So I walk in to Costco this weekend and my jaw dropped at the huge volume of  customers but that’s not what surprised me.   The large crowd was a bit of a shocker and I considered that perhaps the economy was recovering but then I took a look at what most shoppers had in their carts.

What did they have?   Well, nearly every shopping cart had a nearly identical set of items and the thing the items all had in common were the items listed in the Costco coupon book for January.     Almost every couple, every single man or woman trolling the aisles at Costco had that little Costco coupon book people get in the mail.    It seems people were loading up on items that had $2 or $3 dollar off coupons.

The store employees were busy moving forklifts to bring new palettes of items that were on the coupon list.   Paper plates, laundry detergent, tissue paper and paper towels were in almost every cart.    What wasn’t in most shopping carts?  Expensive meats or large quantities of canned goods or other perishable items.   I can surmise that people are bulking up on non-perishable essentials that were on sale at Costco.

Not coincidentally, I had my own little coupon book and stocked up on similar items except I did buy some meats and poultry for my Atkins diet.   I did see one guy put three, yes THREE LCD TV’s into his cart but that was about the only excess I saw.    The other item I saw people were snapping up were rugs.  The rugs are $30 off and on sale for about $119 and it made sense since people are likely buying it as a cheap way to cheap their floors warm this brutal winter.

In the many years of shopping at Costco, I have NEVER seen so many people using the little coupon book nor stocking up on bulk items in the manner that I saw them today.   Unfortunately for Costco, this is going to erode margins at the retail level if customers are only buying items that are heavily discounted.