

On Saturday.

On Friday (today...), it opens at 10am.

Mystery solved. We had to wait around for twenty or so minutes, and even though there were maybe a couple dozen cars when we left Costco with our purchases, it was nothing like it'll be tomorrow. Next time, we'll work this information into our route plotting.

At Costco...Before The Masses Arrive

Tonight, as I wait for my daughter to finish up at her theater rehearsal, I'm sitting alone in a building that's accustomed to having throngs of people walk its spacious hallways before, during, and after a performance. The students are rehearsing in the theater. I'm waiting in the hall.

It reminded me of an experience from last week...kind of a strange experience I had at our local Costco superstore.

It's a feeling I'm sure only employees have--a feeling of being the only one in the building.

We had some errands to run early Friday morning and we timed our shopping trip to Costco so we'd arrive just before it opened. We pulled up and there were several cars doing the same thing as us--waiting. Eventually the doors were unlocked and opened. We all climbed out of our cars, trucks, and vans and headed inside. While my wife looked in one section, I headed off to the far corner to pick up supplies. I'm used to hurrying because the longer one stays in that store, the more one spends.

I headed down the main aisle and I was about 2/3 to where I needed to go when that weird feeling struck. I wasn't sure what it was at first. I actually stopped and looked around. Then it hit me. The feeling of slight unease was due to the fact that I was (for all practical purposes...) alone.

Oh, I knew there were other people in the building--I could even see them way off in the distance. But there was no one close, no one heading toward me with their cart, no one trying to bump me out of the way to get at that bite-size pizza roll. I took out my phone and snapped a few pictures. I'm sure I've never had that feeling before at Costco nor had I seen the store in quite the same way before.

I watched a show one time about an artist. He was non-traditional and a little crass. It was a documentary and the artist showed some of his work to the interviewer, and camera, and to the world. He had drawn a picture of a street--I believe it was close to where he lived or grew up. He pointed out something I hadn't thought much about, but have done so many times since watching the show. He said that he was always interested in power poles and telephone poles, and the wires attached to them. He said that people don't see those things--they just look beyond them.

When I go to Costco on a crowded weekend, I don't think I see the people. I know they're there, but I don't see them. They're just things in store, like the huge TVs, the fruit and vegetables chilling in their own room, or the antacids you can buy by the case.

It's too bad I had to be in a place void of people to finally see them.

Going The Wrong Way...At Costco

My wife and I did a little shopping at our local Costco Superstore after work this afternoon. The store's pretty wide open allowing patrons to go hither and yon to find the things they want. I'm not an expert on shopping center design. I'm sure there's a master plan to herd the shoppers to maximize their spending. I see it in our local grocery store more, but, well...there you go.

Our trip took us to a couple of places we don't go very often--the fresh vegetables, and the dairy sections. They're both separated from the shopping floor because they are cooler than their surroundings. My wife and I went in, we looked around, picked up what we needed, then left.

After we left the veggies section, I said to my wife, "You went the wrong way in there." Once again, I'm no expert on shopping center design, but I did notice everyone else turned right when they entered, then walked around making three left turns before they exited. 

My wife and I chatted about that. You know, small talk you say to avoid making eye contact with the free sample people. "I'm going to go into the dairy section," she said.

And so she did. When she came out, she said, "Wow--I guess I went the wrong way in there, too."

I once heard a frequent traveler tell us non-frequent travelers how to speed things up when you're out and about. I've forgotten many of the things, but I do remember one thing they said. "Whenever you're lining up for anything, tickets, boarding passes, car rentals, go to the line on the left. Americans are programmed to automatically go to the right because of how we drive."

I though that interesting.

I don't know if it holds true for a proper way to circumnavigate a shopping cart through the cold sections on the Costco sales floor. I do know, if everyone turned right then left three times and we turned left then right three times, it might cause a veggie traffic jam.

And jam's all the way over at the other side of the store.