CostCo to the Rescue
As I have previously explained, my hilltop pal Mike is a real devotee of CostCo, along with about 119 million other people on the planet. That all makes CostCo the third largest retailer in America behind Walmart and Amazon. When I think I need something right away, I go online to Amazon and try for the same-day delivery program. I just did that for my favorite shampoo yesterday (false alarm, I had another bottle under the sink anyway), and sure enough, it got delivered to my door before noon (amazing stuff in my opinion). When I think I need to buy something in bulk, I think about CostCo for the obvious reason, nothing at CostCo comes in small quantities from what I can tell. But what I haven’t yet accustomed myself to is thinking that when I really want to pay bottom dollar for some big item where the pricing really matters to me, I should think about CostCo.
My friends Gary and Oswaldo are staying with me to keep me company this week while Kim is off in NYC for a few days for my future daughter-in-law’s bridal shower. Gary is turning 80 this year and whenever he comes over, we turn on the subtitles on the TV since his hearing ain’t what it used to be. He, like many people, fought off the hearing aid bugaboo for a long time, insisting that it wasn’t necessary or that he didn’t like the way they felt or looked. But when it was time to finally succumb to the inevitable, he was told to try to buy his hearing aides at CostCo. He and Oswaldo are members of CostCo, but like many of us, he thought of it as the domain of bulk purchasing rather than a place he could get some specialty item like hearing aides. But when he went to go check out their hearing aid department, he found that he could get exactly what he needed for about a third of the price that he found elsewhere. He went ahead with the purchase, but was a bit worried that he might get something light on features or with less service than he might otherwise get at a nice friendly little boutique store. That proved not to be the case. Gary loves to show you how he can adjust his hearing aides from an iPhone app that he has, and how he can adjust for filtering out ambient sounds like in a restaurant. He is clearly proud of his new medical device and its feature-rich ways. Gary is also quick to tell you that he has been very impressed by the CostCo service since he can go into CostCo at any time and they will adjust or fiddle with his hearing aids any time they need such adjustment. Overall, Gary’s hearing aids have made Gary a walking, talking and listening advertisement for CostCo.
I know, even from my limited exposure to CostCo (I have been a member for one year now, thanks to Mike’s handholding me through the membership sign-up process), that they sell many larger items, since you have to walk through large flat screen TV heaven the first thing you do when you enter the store. I also get all the CostCo Wholesale emails that give me a list of all their special sale items of the moment. I sometimes glance at the emails, but most often just delete them along with the other array of generally unnecessary emails I get. But CostCo enjoys that middle ground in my spam email hierarchy. There are emails I am anxious to read (things like The NY Times morning summary of the Washington Post’s midday news update). There are emails I want to rid myself of and am constantly trying to unsubscribe from that redefine the gum-on-shoe problems of our collective youth, where they mysteriously reappear over and over again no matter how you wend your way through the unsubscribe protocol. That protocol is a topic for an entire blog story at some point, since the small type and the clever wording means you really have to pay attention to be sure you are signing up for total elimination of those emails from your inbox versus adding fuel to the spam machine by virtue of checking the wrong box. And then there are the purgatory emails that I somehow feel I should keep getting because they might be important for me to reference at some point and I do not want to get on their bad side and get dropped from circulation. That is a strange way to think, I admit, since it is hard to comprehend why these particular emailers would be quick to quit on me when the other emailers I want to quit on me are so unwilling to do so. CostCo emails fit into that middle ground, so, as I said, I occasionally glance at them. I am sure Mike, being the CostCo fact-checker that he is, reads them top to bottom religiously while I am wasting my time getting better informed about the state of our democracy according to the Times and WAPO.
As I have been going through HVAC hell this summer (less about any malfunction than about worry of that potentially happening on some new-found 120 degree day, should another heat dome find its way to San Diego), I have become very familiar with all of my HVAC options. I have actually learned a thing or two about how my HVAC system works and what elements are central to the system and how those elements more of less function with one another. I notice that even the New Yorker magazine cover this week is making fun of our warming global climate as it shows a stack of microwave ovens dated 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 (it actually only shows the dates of the two years in the middle and we are left to interpolate the prior and later) and inside the ovens are a color-changing globe that are getting redder and redder as they bake. It seems that familiarizing oneself with the workings of HVAC is a worthwhile endeavor in a reality that is clearly favoring a meaningful warming trend. Getting out ahead of this problem seems very wise, indeed, especially for someone who hates, hates, hates being too warm. I have now spoken directly to seven or eight companies and have had most of those come over to inspect my system. Strangely enough, I got something like twelve different recommendations about what to do with the system, since not only did the recommendations differ between companies, but also between the technicians/salesmen who visited and their superiors and engineers. Everyone seemed to have a different view. It was all less than confidence inspiring.
Along the way, Mike suggested that I call CostCo, which struck me as odd, since I simply don’t think of CostCo for HVAC. To humor Mike, I took the meeting, as they say. CostCo has an arrangement with a local installer and they only sell what they consider to be the top brand, which is Lennox (I am not certain, but I think CostCo likes to emphasize Made-in-America whenever it can). The consultant who came over was extremely knowledgeable (being a 20+ year HVAC veteran) and, most importantly to me, was far less focused on making a sale than on giving reasonable advice. In so doing and as really good salesmen learn, he made the sale. I decided to take up his bid on a new 3.5 ton Lennox condenser to replace my 12-year-old low-end 3 ton unit. That will leave we with a 3.5 ton furnace/air handler, a 4 ton coil and a 3.5 ton condenser, which seems from my new-found knowledge of HVAC to be ideal for my needs on that end of the house. The new Lennox unit will be a SEER 17, which means it should save me 40% on energy usage and produce about 15% more cooling by having ½ ton more cooling capacity. And here’s the kicker, I sign the deal with CostCo and get their 3-year installation warranty and 10-year product warranty…and a 12% CostCo rebate/gift card off of a price that is somewhere between 35-50% cheaper than the next closest bidder, none of whom was offering as good a brand of product. It gets installed in about two weeks (I’m in no rush) and should take four hours. CostCo’s business model is based on membership fees and getting repeat business. They sacrifice product pricing margin for that, and it seems to really work. It is telling that the average CostCo member is considerably higher-income on average than at the other retailers. It all makes sense. I am certainly, at this moment, a very happy CostCo camper. Mike and CostCo to the rescue.