• Return to Costco

    Photo by Leslie Easton (Creative Commons License)
    Photo by Leslie Easton (Creative Commons License)

    Last weekend I went to Costco with my white board sign to pick up a prescription for Rosie the basset hound. The staff was obviously alarmed by the fact that I was carrying my white board sign. (My behavior otherwise was completely innocuous, quiet, and polite.) The clerk escorted me out of the store after I had completed my transaction. Non-members of Costco are allowed to use their pharmacy and to purchase alcohol; however, the staff member told me that next time I needed to inform the clerk working the door of my non-member status so they could escort me in and out of the store.

    That made sense. I can understand why Costco only wants people who have paid for memberships in the store, eating the samples, and making purchases.

    Fast-forward to this weekend. Rosie needed a refill for one of her other prescriptions (it’s hard to predict when you’ll run out of doggy eye drops) so I returned to the same Costco as before – this time sans white board sign. I presented myself to the greeter and told her (with my best British accent) that I was not a Costco member and that I wished to use their pharmacy. Without hesitation, she pointed toward the pharmacy and let me proceed unaccompanied.

    Photo by Mike Mozart (Creative Commons License)
    Photo by Mike Mozart (Creative Commons License)

    The pharmacist said it would take approximately 15 minutes to fill Rosie’s prescription and he handed me a larger Costco pager device that would ring, vibrate, and light up when it was ready. I was allowed to walk through the store to observe the other patrons and their carts piled high with large quantities of goods. The idea of buying such large quantities of one thing in a single transaction baffles me.

    When the pager went off, I returned to the pharmacy, completed the transaction, and walked out without incident.

    Costco Lessons to Date:

    • They don’t want you to be in the store with your whiteboard sign.
    • They will allow you to be in the store unaccompanied when you don’t carry a whiteboard sign.
    • They will allow you to be in the store unaccompanied if you use a fake British accent.

    Hmm…do you think they’ll let me use the pharmacy if I walk into the store wearing fairy wings?