Costco should [...]]]> I first wrote about this stupid little spat here.  When I wrote that, I didn’t know it was such a big deal…I thought it was a local thing.  Somehow I missed that little news item.  I was ambivalent about it, at least until I saw the sign posted at my local Costco tonight:

Costco should have set up cheese sampling next to this whine.

I think I’m going to have to come down on the side of Coke in this spat, sorry Costco.  “…our inability to be competitive…”  Really?  So, Costco, you’d rather have no sales of Coke than some sales?  Are you betting people will buy Pepsi instead?  As a fan of Coke, I’ll tell you what’s going to happen.  People will buy their Coke products elsewhere.  We all make trips to the grocery store, and some grocer is bound to have Coke products on sale.  Stop being a baby and just charge more for Coke…stop trying to tell them how to run their business.

Our sweatshop starter kit

And as for competitiveness, all us loyal Costco shoppers pay to shop there (as an Executive member, some of us pay more), so you’re getting profit up front anyway.

Not that I’m going to take a stand on this.  I still dropped $110 at Costco tonight.  Plus $40+ on gas for the truck.  And I’m going to order a sewing machine for my daughter from costco.com ($120), so I can lock her in her room and make her sew soccer balls and running shoes…to help offset the price of my Costco membership.  Ok, that’s not true.  I spend enough at Costco that the 2% cash back with the executive membership more than pays for the price of the membership.  The money from my little laborer is to pay for all the stuff I’m ordering from knickerpicker.com.  For my wife, of course.

Safety tip: while waiting for an open gas pump I saw a fountain of gasoline shooting out of a car.  The woman had pulled the gas nozzle around to the far side of her car, put it in upside down, started the filling, and got back in her car to keep warm.   If the nozzle is in upside down it won’t shut off automatically.  She didn’t notice the gasoline going everywhere, nor did she heed the horns blaring all around her.  Finally the attendant ran over and dealt with the situation…he got her phone number too I think.