"You can't buy things, or even enter the store, without a membership, so before you even reach the sales floor, you have to endure the membership process itself. This includes signing up, negotiating the hard sell of your membership tier, getting a photo taken, and orienting yourself to the basics of how the warehouse operates. Once you're allowed to shop, the scale of the store alone can reset your sense of proportion in a dizzying way."
"Everything's bigger in Costco country; aisles are wider, carts are larger, and products are stacked several stories high. There's no traditional aisle signage, no particular progression from produce to dairy to frozen foods, and very little intuitive or visual guidance about where anything "should" be. The disorientation isn't exactly intentional, but it's worth muddling through. Costco limits choice by offering fewer items per category, but it offsets that simplicity with size and rotation."
Costco requires a membership for entry and purchase, and the membership process involves signing up, negotiating membership tiers, getting a photo taken, and learning how the warehouse operates. The warehouse layout is large-scale and disorienting: aisles are wider, carts larger, products stacked high, no traditional aisle signage, and no predictable progression between departments. Costco limits choice by offering fewer items per category but compensates with large sizes and frequent product rotation, so items appear and disappear unexpectedly. First-time visits function as an orientation to bulk purchasing decisions and a new shopping lifestyle, requiring time to understand household usage rates for jumbo products.
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