This is an All Ears English Podcast, episode 2337.
Why do Americans love bulk buying?
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A huge connection topic in American culture is Costco.
Today, find out why Americans love Costco, how they talk about it, and how to build a connection based on this conversation topic.
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Hey there, Michelle.
How's it going? Good, Lindsay.
How are you? Good. Michelle, I have a question.
You ready? So do you have a particular grocery store that you are loyal to?
Is there a grocery store that has your heart?
Well, okay. So yeah, there's, it's funny.
I feel like the ones that have my heart are not the ones that I go to on a daily basis.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Right. So they're kind of the special ones.
They might be a little further away, not right there, because there are always the basic ones, maybe five minutes away.
And that's like the, you know, the everyday ones, but the special ones that have my heart, I would say are Trader Joe's and I do like Costco.
What about you? Are you loyal to any?
Oh my gosh. Yeah, I like Costco a lot.
I don't go very well.
I don't have a membership, but sometimes I'll sneak in under, you know, like my mother -in -law's membership or something when I get a chance to.
But I just, I like to try to walk if I can to my grocery store.
So there's a King supers just down the, just down the road.
So I try to go there.
But yeah, Costco, you love it.
I get it. I get it because who doesn't, who doesn't, who doesn't?
Yeah, no, exactly. So today we're going to answer a listener question about Costco.
And this comes to us from YouTube.
Lindsay, do you want to read the question for us before we get into it?
Yeah, this question comes from Hamza LaRiffi 7092 and Hamza says, thank you for such an amazing podcast.
Could you do one episode on Costco word?
First time I heard it, it's not clear to me, so I would love to use it.
So Michelle, we're just assuming this listener is asking about just Costco and we're going to talk a lot about the Costco effect.
Talk a lot about this, this global phenomenon of Costco.
And what it means in American culture versus, you know, I have some observations from living abroad, grocery shopping, how it happens when it happens very different around the world.
Yeah, definitely. And so to this listener, if for some reason you were intending to ask a different question, please feel free to write to us again.
And we'll try to answer that question.
But hopefully we got it.
And thank you so much for that question.
So I actually recently became a Costco member.
Congratulations. You'll have that for life, Michelle.
That's right. That's right.
Yeah. My mom is a huge Costco fan.
And she wanted to buy it for my family as part of a housewarming gift.
Oh, that's cute. That's nice.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I was telling I was telling Lindsay before the episode that my mom really loves Costco.
I mean, and I mean, you know, there are people who really, really love their own.
Yeah. You have pretty people.
Costco's not something where you just, Oh yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I like it.
Oh yeah. You also don't casually wander into Costco because it's usually like in a kind of rural suburban area drawn out, you have to drive, you have to take a big car to fill it up.
It's not, it's not just a window shopping thing.
Oh, I happen to stumble into Costco picked up a few things.
No, no, no. It's a commitment.
You probably strategize around what time you go.
It's so true. And it's, that's why it's so different than like, I go to shop, right?
Okay. I had to pick up milk and a few things.
Costco is, you're not going to just go to Costco to pick up some milk.
Yes. A hundred percent.
I mean, unless you live next to the Costco, I guess, but most people don't live next to the Costco.
And I love that Hamza asked this question because you're right, Michelle.
It is a huge connection topic in so many ways.
Yes. It's just a grocery store, but it's so much more than that because you have already in this episode shared your mom's thoughts on Costco, which brings up your own memories of childhood and your current exchanges with your mom now.
I mean, she's gifting your family this.
It's a big deal, right?
Yeah, it's true. This is definitely a huge, huge connection topic.
And I was telling Lindsay that my mom, even to this day, whenever you ask her, if you say, mom, I love this, she'll say, oh, Costco, honey.
Meaning like I got it there.
And so I was telling Lindsay that she always says Costco, honey.
And so my nephew thought for the longest time that it was actually the name of the store was Costco, honey.
Well, that'd be a good name, I suppose.
Yeah. Costco, honey.
Or maybe if you got honey at Costco, then yeah, that's hilarious.
That is so funny. Oh my God.
So what's the big thing?
Let's get to the heart of it.
We know we've looked this up a bit.
Michelle, you did a little research.
It looks like the Costco is all over the world.
So we feel pretty confident that you are going to resonate with this.
But what is the big thing that's different about Costco versus the grocery store down the street?
What's the point of Costco?
Right. To buy in bulk.
Right. And I think we've talked about in bulk in the past, but we're going to mention it today.
So in bulk, what does that mean?
In bulk. Yeah. It's a great one to know here.
It means in large quantities.
So again, instead of buying one thing of soap, you would buy a bundle of 17 soaps until next Christmas, right?
Right. So yeah, it's a buying in bulk thing.
And the idea is to get things cheaper per unit.
Yes, exactly. It's a pretty big cultural phenomenon and people have pretty strong feelings about Costco, I think.
I think it was even on a episode of Seinfeld when it was sold once it makes its way into pop culture.
It's a big deal. But Lindsey, you also wanted to talk about something called the Costco effect.
So tell us about that.
Yeah, I think this is out in the zeitgeist of our culture that people mention this, the idea that maybe you go and you say, I'm just going to, maybe some people will go to get one thing, but they buy it in bulk.
And then they come out with a whole shopping cart full of stuff.
It's just the idea that things are cheap.
Things are cheap. So we buy more of it, even if we didn't necessarily need it.
So the key here is that you need a big house to be able to store all these things.
Right. So this, this works better in more suburban areas and rural areas than in the city.
Because I mean, like just not having enough storage, right?
To be able to store things.
And also I want to talk a little bit, Michelle about grocery shopping habits.
I mean, how often do you grocery shop in American culture?
When do you, yeah. Great question.
Yeah. So, so, um, w I just moved, you know, and I used to live, uh, this has been one of the hardest adjustments.
I used to live right next door to the grocery shop.
So just even at 10 o 'clock at night, if I needed something, oh, I'll just run over.
So, but it's interesting.
The closer you live, the more frequently you go.
Sure. You might just shop for that night.
You might just shop for, exactly.
Yeah. You know, a couple of days at a time.
Now that, I mean, the grocery store is a five minute drive away.
So yesterday I popped in.
Um, I just needed a few things.
Um, so I would say, I would say once to twice a week.
I'm in the grocery store.
I'm it's, I'm not doing like it's not, it's still fairly frequently, but not, I used to just all the time, all the time, part of your night, right?
Part of the evening.
Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I have to be a little bit more thoughtful about it.
Not too much. It's not like it's an hour away or anything, but a little bit more thoughtful about it.
What about you, Lindsay?
How often do you go?
Yeah. Similar things.
So we go on Sundays.
We do a big trip on Sundays, which is what I did when I was growing up, which I think is kind of the typical American like layout.
Most people go to the grocery shop and fill up your cart once a week.
And then we'll also, you know, if we need something, we'll walk, go to the one locally down the street.
So we'll drive to the one on Sundays and then walk to the ones, you know, in the evening.
If we want to add something to dinner or something like that.
But the reason I'm asking this Michelle is when I lived in Japan and when I lived in Paris, I noticed that things were really different.
The grocery shopping seemed to be happening pretty much every evening when people are getting off the train because the grocery store was a smaller shop in between the train station and the people's apartments.
So what does this mean?
Getting fresher food?
Right. It's really interesting.
Yeah. Right. Exactly.
Yeah. I think there's maybe more of an emphasis on freshness.
And well, like for me, I mean, yesterday, for example, I bought salmon at the grocery store.
And it was, you know, then Dan later said, oh, should we go out to dinner?
I said, no, I have Sam because I'm because once I waited, I got salmon.
And then by the next day I said, okay, we'll have it in like a day or two.
And it was already spoiled.
And so I guess I have this idea in my head with salmon that if you get it, like you have to have, yeah, kind of.
I agree with that. Actually.
Yeah. So I'm in, it's like an immediate, like we're having it tonight.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think Costco makes sense in American culture, but yeah, I was shopping once a week.
And, but I do kind of wish that we had more of a, a culture of shopping daily.
I don't know. I don't, I mean, it is what it is.
It depends where you live.
It depends where you live.
Yeah. Maybe if you're in a more urban environment, like you were saying, you would go and grab stuff every night.
Maybe that happens more in an urban environment, right?
Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, so I was curious about if Costco is popular and all in other parts of the world.
So AI gave me some results.
So it looks like, so the U S and Puerto Rico, 607, 614 warehouses.
Wow. Yeah. So there are, there are two of my favorite restaurants in the world.
the one in the world is a friend of Costco's in Canada, Mexico, Japan, the UK, South Korea, Australia, and Taiwan.
See it's interesting that we're, we're seeing so even in Japan where I was mentioning where I observed a lot of small tiny grocery stores, there's still space for a Costco effect, like a Costco type of store for bulk buying, even though the apartments are very small.
So I'm curious about that, actually.
Maybe we'll have to put this into a poll question today, somehow, Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm. Yeah, that's a good idea.
So anyway, the listener is asking about Costco.
So we're going to give some words.
We already started a little bit.
So we did in bulk. So I like to shop in bulk.
So I don't have to do shopping more than once every three weeks.
Wow, that would be amazing.
I just don't know how that's possible.
Cause you know, I don't fresh things like milk, right?
I don't know. Maybe, but this person is really living on the edge, really living on.
And people do this now too, on Amazon.
I mean, I, it will be interesting to see how Costco does.
Amazon also does. A lot of people buy in bulk on Amazon, right?
By 17 soaps instead of, you know, like I said, samples are another thing about Costco.
That's actually so important that we have to mention Michelle.
What about this? Yes.
So Costco is famous for its samples.
So I mean, yesterday I was at ShopRite and they had one little table of samples and it was just like, Oh, a Costco wannabe.
And sometimes you'll see, even Trader Joe's does samples, but nobody like does samples like Costco.
Yeah. They all around the store.
They have counters with samples to give out.
And it's like, I mean, you can get like the other time I was there, there was like spaghetti and sauce.
I mean, it was, it's real, it's good stuff.
They do everything big let's say, right?
Yes. Yes. Exactly. So, um, that's always an exciting part.
I mean, you can go over there and you can basically have a whole lunch on samples.
It's true. And I think people probably do.
So people, here's the sample sentence.
And so I'm heading over to that end for the samples.
I'll catch you later.
Yeah. And so when people talk about Costco, they're talking about kind of an experience.
Right? It's not a regular, yeah.
It's not a regular.
I'm going to go to my, my whatever no name grocery store.
It's Costco. It's a big deal in our culture.
Okay. The samples, the bulk buying, the deals you're getting, how big your cart gets.
I mean, how much you have in your car when you come home.
It's a big deal. Right.
It's an event. Um, or then you could say great deal cause they do have some good prices.
So you could say, I got the greatest deal on yogurt.
I mean, I'm sure they have great prices.
Right. Because if you're buying so many, all right, of these things, it has to be a good price.
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Okay, but you do need a membership, right?
So that's our next keyword.
I think our listeners know it, but here's a sample sentence.
I'm definitely going to renew my membership this year.
So I don't know what it costs for a Costco membership these days, but it's probably worth it if you go every week and save a ton of money, right?
Right, right. Exactly.
And then they have different plans.
Of course, we got the basic and then we upgraded because we realized that financially it actually made sense to get the more expensive plan.
It's funny how that works out.
And then I thought it would teach big box store.
Would you say Costco is a big box store?
Yeah, I think it is.
What is a big box store, Michelle?
Let's define that first.
To me, big box store is like a Walmart, just like the, here, let's look it up officially.
Yeah, I looked it up and according to investopedia .com, the first one they list is Walmart home depot, Tesco, Ikea.
And then it says Target and BJs are the original.
Oh, interesting. So the idea is yeah.
So this is a PDA .com large, large inventory, like pretty much everything you need.
You could get it a big box store, low prices, but usually always a franchise.
Um, no, not much character most of the time, although Costco you've got, you does have that character as we're talking about just because it's such a phenomenon.
So I know big box stores aren't charming, but they can be a lot of fun.
If you don't get overwhelmed, do you get overwhelmed when you go to a place like Target or Walmart or something?
Michelle? Yes, I do.
I'm very overwhelmed.
I can only do a little bit.
I mean, it's a lot for me.
What about you? It's crowded and it's hard for me to make a decision and things like that.
It depends on my mood when I go in.
Usually I know what I need and if I can't find it right away, I get annoyed.
So I start kind of pacing.
I was trying to figure out redesigns.
Like where do I go?
I just need a Tupperware and where's the Tupperware?
Exactly, yeah. That can get frustrating.
But yeah, I've had it.
I mean, just as far as a connection topic, this is huge because I mean, just a couple of weeks ago I was at the park and I was talking to my son's friend's dad.
I mean all about Costco.
He was going on and on and we were just having so much fun in our conversation.
So this is just, it really is something people talk about.
It really is. I'm super curious if that's unique.
As we said, Costco is global, but is it such a hot topic globally or is it more of an like Americans like it because we get the deal and we like to buy things in bulk.
I'm really, really curious.
So I think maybe that will be our poll question today, Michelle.
Yeah, is Costco a connection topic in your culture or is something, is there something else that would, that does that for you?
Another type of shopping experience.
Let's go into a role play, Michelle.
Let's do it. So Lindsay, we are at Costco.
So of course, get into the Costco spirit.
Okay. So we're friends who run into each other at Costco.
All right. Here we go.
Here we go. Hey, Lindsay.
Good to see you. Hey, I didn't know you had a Costco membership.
Yep. I just got it.
Love it. So far. Oh, me too.
Let's walk over there and get some samples.
Okay. Yeah, I started coming here because now with my family, I need to shop in bulk.
Perfect place to do it.
And you get great deals here.
Yes. I love it more than other big box stores.
It's my favorite. Maybe we should get lunch here after it's so affordable.
Yes. Okay. Now let's get the samples first.
Oh my God. That's so funny.
They do serve meals in Costco too, I guess.
Yes. You can get a hot dog.
How do you like hot dog?
You can get a hot dog and a drink for a dollar 50.
I think that is cheap pizza and something.
It's like there that you can get a bottle of water for 25 cents.
Well, and yeah. And I think this is especially relevant now.
We've just been through a roller coaster of inflation, right?
Inflation was as high as 9 % in the US and higher around the world.
We know that. And so it becomes even more relevant, this kind of cost savings to people, right?
Those prices aren't going back down, but if we can make sure they don't go up as much, we can enjoy still buying further in bulk and saving even more.
Yeah. Love that. Yeah.
Love that. Absolutely.
So, all right. So I run into you and you said I didn't know you had a Costco membership.
Yeah. It's like you're in a special club.
I'm in a club now. It's a big deal.
And then I said, oh, me too.
Let's walk over there and get some samples, right?
It's all about the samples.
Yeah, exactly. It's a social thing too.
We're going to go together and get the samples.
We're going to stand by this sample table and chat.
Oh, it's so funny. Yup.
Yup. Yup, exactly. And I said, I started coming here because now with my family, I need to shop in bulk.
So I'm saying I need 25 soaps basically.
Exactly. You need 25 soaps.
Yeah. And then I'm saying perfect place to do it and you get great deals here.
Yeah. Yeah. And I said, yeah, I love it more than other big bucks stores.
Mm -hmm. Yeah. Interesting.
All right. So this is, this is a great topic.
It's also related to another one that we did, which will be our listeners next stop.
What is that? Yeah.
Yeah. Guys head on over after this episode to episode 23, 22, that was do you doom spend connect over this topic in English?
Yes, that's a good one.
Any final takeaway for our listeners today?
Where do we want to leave them?
Well, I would like to dedicate this one episode to my mother.
Yeah. I love you mom.
And yes, this is, this one goes out to you, but just for everybody else, I just wanted to say that it is a really good connection topic.
It seems kind of silly that this would be such a connection topic, but it just, it really is like, I mean, at least we're, listen, it might not be in other parts of the world.
And that's what we want to find out from you.
But in the US, generally it's a big connection topic.
You can just bring it up and somebody will say, oh, someone I just, I, especially for our listeners who are moving to the US as internationally.
If you're, if you're working here, relocating here, be ready for that.
Know that might come up and we're going to check out the poll after this episode and we'll see if we can get some answers from our audience, Michelle.
Very excited. Love it.
Well, you have a good day.
I'll talk to you soon.
All right. Bye. Bye.
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