Wed 28 Oct 2009
Say It Ain’t So Costco – Foodstamps?
Posted by RichSlick under Observations, Rants
[10] Comments
According to the , Costco will begin to accept food stamps and I’m confused. First, you need to pay a membership fee to be inside a Costco so who would be using food stamps there? The last bastion of rift-raff free shopping is coming to an end! I’m so disappointed by this that I don’t know what I’m going to do. While the WSJ articles claims that membership rose after accepting the food stamps, it’s only a matter of time before it suffers the “Wal-mart effect” of attracting the dregs of society and pushing away the more affluent customer.
It seems Costco has become yet another company accepting short term gains by sacrificing long term customers. I can already envision that same lady I see at the grocery store and the rare time I shop at a Wal-mart arguing with the cashier, “what ya mean dis cu’pon not good?” and of course the classic, “how much is it? ok, put that back, how much is it now? Ok, put that back, how much is it now?” routine.
Hey Costco, here’s what you can expect:
1. Dirty filthy isles.
2. Dirty filthy parking lots as people change their kids diapers (and car motor oil) and leave all the garbage behind. Along with open bottles, wrappers and a variety of other garbage.
3. A bunch of opened, half-eaten packages of whatever.
4. Lots of arguing at the checkout lane with the cashiers.
5. Lots of time wasted at the check out lane as frustrated shoppers roll their eyes while they wait for the drama to be over.
6. Lots of left over items sitting at the check out lane as shoppers run out of food stamp money.
7. Eventually, crime will come to the parking lot and that will be the straw that breaks the Costco prestige and descent into the abyss.
This is what I’ve seen happen to almost every Wal-mart within a 10 mile radius of my home along with some of the grocery stores. I guess Costco can’t wait to join the club.
10 Responses to “ Say It Ain’t So Costco – Foodstamps? ”
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September 1st, 2010 at 8:07 am[...] Rich Quick = Get Rich Slick. If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Back in October of 2009, I wrote about my dismay that Costco would start accepting food stamps and what that possibly might [...]
October 28th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
This post appalls me. You have just lost a subscriber.
Think about what you said and who reads it.
October 28th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
It’s impossible to go through life without ever offending someone. On any given day, rest assured, I’m offended by something but I don’t run away from it.
October 29th, 2009 at 6:19 am
Been a while since I posted anything, but yeah. I think you are being an elitist ass dude. First off, I don’t like how you think you are too good to shop with the ‘commoners’, but even worse, the thesis of your post is wrong. You are again taking a slippery slope approach to things where you assume it will become like the absolute worst shopping place (Wal-Mart) because of a relatively small change. I doubt most people on food stamps are going to be willing to pay for the membership when they could go to their precious Wally World anyway. It is the same over-exaggeration and panicing that I hated in posts about double digit inflation back in 2007.
Hire a personal shopper if you don’t like being out with the “riff-raff”.
October 29th, 2009 at 7:09 am
I’m right with ya on this one. I have yet to see a “nice” Walmart that gets anywhere near as nice as a Costco. I guess all we can do now is wait until the Costco shoppers start looking like the nice folks on this site……www.peopleofwalmart.com…..
Keep up the great blogging
October 29th, 2009 at 11:38 am
If Costco looses a few customers like you over this it will hardly affect their bottom line. If you think about it there are more people on food stamps or who don’t agree with your line of thinking so from a numbers stand point there is now way this is a bad move.
October 29th, 2009 at 11:41 am
Consider that many people who could afford to pay the membership previously can probably qualify for food stamps now. Honestly I could get food stamps if I wanted. I am personally opposed to it, but I don’t really hold it against anyone who does. I am probably the cleanest cut guy you will ever see, and MANY poor people are as well. Most of the poor people I know are High IQ, clean, and have no criminal issues.
As many people have become dependent on the corporate employee philosophy ( being a good employee to move up the ladder, being a conformist,etc) advocated by this site ( at least in the past), I wouldn’t be surprised if many find themselves poor and helpless after a job loss.
Sure you might have some chronic poor joining Costco to use food stamps. It might make sense. Even with a membership fee, they can get deals on food. However, how many Costco members ( such an elite group, I’m sure) are 1 job loss or other incident from the poor house and using food stamps themselves? Probably most.
I am not offended by anything. I have always been poor but still enjoyed your site. Even when it was ” only for people with income of $105,000 or more.” I will probably always be poor due to social circumstances ( being intelligent, clean cut, and crime free does NOT really go a long way), but I agree with many of your opinions.
Negative reaction to this post might have something to do with your recent tendency to post “less elitist” things. Since your own job loss and changes in the economy your posts have been a little less snobby in tone. It seemed like you could relate more to people who didn’t have an easy time landing six figures and so on. You even had a recent post that was in favor of limiting executive pay. Then out of nowhere you have a “dirty food stamp user” rant.
October 29th, 2009 at 11:49 am
It brings me such pleasure to read your post about ‘riff-raff’ knowing that you probably think you spelled ‘isles’ correctly. Oh, and that you believe that the phrase ‘their kids diapers’ doesn’t require an apostrophe somewhere. Hahahaaa.. Regular Costco shoppers will probably consider the sight of customers bearing food stamps a step up if they’ve recently seen you carting your super-size ego through the ‘isles.’ Humility much?
October 29th, 2009 at 11:51 am
Also, I use coupons and proper English. I don’t see how using a coupon ( which is probably good but doesn’t work for some reason or the cashier doesn’t know how) is equivalent to food stamps or rudeness/lack of verbal communication skills. Wal Mart also tends to have things marked with the wrong prices or in the wrong place. Most people expect to pay a certain price.
The last person I saw arguing a price in Wal-mart was a middle aged white lady who looked upper middle class ( since we are all about assuming things based on appearance even though I know millionaires who wear dirty t-shirts when they go shopping). She wanted to know why they couldn’t let her get 2 12packs for the price of the 24 pack. The poor cashier had a lot more sense than this lady. Another time some old white guy ( probably the type who thinks he’s a big deal and hates all those “dirty” minorities they let shop in the store) was arguing for 10 minutes over the price of an apple.
October 29th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Some of you people are nuts…for all the intelligence many of you purport to have, you seem to neglect the most obvious observation staring you in the face. Your perception(s) of my post are all in your own mind.
Elitist? I’m not even sure what this means in the context of my post. Do you guys know what the definition of this word even is?
Grammar knit picking? The purpose of language and writing is to convey an idea; Clearly, the central theme of my idea was not islands nor possessive pronouns but some clearly perceived it was. (oops another grammatical error).
Race interjections? Odd that some people interject race into this thing when poverty is a clear equal opportunity taker.
If Costco keeps this policy it will ultimately be a bad move, in my opinion, and only time will tell. Rest assured I’ll keep you appraised of any deteriorating conditions at Costco. As of the last visit I made there, it was crime and filth free, I’ll follow up a year from now to see where we’re at.
And Brandon, double digit inflation is coming after this deflationary break like you’ve never seen before…..there’s no escaping the Fed’s 2 trillion dollar dump.