Adventures in Stuff Mart

I went to Costco this past Sunday with all the kids, against all inclination and better judgment. I like many things about  Costco: the grocery prices, the amazing yet cheap produce, the quality inexpensive meat, and the big boxes of staples such as cereal that are the perfect size for my lage-ish family. I don't like the "other side" of the store, but I just avoid it.

However, I dislike shopping there, especially on a weekend. I find the place crowded with shoppers, all trying to find the four things they regularly buy in bulk, with that "oh my goodness, WHERE are they hiding that product???" look in the eye. You know it, because it's been on all of our faces in a big box store. You're stuck in between sneering at the other shoppers and frantically staring in four direcitons at once.

I get frazzled in a crowded Costco. I fully admit it.

However, whenever I manage to make it through a shopping trip there, I start to see the funny side of everything on the ride home.

The thing that struck me as absolutely hilarious this week was this: my family got the certified look of death from at least six seniors this Sunday. There they were, with three items in their carts, giving me the stink-eye for shopping at Costco with my brood and a giant cart packed with food and two kids sitting in the top seats, happily pretending to be race car drivers.

Now, I get this look a lot when out with all the children in Victoria, no matter how well behaved they are. Some people seem to take offense to seeing and hearing kids in public. I find this sentiment highest among seniors in this retirement town, with yuppies a close second. As long as no one says something rude in front of my kids, my attitude is essentially "whatever." We all have the right to be out in public, and they have the right to be crotchety. It doesn't hurt us. We're too busy having fun!

But encountering this in a Costco had me laughing so hard in the van home I was hiccupping. Seriously, where else would you expect to see a pregnant woman and three children shopping for groceries? The local boutique organic mini-market? Even I think there should probably be a law requiring me to do at least half my shopping in a wholesale store, simply to avoid wasting packaging and hogging all the strawberries down at the local small grocery store.

Costco was created for women like me. I might not approve of the side of the store that sells all the nonsense, but cheap, high-quality bulk groceries? Sign me up! I'm glad other people go and buy bulk too, but if you go into Costco expecting people like me to be elsewhere, I have to wonder what your medication is (and if I can have some too.)

I will be glad when Hubby is home again from this short sail. When he's here, we tend to take turns and go with only one child in tow, and avoid shopping there during peak hours. It keeps me from being overwhelmed by the sheer size of the place, and the funny things that can happen.

I need to go there soon and shop for a new car seat, anyway.