Costco Wholesale — Attraction in Castroville

I recently purchased an oversized item from the Costco at Dove Creek. Prior to making the purchase, I spoke with Costco’s Customer Service inside the warehouse to understand the process and confirm the amount of time the item could be held while I arranged for a larger vehicle. I was instructed to: Enter any checkout line. Provide the item number to the register assistant. Pay for the item. Return before closing to pick it up. If I failed to do so, I’d be refunded, and the item would be returned to the store. With these instructions, I got in line and encountered an associate named Kathy. Kathy seemed irritated and was overly reluctant to be helpful and assist me. It quickly became clear that she wasn’t familiar with the procedure. When I explained what Customer Service had told me, she initially insisted I needed to retrieve the item myself and bring it to the register to purchase. I informed her the item weighed near 350 pounds and I could not do this alone. Eventually, Kathy called someone over for assistance (I assume a manager). When the manager arrived, I reiterated the Customer Service instructions, and they confirmed that it could be purchased in this manner. I provided the item number, which I had saved as a photo on my phone. However, as I was unlocking my phone to locate the number, Kathy reached for it, which was unnecessary and made me uncomfortable. I kindly informed her that I would read the number to her instead. The purchase was completed, and I left to retrieve my larger vehicle. When I returned later, I spotted what appeared to be my purchased item near the checkout area. An associate named Justin, was nearby. I explained that I believed the item was mine and asked for assistance loading it into my vehicle. Unfortunately, Justin offered minimal help. He advised me to look for associates wearing reflective vests in the parking lot and moved a few cardboard boxes out of the way so I could push the item out the store. Following his advice, I searched the parking lot for these “vested” associates. I walked along the exterior of the building, from one side to the other, but couldn’t find anyone wearing a vest. After searching for over five minutes or so, I went back inside to request assistance again. Eventually, the indoor associates coordinated and located outdoor team members to help me. That team member was not...

I've been a Sam's membership card holder for nearly 10 years now. Because of a move, I'm further away from a Sam's club than I would like to be. Since the opening of this Costco, I was excited about the opportunity to possibly make a change since it was closer. That excitement soon died once I stepped foot into a Costco for the first time.

Because I've never been to a Costco, I simply wanted to take a walk in the store to decide if it would be worth the change. I was stopped at the door and was told (despite mentioning that I want to walk a moment and see) to go through the exit to the membership counter. I did so and stood in line with two people ahead of me. One person was working memberships and it had been nearly 10 minutes before I decided to just leave because I made up my mind by just standing in line.

$60 for the gold and then $120 for the executive. The signs tell you the price in giant letter but not much more. I'm sure there was a booklet to explain these things and maybe I could have looked online (which I did in line).

As a person who enjoys earlier shopping, and having the benefit of shopping earlier with my Sam's plus membership, I learned that Costco opens at 10am for ALL customers to shop. So getting the "executive" membership changes nothing there.

Hearing the selling points for all memberships from the person ahead of me, I couldn't help but be out off by the car salesman/ cable provider way of selling a membership. The benefits did not reflect the prices. And what sealed the deal was seeing the employee hand a cheap reusable bag and a $2 generic water bottle for signing up.

By this time I was over it and made my decision to not sign up. Maybe learn from your competitors if you're going to be so similar. There really isn't anything that stood out for me and honestly I didn't get to see much of the store to even know if I wanted to.

And turning away a possible customer to stand in line isn't...

The employees on the floor in the main shopping area were very kind and helpful especially Kristna. The organization of the store is pretty chaotic so it can be hard to find items, you kind of have to go through the entire store to get what you need because of the way produts is laid out. Then once we were ready to check out the area is a mess. There's no signs or structure when it comes to lines. There's a wall of products just off the check out area making it incredibly claustrophobic and hard to navigate. The check outs, food court area, customer service, Tire center, and exit are in such a narrow area that it feels nearly impossible to get to the exit let alone breath when you're ready to leave. I was also frustrated that when I went to the self check out I was helped by an employee with a scanning gun that scanned all the items in my basket for me except 6. Like the basket was full but he went through everything for me which was very nice and unnecessary being that I was in the self check out. Don't get me wrong I'm incredibly grateful that he helped and that I didn't have to take everything out of my basket to scan it all, BUT I didn't realize he had missed the items (that were visible with their barcodes in full view, just under the child's seat of the basket) until I finally got to the exit and they counted my items, and recount, and recounted a 3rd and 4th time and checked off each one individually then we realized those 6 items were missed. With the narrow layout, making our way back to the check out area, from the door was not only incredibly awkward and embarrassing but also nearly impossible due to how crowded and cramped...