Member-only story
That Time I Profiled a White Supremacist’s Kids at Costco
Maybe with the exception of Apple, I have a stronger love-hate relationship with Costco than any other American business. Nobody else has their incredible deals on so many different brand-name products — but most places don’t charge an admission fee to go shopping, either. Nobody else beats them for gas prices — but nobody makes you wait in line for 20 minutes to fill up. Nobody has a store brand selling so many different kinds of top-quality products at such generic-label prices — but nobody makes single people buy 96 ounces of mayonnaise to get the deal. Nobody else has been selling a slice of pizza bigger than your head for $2 since before the turn of the century. And there’s no downside to that.
Another great thing about Costco that never gets brought up: there’s no politics inside a Costco. We’re all there for one thing, to sacrifice half of our Sunday to get the best deals in town. Saving money is now one of the only things left to us that’s bigger than partisan differences. Inside a Costco, we’re all Americans. Until you snag that last sample almond cluster right in front of me, and then you’re the embodiment of true evil.
So I was standing in line at Costco, where most shoppers spend 75% of their time at Costco, and I saw a little boy climbing in and out of a shopping cart. Probably five or six years old. The…
