Costco Will Close for Thanksgiving

[JaneyVee]

Costco Will Close for Thanksgiving: Employees ‘Deserve The Opportunity to Spend Thanksgiving with Their Families’

Bucking the incredibly lucrative trend for retailers to stay open during Thanksgiving, bulk food utopia Costco has announced that they would stay closed during the holiday, which is seriously blowing our minds with its lunacy.

According to the Huffington Post, Costco is trying out this weird, newfangled idea of giving their workers time off on a national holiday. Why, you ask? Why not squeeze an extra shopping day out of the holiday season? Why deprive America of a 300-pack of paper napkins and a sack of dried cranberries on the day that people need it most? Why, why, why?!

“Our employees work especially hard during the holiday season, and we simply believe that they deserve the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with their families,” Paul Latham, the company’s vice president for membership and marketing, wrote in an email to The Huffington Post. “Nothing more complicated than that.”

Oh, this is preposterous, Paul Latham. Costco believes that Thanksgiving is a time for people to rest and give thanks for simple blessings in their lives like families and friends? Psh. That’s so silly. Almost as silly as paying employees competitive wages and providing 401ks. Costco, you jokers.

The rest: http://www.thebraiser.com/costcos-closed-for-thanksgiving/

[dembotoz]

1. as they always have

my always favorite store

[freshwest]

13. Ditto on both. I don't know why this is supposed to be news, but it's a comparison to others.

[pnwmom]

81. They're bucking the trend. That's why it's news. n/t

[freshwest]

84. Agreed. Just not new with them. And the trend must be bucked! n/t

[leftstreet]

2. I won't shop at any store that closes on Thanksgiving

[Wait Wut]

6. ...

No leftovers for you.

[daleanime]

18. And I won't.....

at any that opens on Thanksgiving.

[MissDeeds]

23. Same here

Pure greed. And I'm sick of seeing Christmas items displayed alongside Halloween stuff. Really - wth? Before long, we'll see Santa next to the Easter bunny. Sheesh!

[Lizzie Poppet]

45. I have the same problem with early Christmas stuff.

Walking past Nordstrom in downtown Portland this morning, I noticed that all their display windows had a sign explaining why they won't be putting any Christmas decorations up until the 29th of November. It said they prefer to celebrate one holiday at a time, and that they'll be closed on Thanksgiving so that their employees can enjoy it...then will "deck the halls" the day after.

[LuckyLib]

47. Saw that as well. Sanity. As opposed to some retailers who have holiday junk out before Halloween.

[HubertHeaver]

51. You say holiday "junk"?

It really is junk. It is the stuff they couldn't get rid of a year ago. Or was it two or even three years ago?

[Blue_Roses]

94. wow! that's awesome!

[JI7]

63. Christmas items are in stores almost half the year now when you consider how early they start and

the after christmas clearance sales .

[Blue_Roses]

96. it's nuts!

I don't remember these holidays being so close together when I was a kid. Who put the earth on fast-forward?

Nothing like buying your Halloween clearance items, while shopping for Christmas decorations.

[pstokely]

108. If you need candy, you can just buy leftover Halloween packs instead of the holiday packs

same candy

[Bigredhunk]

102. In All Fairness...

I read the reason for the early holiday stuff @ Costco in the Costco newsletter a year ago. Costco has low prices and great customer service b/c they're very savvy.

1) Holiday stuff is out before the holidays so that they can avoid having closeouts/clearance stuff. That costs companies $$. Their prices go up - your prices go up. So they have Christmas stuff out in September (or whenever) and stop selling it well before Christmas. That way they're not stuck with a bunch of Christmas stuff (that they have to heavily discount to move) on 12/26.

2) When they're made aware of an upcoming price increase for a product, they buy an excess of it at the old price. That way they can keep their current (lower) price longer (or permanently, if they can weather the storm until the price goes back down).

[pstokely]

107. I'm also tied if seeing crayons in June

[AtheistCrusader]

22. If you did, it would be 'breaking and entering'...

[Xipe Totec]

27. On Thanksgiving I do the same thing. nt

[nikto]

69. I absolutely refuse to shop...

In ANY store that is closed.

[SoCalDem]

110. So.. YOU are the one racing to the store for the jellied canned cranberry sauce

you forgot to buy :

[liberal N proud]

3. That is great news for their employees and families.

Wal-Mart and K-Mart have done a fine job of destroying the holiday for many. Thanksgiving is the new Black Friday with Wal-Mart taking the wraps of the bait at 6:00 PM meaning people will start lining up at 8:00 AM on Thanksgiving Day, pass the turkey.

[progressoid]

19. And Target and Best Buy and Old Navy and Pennys and ToysRus and Macy's and Kohls and ...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/11/open-on-thanksgiving-2013_n_4254974.html

[erpowers]

61. Blame It On the Customers

Yes, it is bad that Wal-Mart and other stores will open on Thanksgiving. However, they would not do so if no one would show up on Thanksgiving, or if they knew there would be a backlash for them opening on Thanksgiving.

People who are opposed to stores opening on Thanksgiving should write letters to the stores informing them that those people will not longer shop at the stores due to their decision to open on Thanksgiving. They then need to follow through and not shop at those stores. Store owners would close on Thanksgiving if they knew they would lose more money after Thanksgiving than they would gain on that day.

[fasttense]

113. But corporations have so carefully taught us that our reward for working

their crappy, crappy jobs is shopping. We have become addicted to shopping. We must have access to our fix 24/7.

Are most of those people who go out to Wal-Mart to fight over 1 flat screen TV enjoying themselves? I find shopping hard work. After working 6 days a week I don't look forward to spending my day off shopping.

Yet no matter when corporations decide to open their retail stores, they get customers. And it's all because we have been taught that shopping is our reward, our one piece of life where we decide, where we are in control. Our jobs are drone like and boring but then we earn money and can shop.

Next up, Stores will be open for Christmas.

[erpowers]

119. Maybe

When I was writing my previous post, I thought about whether stores would be open on Christmas. Maybe that will happen, but I thought the store owners would get into too much trouble for opening on that holiday. It seems that there will be too much outrage if stores opened on Christmas, but we will have to wait and see what will happen. You never know, maybe opening on Thanksgiving is just a test to see how hard it would be to open on Christmas. In addition, maybe the store owners plan to blame the customers for their stores being open on that holiday.

Do you think poor pay also has something to do with people being willing to shop on Thanksgiving? Some electronic items, on a normal day, are expensive. It seems that some of these items are hard for some regular workers to afford. If these items' prices are deeply discounted on only one day a year or only for four hours on one day a year maybe workers are willing to shop on Thanksgiving in order to afford items that they would otherwise be unable to afford.

[alp227]

73. You know what's really messed up? People SAY they're "PRO FAMILY"

(y'know, fighting FOR GOD and against THE GAYS, THE BABY KILLERS, THE ATHEISTS, THE LIBERAL MEDIA, COMMIE HOLLYWOOD, THE FEMINISTS...) but then shop at these anti-family, anti-worker, anti-American, China-enabling multinational monsters!

[benld74]

4. Thank You COSTCO

[MANative]

5. I love Costco in general. This decision adds to the list of reasons. n/t

[Brainstormy]

9. Exactly what I was thinking

[kcr]

7. Costco is awesome.

I'm not surprised to hear this.

[HappyMe]

8. Okay.

I don't shop there anyway. It's too damn far away.

[SheilaT]

10. The other thing that makes absolutely no sense

about this new rush on the part of retailers to be open Thanksgiving, is that for many years now -- twenty or more -- I've read that "Black Friday" is NOT the day that most sales take place, and that in fact many more people are simply looking around than are buying.

For three or four years back in the '90's I went out with my sister on the day after Thanksgiving. It simply wasn't any fun, and I wasn't ever in the market for the six giant screen TVs or the eight specific gaming systems that were on huge markdown that day. I also apparently spend a whole lot less money overall for Christmas than do many people, so there is really no point for me to shop that day.

Plus, I'm feeling especially virtuous this year because I have most of my Christmas shopping already done.

Anyway, good for Costco. I just wish we had one here in Santa Fe. We have two WalMarts and a Sam's Club, none of which I ever go to. There's a Costco in Albuquerque, but I just am not a good enough consumer to go to Albuquerque very often to shop.

[SoapBox]

11. Bravo for them!

But then you have all the idiots that will take their out-of-control brats and the slack-jawed-phone-staring-zombie wife/husband/partner, to shop at those crap stores.

[Vashta Nerada]

12. This should be standard in the retail business.

But the rest of the retail outlets are greedy and want to make the $$$.

[Logical]

21. And people, including me, want to shop! nt

[Vashta Nerada]

48. Way to be a part of the problem.

Can't you shop the day after Thanksgiving?

Retail employees deserve to spend time with their families on Thanksgiving.

[Logical]

56. Amazon is open 24/7, rather me shop there? n-t

[Gravitycollapse]

67. Are you kidding me? Are you threatening companies who want their workers to be with family?

Are you fucking joking?

Go ahead, go shop at Amazon. I don't think a single moral person would give a shit. So go ahead, taunt those who cherish loved ones more than profit. Excuse me while I go vomit.

[Logical]

74. So every business should be closed Thanksgiving day? Gas stations? Grocery stores? n-t

[Gravitycollapse]

76. Anything you can pick up from Amazon is not an emergency item.

So basically your disgusting, and they are disgusting, comments amount to you talking about how you want to fuck over ethical companies for not being open so you can buy that 20 pack of hip flasks or 500 dollar headphones you so desperately need RIGHT NOW.

Don't feed me your BS and don't for a second think I'm interested in letting you move the goal posts.

[Logical]

77. You know people want to shop on Thanksgiving right? And some people want the hours to work? OK....

would you want a law passed to stop businesses from being open?

And you have a temper problem.

[Gravitycollapse]

79. No, I have a problem with your utterly deplorable rhetoric.

Those goal posts are firmly planted.

That you would think it was tasteful in ANY capacity to jokingly or seriously suggest threatening ethical businesses by going to Amazon is unquestionably telling of your disrespect towards the worker.

That there are more people like you gives absolutely zero credence to your position.

[Logical]

82. Here is what makes you look silly.....

And you fell for it.....

Costco sells food and gas! Essentials according to you.

But you want them closed?

[Gravitycollapse]

83. "Essentials according to you." - Never said anything of the sort. Those goal posts are staying put.

And you should be ashamed of yourself.

[Logical]

86. LOL, You called them "emergency items", maybe nap time for you! n-t

[Gravitycollapse]

87. Bullshit, now you're boldface lying? Figures.

I said anything you can pick up on Amazon is not an emergency item. I said nothing of what would be considered emergency items.

Again, I want to keep this entire discussion firmly planted on your disgusting words. And they were truly disgusting.

[Luminous Animal]

89. Yes. All non-emergency businesses should be closed.

[Vashta Nerada]

93. Agreed.

[fasttense]

112. Yeah even gas stations and quickie marts use to be closed EVERY Sunday

Now people act as if they will die if they can't get their consumer fix 24/7.

When I was growing up NO STORES were open on Sunday, every Sunday. No Gas Stations, No corner markets, no quickie marts, nothing was open on Sundays and No One died, or got into trouble or suffered from it. The drug stores did take turns being open on Sundays for medicine, but aside from that, no other stores were open. We planned ahead and used what we had at hand. And everyone relaxed on Sunday.

[yesphan]

118. I can remember

when they used to be.

[diabeticman]

14. I wish we had a Costco in the town I live in. As always this company does the right thing.

[ReRe]

15. K&R

Well, lo and behold, common sense is beginning to make sense again! It's a good day in America, at least for all of Costco employees and their families. Hell, it's a good day for me too, as I love it when I observe old-fashioned common sense raise it's pretty face.

[freshwest]

16. COSTCO has always been closed here for Thanksgiving and Christmas, as are most restaurants. But then

I live in a union-friendly area, where this is matter of course.

I am disgusted at what WalMart, etc. are brazenly doing to their employees and the wingnuts who don't support living wages and conditions for others, just because they've been brainwashed to believe it's a socialist thing to do.

FYI bosses: Your workers are not robots, and robots wouldn't buy your stuff.

[sabrina 1]

17. Costco should be the model for businesses. And as far as I know, paying their employees

a decent salary and treating them like human beings, hasn't stopped them from being one of the most successful businesses in this country.

I wish we had here but am willing to travel to the nearest one rather than shop at Walmart, who is the model for what a business should NOT be.

[suffragette]

103. Yes, and their simple decency to their workers leads to loyalty from them

Yet Wall Street downgrades them based in the very factors that make Costco both successful and a great example. Wall Street has been trying for years to get them to adopt cut throat business practices by lowering their rating of them. Costco instead keeps its values and system and does very well, despite Wall Street.
Costco even made the decision during the recession not to lay off workers. They weren't hiring, but they made cuts elsewhere instead of cutting workers. Wall Street fumed. Costco and its workers came through fine and the customers were still well served.
I think this speaks strongly to real values versus false valuation.

[sabrina 1]

105. I didn't know Wall St was downgrading them. But they do seem to go after anyone who

contradicts their cut throat business practices and by succeeding as a decent business that respects human beings, shows them up for what they are. They fear that the people will see the contrast, a model they want eradicated, between their brutal business tactics and a moral, ethical and decent business. It might give people ideas.

Not surprised either that they did not fire people during the recession.

Hi suffragette nice to see you

[suffragette]

106. Yes, they've been trying to pressure them to cut wages and health care for years

They devalue them and constantly note they "miss analyst expectations" when they actually do very well.

Here, from a post I made in 2010:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8769829&mesg_id=8770550
Wall Street and Costco are a good example. There have been many articles on how Wall Street has repeatedly put pressure on Costco to change its policies to ones that favor share holders over employees. Their valuation of Costco has more to do with Wall Street's callous view on how companies should be run than on Costco's success.

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Business/story?id=1362779
Sinegal admits that "paying high wages is contrary to conventional wisdom."

And conventional wisdom in this case comes from Wall Street. Analysts seem to be the only critics of Costco and Sinegal. They think the company could make even more money if it paid its workers less -- like Wal-Mart does.

Sinegal is unfazed by his critics. "Wall Street is in the business of making money between now and next Tuesday," he said. "We're in the business of building an organization, an institution that we hope will be here 50 years from now. And paying good wages and keeping your people working with you is very good business."

What Sinegal has proven is that a company doesn't have to be ruthless. Being humane and ethical can also make you money.




More recent 2013 news, same process:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/06/richard-galanti-wages_n_3396101.html

What’s more, Costco has continued to pay its workers decently even in the face of pressure to stop. Ever since the company went public in 1985, Wall Street investors have urged Costco executives to lower wages and cut health benefits, which are also relatively generous, according to Businessweek. Instead, the company’s former CEO and co-founder gave workers a raise every three years.

Great article here from 2005, worth a full read:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/17/business/yourmoney/17costco.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

It's also very powerful that even with Sinegal retiring, the philosophy has stayed the same.

Great to see you, too

[sabrina 1]

122. Fantastic post, suffragette. Thank you for all the information. I love this guy, completely

unfazed by Wall St. I wish there more like him, with the convictions and the courage to stand up and PROVE what compassionless, monsters these people are. So scared too that they will be exposed for the frauds they are by a Corporation who is simply being fair to his employees. When being fair to human beings becomes so rare that Costco stands out in this country, surely it's time to revue this whole 'system' we are living under?

[beachbum bob]

20. simple solution for the businesses that want to be open on T-Day

don't go shopping....also solution for black friday early morning insanity.

[Gothmog]

24. I love Costco

This company cares about its employees

[Myrina]

25. Lovely but I'm still not a member.

No way on God's Green Earth I would ever have a need for bulk peanut butter or a 300-pack of TP.
Not to mention no place to put it.

[tridim]

29. You have no idea what you're missing.

I'm single and live in a small apartment and easily make Costco work.

And their TP is amazing.

[Myrina]

37. I have friends w/ kids who are members

.... and it works for them, but I just don't see a way it could work for me. I'm one of those folks who essentially shops on my way home from work for what I'm having for dinner. And I don't often buy furniture, electronics etc.


To each their own.

[chillfactor]

39. same here....

I live alone and survive mostly on social security...the money I save on items that last me for months is truly amazing!

[IronLionZion]

111. How does it work?

Do you buy stuff in bulk and store it all year?

[tridim]

115. Bulk isn't as large as you think.

I'd say 90% of the stuff there is the same size as you get in any store. The only thing I don't really buy there is produce because it does go bad before I can eat it.

And then there are random specials like $19.00 Calvin Klein jeans that are just a single pair of jeans at about an 80% discount.

[Skittles]

34. I just give money to my Cosco member coworkers to buy me the occasional bargain

otherwise, meh

[HappyMe]

38. Thank you.

I don't have the room for massive amounts of TP or the need for that many jars of anything.

We would have to drive about 45mins to an hour to get there. It's not worth the gas either.

[chillfactor]

40. I drive that 45 minutes to an hour to shop at Costco....

and the drive is worth it! I find room for extra supplies.....it is worth my time and gas money....

[HappyMe]

44. That's good.

I find it's just not worth my time, and I don't have the room or the need for a ton of stuff.

[kcr]

52. I can understand why it isn't for everyone

But yep, I'd drive a long way if I had to. Not all bulk stores are the same. I was never really into them back when I'd only ever been to Sam's Club. I wish we'd had Costco when my kids were babies.

[Piedras]

59. Costco eyeglasses

Eyeglasses from Costco are much more affordable than from just about any place else. That savings, all by itself, makes their membership worth it to me. Savings on other things add to the savings bonus. Costco is about 10 minutes away and very tempting. Good on them to stay closed on Thanksgiving.

[PasadenaTrudy]

54. I buy clothing there

Gloria Vanderbilt jeans. They are $15, fit well, and last.

[nikto]

70. People who buy 300 rolls of toilet paper in bulk-packages...

Must be full of shit.










I know this from personal experience.

[xchrom]

26. awesome. nt

[xchrom]

28. Costco, Nordstrom Refuse To Ruin Thanksgiving

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/13/costco-thanksgiving_n_4262774.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009&ir=Technology

If you make a last-minute run to Costco on Thanksgiving Day, you'll be out of luck. The discount retailer is bucking the hot trend in retail: kicking off the holiday shopping season before the turkey is even out of the oven.

"Our employees work especially hard during the holiday season, and we simply believe that they deserve the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with their families," Paul Latham, the company's vice president for membership and marketing, wrote in an email to The Huffington Post. "Nothing more complicated than that."

While Walmart, Kmart, Target and others grab headlines for starting the holiday shopping season on Thanksgiving Day, Costco and a few others are standing out for their commitment to a national day off.

“Maybe call me old-fashioned, but I feel that it’s an easy decision to make [to stay closed on Thanksgiving],” Laura Sen, the CEO of BJ’s Wholesale Club, told HuffPost. Her company’s 201 stores are staying closed on Thanksgiving Day. The company tried out a Thanksgiving Day opening in 2006, and shoppers just didn’t respond, she said. And staying closed that day means workers will get the “nice holiday with their families” that they deserve, Sen added.

[LuvNewcastle]

30. I don't know about anybody else, but I don't have so much money that

I need Thanksgiving on top of the whole month of the holiday season to fit in all my Christmas shopping. Anybody here think you won't accomplish all your shopping without that extra day?

[mtasselin]

31. Great

I live in the UP and have to drive to Green Bay for the closest Costco, Thank you Costco!!!!!!!!!!

[Skittles]

32. my work environment is 24 X 7, every day of the year

we can swap shifts which I have often done as a single gal to accommodate people with kids but there ARE plenty of people who work ALL holidays

but if you CAN let your people off you SHOULD

[uppityperson]

43. Mine has been also, indeed and exactly.

[Skittles]

53. when we rotated I always swapped away my weekends for coworkers with kids

gawd how they loved me for that

[Dopers_Greed]

33. K&R

I don't shop there because I don't need big-ass quantities of food. But this makes me want to get a membership.

[wilt the stilt]

36. there is way more than food there

all of their items are of excellent quality. if you buy a chair or a briefcase or anything that is "kirkland" which is their store brand you can't go wrong.

[chillfactor]

41. amen...Kirkland products are truly worth every penny! n/t

[dflprincess]

71. I'm single and have a small apartment

so not only do I not need large quantities of food I don't have room for large quanities of things like paper towels - but with what I save on items like Centrum, Advil, & face creams and the membership more than pays for itself.

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

35. Well done.

[FatBuddy]

42. If you shop on Thanksgiving

You're part of the problem.

[Initech]

46. Teh horror!!!!!1!111!

Gotta make those precious billions! Glad Costco is breaking the madness!

[NightWatcher]

49. But what if I need a 55 gallon drum of mayo on Turkey Day???

[NewJeffCT]

50. Meanwhile, KMart will open at 6am Thanksgiving morning

and Wal-Mart is opening 2 hours earlier than last year on Thanksgiving evening (6pm this year, vs 8pm last year)

[WorseBeforeBetter]

75. Holy shit...6 AM on Thanksgiving?!

At least Macy's isn't opening until 8 PM, so employees could enjoy a nice meal somewhere.

[NewJeffCT]

109. Yes, and KMart will be staying open

41 hours straight.

[Rex]

55. Repukes hate Costco and are told to shop at Wal Mart and avoid Costco.

NT.

[HijackedLabel]

57. Costco CEO W. Craig Jelinek is a great progressive.

And someone I wish more business leaders would model themselves after.

[Arneoker]

58. Carry on folks!

In fighting those who are making the REAL war on Thanksgiving, and on Christmas! But I'm sure that Sarah Palin mentions this disgusting over-commercialization in her book. Next time anyone talks to one of her fans just ask where in the book she talks about it and what she says. And of course Bill O'Reilly, that stalwart of integrity, must be on the case here too!

[rudolph the red]

60. Good for them!

[vt_native]

62. Costco is a good corporate citizen

That's why I shop there, I wish they'd dump GMO food products, though.

[YOHABLO]

64. Costco is a leader .. in taking care of their employees ..

There is no Costco near my house .. I would have to drive about 40 miles to get to one. However, There are 5 Walmarts and a Sams Club within a 10 mile range of my house. I hate Walmart and there merchandise sucks.

[Walk away]

65. I was there today and they posted all of the holidays they were closed...

on a large sign on the front of the store. My first thought was "what a great company".

[Dustlawyer]

66. If they ever open one in my hometown I will definetely patronize their store!

Walmart gave their suppliers incentive to outsource their labor to other countries. Now they sell Chinese products and almost none from the good ol' US of A. Walmart used to advertise American made products with "Pride!" Now that Sam is dead his kids sold out!

[nikto]

68. This goes against the most sacred corporate values

CostCo is committing a sin against Corporations and wealthy stockholders.

[Arkansaw]

72. Sam's Club closes on Thanksgiving too

New Year's Day: Closed

Easter: Closed

Memorial Day: 7 a.m. - 6 p.m.
All Members

Fourth of July: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
All Members

Labor Day: 7 a.m. - 6 p.m.
All Members

Thanksgiving: Closed

Christmas: Closed

[Gravitycollapse]

80. Yes, but Sam's Club is a subsidiary of Walmart.

[gopiscrap]

85. welcome to DU

[JEFF9K]

78. Costco will be repaid for its good policies.

Hopefully, they will be widely publicized.

[brewens]

88. I remember when one guy in town kept his store open on holidays. He was busy

but back then 99% of the people knew to buy all their stuff ahead of time, knowing everything would be closed. The other little stores in town didn't freak out knowing Dick was making all the money that day. He was a great old guy. A B-17 crewman that survived his 25 missions during the worst of the air war against Germany. All other stores just left it alone and let their people have the day off. You only had to work at the local mill if you had a job there. Of course at like double-time holiday pay, you didn't hear anyone complaining much.

I had my first job as a boxboy at 16 when we started the race to the bottom. I worked for Buttreys, a regional grocery store chain in the northwest. Believe it or not I was union too. They had to pay me overtime for anything over 20 hours and holidays. I remember when our local Safeway stores went from closing at nine to closing at ten and we followed suit. No one could believe it. Why? Back then everyone could get their shopping done by nine. It seemed senseless but Circle K convenience stores had started popping up and were open until 11. Evidently the big bosses felt they might miss out. That was 1978 I believe. That extra hour really screwed the married people. That made a big difference.

In 1978, when you went Christmas shopping, I'd bet 80% of that money you spent stayed in town. You went to school with the kids who's dad owned the shop where your dad might have bought the new TV or whatever. Places like that stayed open until six or seven to catch the 9-5 peoples business, maybe they went until nine for the holiday season.

Back then a man or woman working at a hardware store or grocery store made good money. Not as much as the mill workers but close enough that you were glad to keep your day job and not have the shift work hours.

What price are we paying for the "convenience" of being able to shop 24/7 now? Every time we made a step in that direction, we stuck people working late hours to provide it. That seemed great at the time but now for some of us, it's us working in the middle of the night.

Remember when you went shopping and the stock clerks were in the isles working? They could tell you where anything in that store was. Now those guys are graveyard workers. I went into an old mid sized grocery store, owned and managed by a guy named Don Whipple recently. That's right. Mr. Whipple! I went around the corner into an isle and there were two guys in aprons there stocking. I said, "Alright! That's what I like to see! Old-school grocery guys working an isle!" No freaking night crew there all night stocking that place!

Remember traveling and knowing you probably couldn't even get gas on a Sunday? What was so wrong with that? So you planned your trip around it and damn well made sure you had plenty of smokes to get you through until Monday!

It really never had to go the way it is now. How much of the money you spend now goes right out of your town to people you will never meet? Blame it on cutthroat competition and capitalism but we also helped.

[Gravitycollapse]

91. "They could tell you where anything in that store was." - I do that every day I work.

I can tell you where almost any item is in my store and I work at a national drugstore chain with literally 20,000 items on the shelves.

[brewens]

97. I bet you're good but are all the others? Do you have checkers flying by the seat of their pants

that know all the prices? We had checkers that only had to look to make sure on some items they didn't see often to ring them up. No scanners back in the day.

I go into Home Depot and I swear that if I actually look at an employee like I have a question, they turn around and go the other way!

[Gravitycollapse]

98. All of my managers know the store top to bottom.

Not everyone else is so good. Although we are unique in that about 90% of our waged employees are university students and we are all fairly hard working. That's not often true for most places who pay their employees next to nothing.

I certainly earn my measly 8.92 an hour.

[brewens]

100. Good God! I get twice that driving a freakin' bus for a blood center! I'm not rubbing it in,

just commenting that I'd bet my next check that you generate more in profit for your company in an hour than I could ever dream of. You'd have to. In between driving I sit somewhere at a university waiting for a couple more babes to come up and register to donate. Yeah, I have a CDL and have some training but there really is no justice.

[klook]

90. Logged in just to rec this.

And just to thank Costco, I will go there before Thanksgiving and buy two 15-lb. butterball turkeys taped together.

[Half-Century Man]

92. Wish there was a Costco in Rockford, Beloit, or Janesville.

Some day.

[valerief]

95. Bravo, how very, very civilized. nt

[JeaneRaye]

99. War on Thanksgiving

Bill O'Reilly has been ranting and raving about the war on Christmas for forever now. I keep waiting for him to recognize that the war is actually on Thanksgiving. Thank goodness for Costco and other retailers who respect this holiday and their employees who want to spend time with their families. I will not be shopping on Thanksgiving Day and I call for others to do the same.

[BlueStreak]

101. They have shorter hours than other stores. Doesn't hurt them one bit.

I swear, every time I have gone there, any time during their business hours, even in the worst weather, the parking lot and store are PACKED. They have the right system. Great employees. Great products. Great company ethic. They cut costs aggressively in areas that don't hurt employees, suppliers, or product quality. For example, they simply don't accept credit cards, which cost the merchant more than debit cards. They don't provide bags -- you bring your own or else use the boxes that are usually available.

Then some little things. The milk is offered in cube-shaped containers that take up less space in trucks, the store refrigerators, and also in your refrigerator at home. They really think through the little things.

Mitt Romney got a few smirks when he commented about the quality of their dress shirts, but they really are good, and usually something like $17 for a shirt that would easily be $50 at any department store.

There aren't very many businesses that I actually feel good about when I walk in.

[Bigredhunk]

104. My Favorite Store On The Planet

We've been members since '01. We didn't have 1 in our state until 2004, and even then it was almost 250 miles away. We used to go drive 350 miles to Minneapolis for a weekend…load up at Costco…drive home.

My only gripe is that they don't build enough of them in enough places. For example, they're opening 150 new warehouses over the next few years. Unfortunately, almost all of them are where they already have warehouses. They build more locations to handle spillover from busy stores rather than building one where none exist. Our closest warehouse is 100 miles away. It's a 2-hour drive. We're members. We shop there. But we're lucky if we can get to a warehouse every 6-8 weeks, on average.

As to those single people (or those with small families) who think they don't need a pallet of whatever product - it's very easy to make Costco for you. Everything isn't a 300-count of something. Most of what we buy there is food & supplies. For example, they sell a 64 oz container of Mountain High plain low fat organic yogurt for under $4. Try to get any kind of organic yogurt in any amount and see how much you pay. A) It's good for you, not like that sugar-filled (or chemical-filled) crap like Yoplait. As far as being able to eat that much, it's a cup of yogurt for 8 days. You just put it in your own reusable containers (or in our case, a smoothie every day). The "use by" date is often about a month out, so it's not going bad if you eat yogurt at all. It's better for the environment too, as you're not using 1-off packages. Our disposable culture is terrible. Use a bottle of water, pitch it (recycle it if lucky). Use a little container of yogurt, pitch it (recycle it if lucky). Big containers are much better. Anyway, there are a ton of staples we buy there, and none of it goes bad.

[TxDemChem]

114. I love Costco.

While other companies try to milk their employees for everything they have, Costco refuses. Take that Walmart!

[In_The_Wind]

116. Costso and their employees are great.

I always enjoyed shopping there.

[hue]

117. Costco is enacting policies that demonstrate respect for family traditions & strength of character!

[jmowreader]

120. Costco is closed on seven holidays

They close New Year's Day, Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

[the_sly_pig]

121. As well they should. nt