The Costco Myth

There's this myth. It's that buying in bulk is cheaper. I've seen people write before that buying in bulk is not cost effective, but until tonight I didn't really understand the argument. Most of the time, people who harangue America's latest best friend, Bulk McTons, are usually harping on the fact that by volume, the bulk price isn't actually that competitive.

This may be true in rare cases, but it is inconsequential.

My roommate and I went to the Costco last week, that warehouse of egalatarianism. Even though we've had a membership, this is only our 3rd trip since August. They had one of our staples there, Heart To Heart. It's Honey Nut Cheerios for adults. Almost identical, except our box has adult buzz words like "healthy" instead of an obnoxious bee. We were excited--they didn't have it before. So we bought two boxes (~$14). Now, by volume, that's way cheaper than it is at Trader Joe's.

Except a funny thing happened.

We ate pretty much $7 of cereal in as much time as it would take us to eat $3 of cereal. Before a Costco universe, we dealt with the scarcity of cereal by not eating it. Since we don't get to the store anytime a single food source is depleted, we conserve. Before a Costco universe, cereal at 9:30 before bed meant no cereal in the morning.

Buying in bulk was cheaper--but we consumed more and faster. I'm eating Kashi like it's going out of style. Ergo, over time I will spend more. At the core, I don't really care if I spend more. I am irritated I'm eating more. And I feel like I've discovered another and more deceitful way we are encouraged to be mass consumers. Not just of mass quantities, but as quickly as possible. I know how grocery stores encourage sales--how they intentionally block up aisles to slow people down (so they can look at that sale on Mr. Pibb). I guess I was deluding myself when I thought Costco was more consumer-oriented, bringing us Americans, rich and poor, a great deal.

Turns out I was wrong. And who on earth drinks Mr. Pibb?