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Costco is highly regarded as one of the best places to work in retail, despite being publicly traded. \u00a0 Not having a large family to feed, I’ve never felt the need to get a membership there but have visited on occasion. \u00a0 They are known as a good employer in the retail industry and their stores are generally fun to shop at. \u00a0I did not, however, know that you can use their membership I.D. to board an airplane…or these other 12 things:<\/p>\n
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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0As the second-largest<\/a> retailer in the United States, warehouse giant Costco has become synonymous with towering steel shelves full of toilet paper and peanut butter. Its cavernous sales floors are navigated by 79 million customers<\/a>\u00a0a year\u00a0who pay a minimum<\/a>\u00a0annual fee of $55 to access some of the least marked-up products in retail.<\/em><\/p>\n You probably realize the stores are busy, hard to navigate, and could probably feed a family of four in free samples alone. You might also be curious to know more.<\/em><\/p>\n Big-box stores like Costco and Sam\u2019s Club are able to offer low prices because of massive purchasing orders and profits that are subsidized by member fees. No membership card? No 12-gallon drums of mayo for you. But there is one loophole: If you know a member, they can purchase a Costco Cash (i.e. gift) Card on your behalf, which you can use at your leisure. Costco policy states<\/a> you don\u2019t need to be a member in order to use this payment method, but your success may be store-dependent: some employees get a little irate<\/a> when you can\u2019t produce your membership card at the door.<\/em><\/p>\n Brainwashing is an unadvertised membership perk. Costco often stocks a variety of large-ticket items\u2014expensive handbags, entire barrels<\/a> of Jack Daniel\u2019s Whiskey\u2014not necessarily because they expect to move those items, but because retailers know<\/a> that the desire and excitement they cause releases dopamine. Now you\u2019re shopping in a pleasure state and are more likely to splurge on items that grumpy and budget-conscious people avoid.<\/em><\/p>\n With the Transportation Security Administration\u2019s strict security measures, you\u2019d think a government-issued ID would be the only way you\u2019re getting through a checkpoint. But KPIX 5 in San Francisco discovered<\/a> the TSA will accept everything from utility bills to Costco cards as proof of identity. The catch: you\u2019re more likely to get a pat down or a swab test than if you used your driver\u2019s license.<\/em><\/p>\n Brad Pitt has called upon Costco to stop selling eggs produced from cage-raised hens. In July, Pitt wrote to CEO Craig Jelinek, asking him<\/a> to set a timetable for a company overhaul of its bird policy. \u201cMany major corporations, from Burger King to Unilever, are getting rid of cages,\u201d Pitt wrote, apparently hoping the shame of being less animal-conscious than Burger King would motivate them to action.<\/em><\/p>\n The company moves 157,000 whole birds<\/a> every single day, estimating<\/a> they lose $30 to $40 million a year by sticking to a $4.99 price point in order to keep members happy and foot traffic high. Devotees trade<\/a> recipe ideas for the chicken on a Facebook fan page. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n In Lancaster, Pennsylvania, anyway. The county is home to a large population of Amish, so the company decided to construct a livestock parking stall as a courtesy. There\u2019s a rail to tie the horses to, and a roof shields them from inclement weather. Per the Addicted to Costco<\/a> blog, the reserved space leaves an unanswered question: which lucky employee gets to clean up after the horses? \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Through a manufacturing hiccup that may never be fully understood, Costco was forced to send out a public recall notice<\/a> after discovering punching bags made by TKO, Inc. were filled with dirty men\u2019s and women\u2019s underwear instead of sand. In 2007, Fox reported<\/a> that a Cincinnati family was distraught to find thongs, bathing suits, and bras inside of their new purchase. Anyone who bought the bag got a replacement and a shipping label to send the laundry back. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Costco\u2019s floor plan may seem haphazard, but like most things in retail it\u2019s been very carefully designed to maximize business. The company regularly relocates<\/a> necessities like toiletries, light bulbs, and other frequently-replenished items so the customer has to begin a search\u2014or \u201ctreasure hunt\u201d\u2014for them. The strategy exposes shoppers to new areas of the store, and their wallets to new trauma.<\/em><\/p>\n A Simi Valley pastor incited a minor Twitter flare-up in November 2013 when he was browsing in a Costco and noticed<\/a> their copies of the Bible were labeled \u201cfiction.\u201d The company deemed it a labeling error, and there is some corroborating\u00a0evidence that points to a wider trend: the following month, a \u201cmemoir\u201d from fictional, imbecilic newscaster Ron Burgundy was filed<\/a>under \u201cnon-fiction.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Costco moved<\/a> nearly 400,000 cars in 2014, making it the nation\u2019s second-largest<\/a> car dealer\u2014but they don\u2019t actually get a portion of the sale. In another attempt to provide value for membership fees, the company negotiates directly with a dealer for a set price, then acts as an intermediary for the customer. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Because pizza is only one component of Costco\u2019s food service, it doesn\u2019t really qualify as a pizza franchise. Bend the definition a little bit, though, and they could make a strong case for industry dominance. With nearly<\/a> 500 stores, they\u2019re among<\/a> the top 20 footprints of pizza chains in the country. To keep up with demand, their stores are usually equipped with automated sauce spinners like the one seen above.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n It\u2019s the day every bride dreams of: walking down the frozen foods aisle to meet her groom. Robert and Meredith Bonilla were married atop a pallet at a Santa Maria, California Costco in December 2014, a year after meeting at the store. Management gave them permission<\/a> to hold the ceremony after operating hours.<\/em><\/p>\n Just because you\u2019re dead doesn\u2019t mean the savings have to stop. The retailer offers an entire array<\/a> of funeral necessities, including caskets, urns, and flowers. The coffins are shipped directly to the mortuary of choice. For the easily confused, Costco reminds<\/a> members that they are not a licensed funeral home and \u201cmay not offer or perform funeral services.\u201d Yet.<\/em><\/p>\n From MentalFloss.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Costco is highly regarded as one of the best places to work in retail, despite being publicly traded. \u00a0 Not having a large family to feed, I’ve never felt the need to get a membership there but have visited on occasion. \u00a0 They are known as a good employer in the retail industry and their Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retail-companies"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1087"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1092,"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087\/revisions\/1092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}1. YOU DON\u2019T ACTUALLY NEED A COSTCO MEMBERSHIP TO SHOP THERE.<\/em><\/h4>\n
2. THEY\u2019RE MESSING WITH YOUR BRAIN.<\/em><\/h4>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n3. NO ID? AIRPORT SECURITY WILL ACCEPT A COSTCO CARD.<\/em><\/h4>\n
4. THEY\u2019VE UPSET BRAD PITT.<\/em><\/h4>\n
5. THE ROTISSERIE CHICKEN HAS ITS OWN FAN PAGE.<\/h4>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n6. THEY HAVE HORSE AND BUGGY PARKING FOR THE AMISH.<\/em><\/h4>\n
7. THEY ONCE HAD TO RECALL A PUNCHING BAG FILLED WITH DIRTY UNDERWEAR.<\/em><\/h4>\n
8. THEY CONSIDER SHOPPING TO BE A \u201cTREASURE HUNT.\u201d<\/em><\/h4>\n
9. THEY ONCE LABELED THE BIBLE AS \u201cFICTION.\u201d<\/em><\/h4>\n
10. THEY SELL MORE CARS THAN (ALMOST) ANYONE.<\/em><\/h4>\n
11. THEY\u2019RE SECRETLY ONE OF THE BIGGEST PIZZA CHAINS AROUND.<\/em><\/h4>\n
12. A COUPLE GOT MARRIED IN THE FROZEN FOODS SECTION.<\/em><\/h4>\n
13. THEY HAVE EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR A FUNERAL.<\/em><\/h4>\n