Shopping and Working at Costco

A look into my love and devotion to Costco.

Shopping at Costco can be fun, tedious, rewarding, difficult, any number of things depending on a customer’s needs and expectations.

Growing up we used to make monthly and sometimes biweekly trips to Prince George to shop; principally to shop at Costco. I used to think of it as a normal part of life. Membership is due? Of course we’ll pay for it! Where else are we going to get a big bag of flour for six dollars? Waiting in the enormous lines were part and parcel of shopping. The samples helped.

The best part of Costco is that you come away with piles of food and you are guaranteed to have food for a while. My home community operates largely under the poverty line, and food is security. Even carrying the food into the house was fun, because look at all the food we have! Putting it away was almost a ritual. Divide up cold stuff and put away first, snack foods, then bulk dry goods.

Suffice it to say that I love Costco.

Call me crazy, but I love it even more now that I work for them.

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Last year I went to the Job Fair at the University and Costco had a booth set up. I introduced myself and talked a little to the smiling lady that explained about the program they were hiring for. It’s relatively new, called the Student Retention Program. Basically, students in school that are hired work only on weekends during the school year and are given more hours when not in school. Sign me up!

The screening process is a little intense with three stages of interviews, ultimately one with a Head Manager. My last interview ended with a job offer and start date. I was very excited because one, Costco; and two, paycheque. I was hired with a small group of other students that had made it through the screening process. We were trained up and sent out to our designated departments; me as Front End Assistant.

As Front End Assistant I do a number of different things. Mostly I am supposed to line up buggies on the one side, make sure barcodes are visible on large items left in the buggy, keep my cashier safe from runaway buggies, help count items and pack the buggies for the customers. I run for items that a customer may have forgotten, would like another of, or it’s part of a two-pack. I was promoted to being able to cash so I can hop on till when needed. We pull in buggies during the day and most of us are sent out after closing to pull them all in. We then clean the tills and do gobacks - items that customers have changed their minds on. If that’s all done we help fold clothes or weeding - put stuff back in their proper place if they’ve been abandoned in a different section. Spoiled, broken and returned items go to designated parts of the back to be returned to vendor.

Not terribly exciting work that’s for sure. What makes it worth it are my coworkers and often, my customers. My coworkers are an awesome bunch that is fun to work with and each has their own quirks. Most cashiers have regulars that will only go to their till. Our supervisors actually care and listen which goes a long way. When they call you family there, they mean it.

 

It’s interesting as well to see the nearly constant stream of people come through the lines. Customers range from happy, tired, grateful, entitled, indifferent, accepting, haggard, resigned, irritated and pretty much everything in between.

We kind of have to train customers too. Buggies on this side, people on that side. Yes, we prefer that larger items stay in the cart it’s less lifting for everyone. If you’d like a box please tell me before I start packing your buggy. Kids in the buggy stay seated. Costo card! If you’d like to pack your own stuff, that’s fine, I’ll go help the next customer. I’ll just line your buggy up first. Yes, that’s my water bottle, it’s got my name on it.

Veteran Costco customers are always easy to spot. The long lines don’t bother them. They know what to put up on the belt and what can be left in the buggy. They call them buggies and not carts. Costco cards are at the ready and sometimes placed beside the scanner after the person before them is done instead of on their food.

There’s a fair balance of new members, occasional shoppers and veterans. New members are often bug-eyed because they can’t believe how much they’ve spent. Occasional shoppers like to complain about the membership fees. Veterans have a good grasp of it all and shop at Costco often because they like what Costco has to offer for quantity and value.

Is Costco always the best deal? No. I don’t think any one store can have the best deals all the time. Is it going to have everything that you need or want? Probably not. Selection is pretty limited compared to Superstore or Save-On. But you can buy a little of everything and a lot of it. And I do mean a lot. We serve many of the local business owners who come up to buy flatbeds and buggies full of the necessities. Those with large families also stock up quite well. I think the largest family purchase I’ve packed was four buggies full.

Some of my favourite memories in the past year have taken place at work.

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While doing some weeding with a coworker we came upon a display of 9-foot tall rolled up carpets. Tucked in at the front was a small tent. My coworker piped up with, “Silly tent, trying to be a rug!”

We were already a little giggly but this sent us over the edge. It did look like the tent was trying to fit in with all the big kids. We were super silly after that and nearly breathless from laughing when we finally came back to the front. Apparently our laughter rang throughout most of the store; and Costco isn’t a small place.

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A family came through my line comprised of Dad, kids and possibly kids’ friends because there were about four of them and they looked to be of very similar age. They were debating the merits and downfalls of what to eat that night. Dad was very much in favour of just getting a pizza from the food court. Kids really wanted a burger of some sort and were negotiating how little trouble it would be. Namely, they could get some Drive-Thru and Dad wouldn’t even have to get out of the car.

Me being my helpful self I chimed in with, “It’s Whopper Wednesday.”

Which was immediately met with a chorus of, “Yeah, Whopper Wednesday!”

I was given a long-suffering look to which I smiled apologetically. Sorry Random Dad, I hope you enjoyed your Whopper that night.

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The Tobacco Cage is tucked away in a little corner beside the Tire Shop. While it’s important that it be manned at all times, I’ve heard that it can get deathly boring back there, even if you bring a book to read. There is very little stimulus other than the rare customer with a large order. One coworker went on a cleaning spree including carefully removing the keys from the register and cleaning underneath.

We joked that one day someone is going to build a fort back there from all the cigarette boxes. And when there’s a customer, pull a strategically placed box, peer through and say, “What do you want?” There are a couple of coworkers that come to mind that are goofy enough to pull off such a thing.

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Sometimes we sing commercial tunes and dance with each other to help pass the time.

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One worker loves to do little things to tease or annoy others, and pulls the occasional prank. On an oddly quiet day there were only two tills open because there were so few customers. He found a piece of paper, a marker and some tape. He wrote ‘Express Lane 12 Items or Less’ on the paper and stuck it to the end of his till. Customers were so happy to see it that people with the requisite amount of items lined up at his till.

This went on relatively unnoticed for about an hour. When business began to pick up, customers started to moderate other customers, telling them this was the Express Lane and they had too many items. There wasn’t quite enough people coming through to open up another till, but it was starting to become clear that something was going on since all the larger orders were going to the other till.

A manager finally came over and circled the tills. He spotted the makeshift sign right away and removed it. He gave a meaningful look to which my coworker replied, “Who put that there?!”

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I had a customer with the last name McGonagall. I asked if she was any relation to Minerva. She must get asked that a lot because she just gave me a wry smile and said no.

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Costco can get crazy busy. This past Christmas we broke our sales records; in one day we made just over $650,000. I worked many hours during the Holidays and I can attest that there was nearly a constant stream of people from opening to closing. People even lined up in the cold half an hour before opening to get in. We sold out of so many things especially chips and Christmas specials. I had a number of customers kicking themselves for not grabbing that something the first time they seen it.

Easter weekend of all times, we broke Christmas. The Thursday before Easter weekend sales were just over $750,000! I didn’t work that day, but I did work most of that weekend and it was insanely busy. We sold out of chips, bananas and watermelons as well as milk I believe. Chips get replenished nightly, but we still couldn’t keep up to demand.

Good Friday the warehouse was packed with people needing to stock up for the weekend. I didn’t really move from the till, but I heard that the lines went all the way back to the coolers and meat department. Customers came up with empty packages of food to pay for that they ate while inching along towards the tills. Those were definitely some dedicated shoppers to have stuck it through to the end.

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We had a power outage one time. Quite the lengthy one as well, I think it lasted over an hour or so. The generator kept the tills going so we could ring through customers. Many abandoned their buggies to leave and just as many wanted in but had to wait while we secured the building. Most of the assistants patrolled and brought any cold items back to the coolers.

Once the building was clear and most of the items brought back there wasn’t much else for some of us to do but wait. The prepared food in the food court was sliced up and brought to the staff room where we all got a nibble of everything. Me being a starving student as well as a back-to-work Mom, this was heavenly. I rarely get to bring a lunch to work because we make sure Rowen always has something to eat before us. I usually make do with cruising the sample tables which we can do on our breaks.

I got to have a chunk of turkey melt sandwich and a square of pizza while waiting in the semi-dark.

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There is a comment box to the right when exiting the building. When customers take the time to fill one out with a positive comment about a worker in particular, that worker gets a free lunch! I have gotten two so far and it was incredibly exciting to be positively recognized. Both times I got a poutine, and they were glorious.

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Since I’m working and going to school, food still means security. It’s something that Rowen recognizes as well, that to have a full freezer and cupboards is to be well off indeed. When I have the money to I stock up as much as possible from Costco. We like to get the two-for-one muffins, slice them in half, wrap them and freeze them. The dinner buns can be tossed into the freezer in their bag and when nuked for a few seconds still come out warm and soft. Carrots and celery are chopped up and bagged to be frozen. Since there’s just the three of us a Costco shop can go a long way.

I could probably go on some more about Costco. Many stories I can’t share for privacy or security reasons. Overall I hope you enjoyed this little foray into shopping and working for Costco.