No One Loves Costco Like This Woman Loves Costco

For good reason.

Here is a charming story about a woman driven by a single-minded love of a store that sells lawnmowers, jeans and pallets of tampons all under one roof: Barbara Pope loves Costco. Barbara Pope lives in Napa, CA, where there is no Costco. Inspired by a road trip during which she stopped to visit regional Costcos on her way to see her brother in Indiana, she decide to explore her love of free samples, concrete floors and neatly-organized boxes of ramen noodles stacked to the ceiling by visiting every single Costco in the country.

Napa woman goes on ‘Costco odyssey’ across the U.S.

Pope loaded up her minivan, threw a twin mattress in the back and is pursuing her dream of visiting every single Costco in the country, seeking out the “nugget of gold” that each reigonal Costco has to offer. Here’s how she approaches each store.

To stay organized, Pope said she goes to each Costco with her own version of a visit worksheet. First, she always makes sure to take a selfie at the store. Pope then notes how easy the store was to find, the range services offered (i.e. optometry, pharmacy, gas, tires, car wash, photo, hearing aids), the selection of local foods, organic food selection and any special local distinctions.

This tactic seems like a smart one for shopping at Costco to begin with, but also for conducting this experiment, which is, of course, in the pursuit of a larger goal: sponsorship, advertiser money and a career as a writer.

Her larger goal is to earn income as a writer, said Pope.

“Hopefully my blog will get sponsors and advertisers so I can generate the income and stay home and do some writing.”

Part of me wants to be cynical and throw a glass of cranberry juice at my computer in irritation, because you could very easily assume that this is meant to be some sort of pat statement about learning about America through the most American of all institutions and a bald-faced attempt at generating virality instead of doing something just because she loves it. Naturally, there is a blog.

Despite that, I’m going to try and give this woman the benefit of the doubt and assume that she just really, really loves Costco. Who can blame her? It is the most relaxing place on earth.

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