What Does Costco Mean to You?

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Costco, the bulk grocery chain known for consistency, devoted employees and discounts, has 145 million members worldwide. New Yorker staff writer Molly Fischer grew up going to a Costco in San Jose (Warehouse No. 148, on Senter Road), and she says “being a child of California in the eighties and nineties offered a front-row seat to the rise of a retail juggernaut.” But new management and Wall Street pressure means that things are changing at Costco, even as its hot dog-and-soda deal remains $1.50. We’ll talk with Fischer about her new piece, “Can the Golden Age of Costco Last?” Guests: Molly Fischer, staff writer, The New Yorker Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:51.2	Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. The look of a Costco warehouse is unmistakable. Rows of industrial shelves
0:58.9	stacked high with merchandise on pallets, red, white, and blue signage, including one promoting
1:04.4	its enduring dollar-fifty hot dog and soda deal. And people love this place, not just for the discount prices, they've associated
1:12.4	their identities with it, like AJ Buffumo and his son Eric, who've found fame as the Costco
1:18.1	guys.
1:20.6	We're Costco guys. Of course we get the sample even though we've bought the thing the last three
1:24.8	times we were here.
1:26.9	We're Costco guys. Of course we cool off in the milk fridge.
1:31.0	So all this I learned from reading New Yorker's dive writer Molly Fisher's recent piece on the retail chain
1:36.9	and by examining my own interactions with the store, members since 2011 here.
1:42.4	But Fisher's piece also piqued my interest because of the question it asks,
1:46.7	can the golden age of Costco last? Molly Fisher joins me now. And listeners, are you a Costco fan?
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