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I'm gonna miss it. I always thought it had an interesting Job to be Done when I observed my behavior with the store.

We had one a few blocks from my home, and though I order from Amazon like I'm trying to win some kind of game, I'd go to BBB when I needed something that day and didn't want to spend any time on research. It was almost guaranteed that the thing I'd buy would just naturally be at the top of a review site like Wirecutter and it saved me hours or days of research. Like the day my allergies were just nuts and I realized I probably needed an air purifier in the house, and an hour later instantly obtained the best in class product.

During the pandemic they got away from this model and started selling their own copy cat brands. Which some surmise as their final nail in the coffin because no one wanted that stuff. It broke the original Job I had looked for them to solve.

Wonder if there's something that will fill its place. I also thought b8ta had another interesting place there. Instant purchase of something that's on a list you often trust without need to actually research. But clearly it's tough doing retail even with a bunch of fans.

2 comments

That's the role Costco has been filling for a lot of Americans recently. Most of the time you are going to find something at a decent price, that may not be best in class but at least it's going to be near the top of the price/utility curve.

I’ve switched a large percentage of my shopping to Costco for this reason. Like Amazon, I can return it no questions asked if it sucks. Unlike Amazon, it probably won’t suck.

Costco is also nicer to their employees

I struggle with Costco's inconsistent assortment of products and poor online presence. I don't like going there to be crowded for two or three hours only to walk out with $300 in impulse purchases (I am weak, especially to food) but not what I came for.

And they're not good for all things. Their furniture might be reasonable quality but none of it belongs in my home, for example. Gigantic and dated-looking.

Local manager says they have room on the shelves for 4000 products. If something new comes along their customers might like, something has to go.

100%

You might not find what you're looking for at Costco.

But if you do find it, you can be confident it's a great value.

re: price/utility curve

That's so correct. Every other retailer it feels like wants to focus on competing on price by ever lower quality. I strongly prefer paying more for higher quality of things are not junk. Low quality is a waste of resources and of my time.

Costco sells samsung washing machines lol.

It seems to be a tough category. As I mentioned in another comment, another 500+ store chain in this category went bankrupt maybe a couple decades ago. Some of it may be demographics. I would assume their typical demographic is probably thirty-something to maybe 40-something couples. Younger people are mostly not outfitting houses with mid-tier nice stuff and older people mostly have all this crap and may need an occasional replacement but not much more than that.

These days I mostly go to a review site like Wirecutter or a sister site, a food blog, or somewhere like Cook's Illustrated and mostly order whatever they recommend and it's fine.