You went in for two things.
Two batteries. Maybe a couple of avocados. Eggs for the weekend.
You came out with a cart that needed its own zip code.
And the strange part is you did not feel tricked. You felt smart. Every single package you picked up made a compelling argument.
Look at this. Twenty four of them. For less than what two cost at the regular store. Who would say no to that?
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Nobody. That is the point.
Costco is not a supermarket with bigger boxes. It is a machine, and the machine is built around one very specific human behavior. Buying a lot at once. Everything you see in that building, from the pallets on the floor to the concrete ceiling to the fact that there are no signs telling you where anything is, exists to support that one behavior.
And here is the thing nobody says out loud. The machine usually works in your favor. Costco genuinely is cheap. That is not marketing.
But there is a gap. A quiet one. And it lives in the space between two questions that sound identical and are not.
Question one. Is this price low?
Question two. Is buying this much of it a good idea for my house?
Most people only ask the first one. The entire story of this article lives inside the second.
So let me tell you about the 22 avocados. Or rather, the four.