Free Samples? Or Smorgasbord?

July 8, 2016 1:43 AM

Five years ago, comic/singer Danny Roque wrote a song about his favorite part of his daily routine and started performing it. However, it took him a while to get permission to make the accompanying video on location. But now here it is: "Lunch at Costco".
posted by oneswellfoop (15 comments total)

Thanks so much, perfect for a Friday morning! The over-the-top Broadway style, singing his heart out, creative rhymes. It looks like it was a blast to film. I'm interested in the background story in getting permission from Costco to do it. Also, it looks just like my Costco! ;-)
posted by Pocahontas at 5:55 AM on July 8, 2016

Hawthorne, CA Costco.
posted by gryftir at 6:02 AM on July 8, 2016

I guess I'll never understand the weird fascination that people have with this store.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 6:04 AM on July 8, 2016

I was wondering how they had managed the crane shot, and then I saw the "scissor lift operator" among the actual Costco employees in the credits, and I was like, ohhhhhhh.
posted by Shmuel510 at 6:09 AM on July 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

I guess I'll never understand the weird fascination that people have with this store.

I can't understand it either, but I've got it. Costco only has one of everything, and it's usually quite good, and inexpensive. It frees you from choice.

The sample distributors depress me a little though. They're not Costco employees so they don't receive the well-publicized benefits.
posted by rlk at 6:38 AM on July 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

I guess I'll never understand the weird fascination that people have with this store.

This is my dog sitting for the first time in his Kirkland brand dog sofa.
This is my dog in his Kirkland brand dog sofa almost every hour of every day after that.

Did that help clear things up?
posted by phunniemee at 7:22 AM on July 8, 2016 [8 favorites]

What a breath of fresh air!
posted by plinth at 7:38 AM on July 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

When my kids were little my dad took them to Costco for lunch on a Sunday. My wife thought it was insane. Uhh, yeah, you have a seventy year old man and two eight years olds, left to their own devices you are going to deal with a fairly high level of insanity.
posted by Keith Talent at 8:22 AM on July 8, 2016

I realize that this is a fantasy but where was the congestion of overloaded carts pushed by overwhelmed Costco shopping zombies fighting over the last cheese sample? This is my usual experience while having brunch there.
posted by njohnson23 at 8:43 AM on July 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

That was delightful! And since we just went to Costco to pick up meat for the 4th of July cookout and I left there with a 4-lb. bag of caramel creams, 96 granola bars, double packs of HUGE boxes of cereal, and a nice new shirt, I can identify with his sentiment.
posted by xingcat at 9:31 AM on July 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

Earlier this year, a coworker and I made a jaunt to the nearby Costco during lunch so she could pick up some stuff. While where, we saw a supervisor dashing around in the food section. "You guys should try out that [sample]". I think she was full on doing "lunch at Costco", and I realized that this was ... a thing.

This video reminded me of the supervisor.
posted by Seboshin at 9:40 AM on July 8, 2016

What makes Costco great is that they sell good stuff cheap. Walmart and Sam's sell all kinds of really crappy products and don't care.
posted by yesster at 11:54 AM on July 8, 2016 [4 favorites]

Aspects of Costco that people obsess on:

1. The typical giant bulk things, like the 50-lb bags of flour. It's American excess, but such a good deal by the pound...
2. The silly things that aren't bulk, but are packaged together in a weak attempt to make them look like a bulk purchase. You can't buy just one box of cereal, you have to buy two.
3. The 'Kirkland' branded things that are actually good. Or, the ones that seem like luxury items, except that they have the 'Kirkland' label on them for irony. Kirkland champagne from France is one example.
4. The one-off crazy interesting things that appear in the store once, then you never see them again, but you spend every future Costco trip checking to see if they're there "just in case". Examples from my local Costco: chanterelle mushrooms from British Columbia, Ibérico ham from Spain. (Costco's founder said on TV this is an actual strategy they use to lure shoppers--send them on a treasure hunt.)
5. The really crazy UFOs that appear in Costco that defy belief. Examples I've seen: Sevruga caviar (in a Kirkland-branded blister pack, like you were buying a stapler!), or a case of 2000 Cheval Blanc in the liquor store area that lasted a day before people snapped up all the bottles.
posted by gimonca at 12:27 PM on July 8, 2016 [3 favorites]

Really, people like Costco because there's a lot of potential info and trivia to track and share about it. Compare people who obsess over baseball statistics.
posted by gimonca at 12:28 PM on July 8, 2016

I adore Costco. Younger Monster and I go together every 6 weeks or so, and divvy everything up after. Stocked freezers and pantries for both households for about $350!
posted by MissySedai at 9:16 AM on July 10, 2016