Costco Wholesale — Attraction in Santa Cruz

While visiting the Santa Cruz area, we decided to swing by the local Costco to pick up a few things and see how it compared to our usual location. It turned out to be a pretty good visit overall!

We started by browsing the seasonal garden section, since spring was in full swing and we were curious about their plant selection. The area was decent, though not the most impressive. Some of the plants looked like they hadn’t been watered regularly, and the selection felt a bit limited compared to what we’ve seen at other Costco locations. That said, it’s always nice to see what’s available, especially when traveling.

Where this Costco really stood out was in the fresh and frozen food sections. We found several great sale items, including some staples we regularly buy and a few new things to try. The produce looked fresh and well-stocked, and the frozen section had a solid variety, with a few items we haven’t seen at our home store.

The best surprise was discovering a unique coffee brand we hadn’t come across before. As coffee lovers, that was a fun find and a little bonus to take home with us!

The store layout was typical of most Costcos, and everything was clean and easy to navigate. Self-checkout was quick and convenient, which helped us get in and out without a long wait.

All in all, while the garden section could use some TLC, the rest of the store made up for it. If you’re in the Santa Cruz area and need to stock up or are just curious, it’s...

Other than the health accommodations that are being added everywhere: (masks req'd., hand sanitizing stations, social distancing at registers, etc.) It's still the same old Costco as before. The only complaint I have is with the new concessions system because of how much longer the wait is now. Youre either standing in a line to order/pay on a self-service screen or you prepay at the register first so you can stand in the prepaid line; cashiers don't take orders now, they only place orders on counter and call #s when ready. Once your # is called you pick up your food items, and if you need any other items (drinks, condiments, utensils, straws, napkins, etc.) yet another line awaits you!! B/c they don't let you get anything yourself nowadays, you must ask an employee for everything. I know I'm just nit-picking at the most unimportant, trivial sh*t, but it is pretty annoying that you have to wait about 15-30 additional min. for anything you order; Most of which I got to spend waiting in that last line for about almost 20min. all for a drink, a cup of ketchup, a cup of mustard and some napkins. That's it. They don't even have the onions, relish, or spicy mustard anymore so it was a bummer waiting forever, for something that used to take 10min. tops before covid to now having to wait a cool 30min before we can walk out with our naked polish dogs. Is it really safer and more efficient and if it's keeping customers inside the store longer than...

Full disclosure, I work for a different Costco location, so my standards are different than the average member.

Shopped on a Saturday afternoon. Despite being really busy and the parking lot being full, there were plenty of carts available.

Walking through the store, navigating traffic is always brutal, especially on a weekend. I was incredibly surprised at how clean the floor and aisles were. Kudos to their maintenance team. Weekends with demos mean people get lazy and toss trash wherever, but the floor was immaculate.

I was also impressed with how blocked down and maintenanced the aisles and cold boxes were. Everything looked shopable without empty boxes blocking product.

Unfortunately the deli was out of rotisserie chickens, but it’s incredibly difficult keeping them in stock on weekends. The demand is so high and there are o my so many batches the ovens can handle.

The floor has a good presence of employees if one needed assistance finding anything.

Despite the crowd, the front end was pumping on all cylinders and no more than two deep when we arrived to pay. Only real negative to our visit was our cashier. She seemed like she didn’t want to be there. She didn’t greet us or thank us for shopping. I boxed our $400 order but never heard a peep out of the cashier. This bothered me bc I am a former front end manager and member service is priority one at...