Since I’m on a roll with this whole ‘Bulk Buy’ theme, the time has come for me to explain why I’m kicking Costco to the curb.

Photo courtesy of miamism and indicative of why I’m opting out.

To provide a little background let me say, we’ve been loyal Costco members for going on 7 years. At our old house, the location was incredibly convenient. Just as close as other grocery stores. Where we live now, its just down the block from our gym. We’ve refined our Costco shopping over the years. Now we shop there mostly for staples; sugar, vinegar, baking soda, TP, canned tomatoes, olive oil, beans, etc., With the occasional trip for Mexican Coke and fancy cheeses in preparation for a party or event. The Husband buys 98% of his gas there, as did I prior to making the switch to diesel. This is all to illustrate, we use Costco pretty avidly.

This relationship has served us well. We have the Amex Rewards card that provides us 1% cash back on all our purchases. This easily covers the yearly fee and then some.

In No Big Box challenge 2011 Costco, along with Amazon, were the noted exceptions. My hold outs because they are locally headquartered businesses with a history of providing livable wage jobs, and being innovators in their field. Allowing ourselves to continue to patronize these two Big Boxes, contributed to the overriding success of the challenge in it’s first year.

So why dump them? If this is a mutually beneficial relationship, why sever all ties?

Well, Costco it’s not you. It’s me. Sort of.

Politics. Last year Costco bought an election in my state. It was for an initiative that had failed the previous year in a similar iteration. An initiative that stood to make Costco gobs of money in liquor sales. So, they threw their weight behind it and made an obscene ‘donation’. It passed. Surprise, surprise. Regardless of my views on the privatization of liquor sales, this leaves me with an icky feeling. I know, I know. It happens all the time. I’m not that naive. Show me other such blatant examples, and I will do my damnedest not to patronize those corporations either. The whole basis of the Big Box Challenge is my predisposition to being distrustful of these mega monolith businesses. Costco used their girth to get what they wanted to happen in Washington State. I don’t think they should have that kind of power. I certainly am not going to continue to put my money behind it.

Unpleasantness. I hate going to Costco. The store near my house is ridiculously crowded. So much so, that it is nearly impossible to navigate on weekends. I am not one to rearrange my schedule to get down to Costco at 11am on a Tuesday in order to beat the crowds. I don’t have that much flexibility, and even if I did I’m not going to use it just to go to Costco. If you manage to make it in the door, what is it about Costco that inspires rude behavior? The abandonment of monster carts in the middle of the isle. The blocking of key items in order to have an engrossing conversation with your partner while being completely oblivious to the line of people queuing up behind you who just want a carton eggs. It’s an inexplicable phenomenon in which perfectly reasonable people lose their sense of common courtesy upon entrance. Maybe it’s the near fisticuffs just to get in the place. I don’t know. In any case, Costco is NOT the happiest place on earth.

Mind Games. I’ve read about their marketing strategy. I know Costco doesn’t want you to be comfortable. They want to keep things bare bones. That way think you are getting a good warehouse deal, and you make impulse decisions because you want to get the heck out of there. They take it even further though. By never keeping key items in the same spot twice, they inspire a scavenger hunt mentality, in which you have to search every stinking isle for the organic sugar you’ve bought a million times before, but can suddenly no longer locate. If it’s a search, then when you actually do find it, you will be so happy, you’ll buy more. Every item feels like a quest. They also pull staple items off the market for a few months and then bring them back. Once again, creating this sense of false scarcity compelling us to buy, buy, buy! Again, Costco is not alone in this type of manipulation. For some reason though, theirs seems more transparent, and it pisses me off.

Let’s review, I pay for the privilege to fight my way into a store, so I can search high and low for items I know should be there, through the sea of other unhappy consumers on their own quest through unpleasantness. We do all this, we play their game, and they purchase elections.

Hmmm…

Maybe its not me, Costco. Maybe it’s you.

It’s become a bit of a battle between The Husband and I on who will make the trip. I prefer not to go at all. He doesn’t want to have to fight it alone. And so our trips have gotten less and less frequent. We save up lists. We look for unique window of opportunity. We put it off for as long as possible. The yucky politics? That just put me over the top. It’s not worth it to shop with a store who intentionally makes my trip unpleasant, where I never know if I’m going to find the item on my list anyway. I’m looking at this as another opportunity to cut ties with a corporate entity who does not have my best interest, or that of my community, in mind.

So, thanks Costco. Thanks using the 22 million to get what you wanted. It certainly helped me put things into perspective.

This challenge was born via my hatred for Walmart, and other similar mass retailers. As I said, I believe these businesses do not have our best interest at heart, nor that of their employees.  They do not contribute to my community or the landscape in a meaningful way. So, why would I want to give them my money?

In 2011 we started a resolution about voting with your feet and your dollars. We would not give them our money. Not a single cent. We would boy-cott the Big Box. One of our better planned exploits, really. Probably because the rules are easy.

No shopping at Big Box stores including; Walmart (duh!), Target, Best Buy, Lowes, Home Depot, and Macy’s to name just a few.

For a couple of reasons, we specified two exceptions;  Costco and Amazon.com.

I’m not going to lie, part of the rationale behind these two choices was my own convenience. I knew this was doomed to failure, if I didn’t have some sort of fall back strategy. Like it or not there are some limitations to what your local mom and pop can provide these days. Also, we had an active Costco membership, with months remaining. The frugal side of me was not about to waste that.

Beyond my selfish reasons, both of these companies are based locally. That means they don’t just provide crappy retail jobs, but well paying corporate gigs that contribute to the health of my local economy (whether I like it or not).

In addition, both have proven themselves to be leaders in their market. They are innovators, and they are at least decent corporate citizens.

Here we are. 10 months into this.

What have we discovered?

• Some categories are certainly more difficult than others. For instance hardware stores. Small True Value stores often don’t have everything you are looking for. Many of them don’t carry lumber. However, the lumber yard doesn’t carry plumbing supplies. Multiple stops are usually involved in our home improvement errands.
• Things are definitely more expensive. Things I think are going to be a $5 part, often turn out to be more like $10 or $12. This could just be my perception. More likely, these smaller shops get less discount and have more over head, so yeah, it costs more. If that little extra is going to pay a livable wage for a business person, I’m ok with that.
• We shop less. Adding this ‘limitation’ into the mix takes a lot of options off the table. We can’t just run down and grab some doodad because we have an itch. We’d have to figure out where to find it, or order it from Amazon, from a reputable seller no less. Making it just that much harder, puts things into perspective and gets the creative juices flowing. Often we brainstorm an alternative or find we don’t need it after all.
• It’s amazing the things you can find at Goodwill. Most of our housewares are now 2nd hand. From our new metal colander to a garlic press to soap making supplies. Much like hardware, housewares can be hard to find an independent alternative for. Luckily, thrift stores are usually bursting at the seems with this stuff. Not something I’d ever browsed before. It is incredibly easy to find what you are looking for, and then some. I now take the time to browse my local Goodwill for all kinds of things beyond just clothing.
• Relationships and good advice. I haven’t made any new BFFs (yet), but we’ve gotten great advice at a number of local spots from people who truly seem to care and are interested in our business. We are now recognized at a couple of these local businesses. Not sure if that’s good or bad. In general, I’m not chasing down disinterested employees to ask a simple question. I’m interacting with owners and people who know their wares. It’s refreshing.

Nothing like a divisive topic to kick off your Saturday Morning! Like politics, religion and bacon maple bars it tends to polarize people on one side of the spectrum or the other. To me, however, its a cornerstone issue.  More than I’d like, it determines how I spend my money day to day and, to some degree, alienates me from the rest of the Personal Finance World.

I hate WalMart.

There it is, folks.

I’m not talking about the atmosphere or the flourescent lights or even the inexplicable people of WalMart phenomenon. Well, it includes all that, but that I could get over. Sacrifices must be made in the quest for low low prices. And Wally-World does have low low prices. I won’t deny it. Nope, its something more.

I think WalMart is evil.

I think they are orchestrating the death of the American Landscape, both literally and figuratively. Big claims, huh? Let’s think about it. We all know they destroy small business, who simply can not compete,  and by extension, small communities. They leave behind acres of vacant real estate which can not be filled because they are the only game in town. In the community where I grew up, they moved across the freeway, so they could build a ‘super’ store. The original store has been a vacant eye sore for years. Its so big, they opened a liquor store in the parking lot. Nice.

As an employer, they are reprehensible. They simply do not provide living wage jobs in the communities they monopolize. WalMart has had more class action lawsuits than I can recall.

Then we move on to their trade practices. WalMart sells cheap, disposable goods made over-seas. This hardly makes them unique. Yet, somehow they manage to do it, just a little cheaper than most everybody else. Why do you think that is? I bet its not because they are more polite in their negotiations.

It’s not just WalMart. They may be the biggest offender. I certainly blame them for lowering the bar on  ’Corporate Citizenship’. These days, most of WalMart’s Big Box Buddies are right there in the mud with them. As a whole they lack a sense of responsibility to customers and employees.

Worse than all that, I don’t think they even care. It’s only about selling us more crap we don’t need. Crap which will quickly wear out or become obsolete, so we have to buy more crap.

All this is what you get with your low low prices. Maybe I am being naive here. I’m certainly not citing sources. I’ve probably made a sweeping generalization or two. Although, I don’t think any of this is ground breaking material. A quick Google reveals all this and more. We live in a Capitalistic society. I should get on board with the low, low price mantra that the market demands.

Honestly, I’d rather pay more.

Not everyone has that choice. But, many of us do.

Since I am still one of those fortunate few, I choose to vote with my dollars. Thus was born No Big Box Challenge 2011.