The Adventure of Costco Shopping

The other day I made my monthly trip to Costco. If you have ever shopped at Costco (or any other warehouse-type store) you know how much fun it can be.

First of all, parking. I have never been to Costco when it is not busy, so finding parking is always a challenge. But I can usually find a spot within sight of the front door. That doesn't mean close to the front door, just within sight of it.

Then, I grab a cart, flash my little card at the greeter, and I'm ready to shop. Of course, due to poor planning, I am once again arriving just before lunch time and getting hungry. Fortunately, there are a plethora of free samples available.

I head down the first aisle which now contains chips. A few months ago, it contained toothbrushes. Before that, it was diapers. I guess they like to rearrange things now and then to keep us on our toes.

I soon have a cartload of gigantic packages of random items: peanut butter, chips, candy, bottled water, frozen pizza, and toilet paper. I check my list and make sure I haven't forgotten anything, because if I have, it means walking the equivalent of four city blocks to go back and get it. I have also gotten my fill of free samples: English muffin, meatball, potato chip with dip, and cheesecake for dessert. Who needs lunch?

To the self checkout. Scan the items one by one. Hope that the conveyor belt doesn't get too overloaded. But it does. Rearrange everything and continue. As I scan, a computerized female voice shares each price with everyone standing nearby. How nice of her. Get my total. Swipe my card. Get my receipt.

Now I have to hurry and load it all back into my cart before the person behind me gets their stuff mixed up with mine. Finally, after someone checks my receipt and I'm out the door.

Loading the stuff into my car can be tricky. If the sun is shining, I have to make sure the chocolate items are not on top. Otherwise, the sun shines on them all the way down the highway and melts the chocolate. (I'm serious. That happened once.) So I play Tetris with the groceries trying to get them all in the back of my car in nice neat stacks.

When I finally arrive home, I then have the enjoyable task of lugging everything into the house except for the items that go straight into the chest freezer. Then I rearrange the pantry and the fridge a couple times to make room for all the stuff.

Finally, I'm done! And it was so worth it because I saved...Well, I don't know exactly how much money I saved, but I know I saved some. So it was totally worth it!

Now all I have to do is forget how "fun" it was before I go again next month.