Costco ... Aargh!

Have I mentioned before that I hate going to Costco? I'm sure I have, but let me reiterate: I hate going to Costco.

Forget the fact that when one buys stuff in bulk, it turns out to be cheaper per item. And forget the fact that they carry stuff that I like. See, if I buy it in bulk, the work is only beginning. I need to break bulk when I get home, and that means breaking out the FoodSaver, which I bought from Costco, by the way.

Some things (like cereal), it just does not pay to buy in bulk if one doesn't have kids or eat a lot of cereal. I like cereal every now and then (like once a month or so). But a while back, I bought this humongous box of Frosted Mini-Wheats. I broke it up into six smaller FoodSaver bags, gave some away, stored the rest and kept some in a Ziplok bag. It took me six months to consume what was in the Ziplok.

In essence, I spent what it cost for the whole box just to have a few servings of cereal. Didn't pay off in the least.

What I hate about going to Costco is (1) finding parking, (2) pushing a cart that weighs a ton around the warehouse, (3) hearing so many things call out my name, (4) standing in a long line in a checkout area that has a dozen long lines, (5) loading all the stuff into the car, and then (6) unloading it when I get home.

I hurt myself often. Like this week, when we went, I strained my back loading/unloading the wagon, and loading/unloading the car, with a case of Coke Zero, two cases of Sunny Delight, a case of the tall Arizona Tea cans, a case of Hawaiian Sun fruit juices, and a humongous case-and-a-half case of Kirkland water.

Not to mention all the meats and other stuff that the wife kept tossing into the wagon.

I've been trying to consolidate our prescription pick-ups so I don't have to keep going back to Costco every week (sometimes twice a week). Mostly that's been working, but every now and then I get trapped into making a special trip just for someone's prescriptions that have run out. Sure, I call it in, but one has to go there to pick it up.

And when I have a new prescription renewal slip for someone, that's the worse. I am trapped into wandering around Costco for a half-hour to 45 minutes while I wait for it to be filled.

The worst thing about my Costco experience this week? I forgot to use the annual 2% rebate that they sent me last week. Damn!