My husband had the past few days off work and so on his first day off, we did something crazy : we drove to another city! Now, for those of you who know him, you know that my husband is pretty nervous about driving around in unfamiliar territory. In Guelph, he avoids driving downtown entirely because it's too stressful. So you can imagine my excitement when he announced that we'd take a trip into Kitchener (I love exploring new places).
The purpose of the trip was to find the perfect set of skates for him at Pro Hockey Life, but while we were there, we thought it might be fun to go to CostCo. Neither of us had ever been inside one before and it seemed like a novel idea.
When we entered the large, grey building, we were stopped by an employee who demanded to see our membership passes. Since we're not members, we were escorted to a saleswoman who told us every way in which we can benefit from a membership. We asked if we could just walk around and come back out, but apparently they don't allow visitor's passes anymore. If we wanted in, we'd have to become members.
Once we got to the membership counter, we were bombarded with questions about different offers we could take them up on, and they demanded to have our driver's licenses. They got all the information out of us that they could, and were very pushy about the entire process. When it came time to pay for the membership (which we planned on cancelling before we left that day so as to receive the full reimbursement), we were informed that they didn't take Visa. The only credit card they took was American Express. Maybe it's because Canada Day is coming up, or maybe it just pisses me off that American Corporations seem to feel they can come in and erase Canadian culture and turn us all into the Americans of the North, but that pissed me off. I wouldn't have minded as much if they had said that they only accept cash or debit. But to accept only American Express....that was just too far. Yes, I realize that Visa is headquarters in the States...but...the nationalist branding of Amex is too much for me. Yes, branding matters.
To add to the general discomfort of the whole ordeal, we had to get our pictures taken for our membership card. I hadn't showered, wasn't wearing makeup, had been sweating all day....it was not fun. But it was over very quickly and it would get destroyed soon enough anyway.
Once we got in, it was an overwhelming experience. This was the single most depressing place I'd ever been to in my entire life. Beyond the sheer esthetics of the warehouse decor, I felt the most incredible sense of malaise. I tend to be a pretty intuitive person, and being in that place made me feel sick. I nearly burst into tears. It was awful.
To make matters worse, things were barely cheaper than say, Giant Tiger or Zellers. It was difficult to find pricing and most items that were stocked, we wouldn't buy anyway. Interestingly, they had a Swarovski Crystal display, a jewellery display and countless other things that didn't seem to belong. Personally, I don't care about cost...if you buy me a ring from an antique store or a junk shop for $5...I'd vastly prefer that to one bought at CostCo for $50. You just don't buy sentimental things at CostCo....it just isn't right.
Needless to say, we ended our membership on the way out and vowed never to step foot in there ever again.
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