Costco Wholesale — Attraction in San Luis Obispo

My parents have been Sam's Club members since I was too little to remember. The interior of a Costco is identical to that of Sam's Club, but with some health conscious items like fresh produce that I don't recall finding at Sam's. To be fair, haven't stepped foot in a Sam's Club for several years. My husband got a $300 Costco cash card as a gift and wanted to check it out. I'd heard the prices and selection were wonderful. Everyone seemed to like Costco so much, I was sure we would too. I was wrong. First, the hours sucked- only open when we are at work. We managed to run there on a Sunday evening, just before close. But we found the parking lot to be an absolute zoo of people, kids, and massive shopping carts. Next, trying to enter the store, there was a lady checking membership cards. This was typical of Sam's, I remember. I copied the other customers- held up the card. But I didn't grab a cart, and the checker became suspicious and tried to stop us "do you have a return?". Creepy. Do I need a cart to enter? With so little time to browse we kept walking. She got upset and muttered something under her breath. Extra creepy. The interior of the store was also a zoo...worse than the parking lot. Always in someone's way. Couldn't look at anything. Too many people with gigantic carts and kids running everywhere. Nobody apologized for being in each other's space. It was a strange zombie like mob incapable of interacting. We noticed quickly that the employees are merely there to monitor and push product. I didn't like being watched and pushed to buy things. Every other aisle had someone standing with a display, trying to sell me something. I was never this monitored at Sam's, nor pressured to buy. And the prices? Disappointing. Food 4 Less and Grocery Discount had better prices for the same - if not larger- quantities. I would be saving money by shopping elsewhere. We picked out a couple things to show for our Costco trip. Then we realized lines were a mile long... We patiently waited while the stares of employees tried to melt us into puddles on the linoleum. What a horrible sin we'd committed by not needing a cart and spending less than $100! The cashiers were nice, but robotic and emotionless, and a manager was required to swipe the Costco cash card. The manager also tried to tell us that Costco cash cards had restrictions. That's not what I'd been told, so I said...wait, what restrictions? She then recanted that statement immediately, saying instead that there are no restrictions, just that a member has to refill it. How about: say what you mean! I don't like being lied to in order to convince me to become a member. The nail in the coffin was upon leaving, as another line had piled up at the exit because an employee was forcing customers to present their receipts while every item was checked over. We panicked, as we'd nearly tossed the receipt. Luckily, we found it, and made it out alive. We found the experience highly creepy and are unlikely to return. Maybe we can shop online to use up our gift card balance. Unless you want to feel like you've done something wrong, or genuinely enjoy being monitored like you're in an Orwell novel,...

Such a great day at Costco SLO today. The customer service from everyone was amazing! I had two returns and they scanned my card and scan the products and it was returned lickety-split. No questions or dirty looks. Sooooo easy. I was in last week and Shane was so helpful explaining 2 different laptops to me and told me about their amazing Visa card. Today I went to buy a laptop and a tablet. As always I received excellent customer service from Shane in the electronics department. (He got me into my Fitbit Versa 2 a couple of months ago and I absolutely love it!) You have to love the two years extra service guarantee when you buy an electronic on your Costco Visa card. I did not know about that benefit until Shane told me about it. There's also the free return policy within 90 days if I decide I don't like the tablet (which I'm on the fence about if I'll use it.) With their free guaranteed and support I can't go wrong. You can also watch the prices and if the price goes down in 30 days you can also receive that money back on your card. Next I did my grocery shopping and all of the sample people today were very nice and the food was good. When I went to check out I made the mistake of buying the tablet on my regular card instead of the Visa card. When I went to pick up the items Joe was so kind about switching the payment method for me and talked about how wonderful that additional 2 year guarantee was. I had actually signed up for the Visa card last week after Shane had told me about it and this week they were giving out free bags for upgrading and gave me one anyways :-). I got back to my car and was checking my phone and a Costco worker asked if I was leaving soon because they were gathering up the baskets and didn't want to block me in. Wow that's being aware of others and such good customer service. Every single person I interacted with today at Costco was kind, very knowledgeable, and treated me like a valued member of their family. I highly recommend everybody go to SLO Costco particularly for their electronic purchases guarantee and...

Today, August 3 at 14:48 hrs. I went to Costco. My membership card had just expired on July 31. So I walked up to the entrance and noticed that the service desk was a few steps away through the exit. With a clear passage way, I passed a Costco employee, a short middle-aged, heavy set white lady. She quickly snapped at me and ordered me to go around. Not knowing the rules, I politely told her that I was just renewing my membership and then would go around. In a deeming and harsh tone, she barked orders at me even though I was walking towards the other side. I guess I either did walk fast enough, or it was not to her satisfaction.

As I was walking to the other side, she would not stop addressing me and continued to speak to me as if I were a child in the presence of many guests now exiting.

I had enough and turned and disregarded her demands. She shouted out thanks for breaking the rules and not complying with my directives.

I then stood at the membership counter, but she continued to escalate the matter, so I walked over to her and asked her what her problem was.

She continued to speak to me as if I was stupid and let me know that they were getting a scanner and eventually I would have no choice. She continued her Karen rant until I asked her if she wanted me to speak to her supervisor.

Now being heated I did request a supervisor, the supervisor who addressed me was young, and I did not feel that my grievance was heard or that she even understood what took place, she appeared overwhelmed or focused on other matters.

However, the representative who renewed my membership made up for it. She was polite, respectful, and even got me to smile and laugh her name was Alysha.

Maybe Costco needs to train their supervisors on dealing with conflicts triggered by their employees and employees that have attitude and no customer service skills be kept in the warehouse.

I wonder as a few minutes later, she was at the registers. Had i been white, would she have spoken to me in that tone, or did she think I did not...