The Costco Experience

I love/hate Costco. You have to buy a lot of everything you buy in order to get a bargain. But the quality is tops! And it's easy to return anything. It just seems more energized being in Costco versus a regular grocery store. But the people running the samples carts look so dispirited and bored - almost zombie-like. The electronics are all about to be replaced with new technology - so they're offered at reasonable prices. But the ambience doesn't begin to compare to a Sony or an Apple boutique. In fact, the ambience is decidedly chic blue-collar and egalitarian, but I notice many of the establishment elite (doctors, professors) shopping there too. It makes me feel as though I'm being sucked in to the mainstream default of everyday life when I consider myself "a cut above." I have to keep fighting the temptation to walk out clutching a 52" flat screen TV...but the food I buy looks perfect. But as I'm walking out to my Prius with a shopping basket full of glorious fruit and produce I have to think of those in Haiti eating mudcakes because they cannot afford anything else. Wouldn't it be ironic if they discovered there was some ingredient in the mudcakes that made them even more nutritious than what I had bought? Maybe they're even happier eating their mudcakes than I am biting into a ripe mango....