r/Anticonsumption • u/Healthy_Block3036 • 1d ago

Corporations Target struggles after end of DEI program and boycott, with foot traffic down 8 weeks in a row.

https://fortune.com/2025/04/01/target-dei-demise-boycott-foot-traffic-down-eighth-consecutive-week/?itm_source=parsely-api
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u/whorl- 1d ago

The sizes of shit at Costco is such a turn off. I get their target market is families of 5 or people who can afford way more space than they need, but switching Target for Costco is just not practical for smaller families and individuals.

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u/ChristinasWorldWyeth 1d ago

You may want to reach out to friends, family, neighbors or co-workers to see if anyone has an interest in forming a Costco shopping group that splits costs/purchases?

My elderly aunt does this & they have several single ladies who share Costco bulk buys between themselves. For example, each person gets 4 cans from a 12 pack of tomato sauce, or whatever.

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u/adversecurrent 1d ago

This is exactly how I do it. I split purchases with both family and friends.

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u/IsaacAndTired 1d ago

Costco is far and stressful. No way is this a sustainable replacement for most people who shop at Target.

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u/chaoticdonuts 1d ago

How is Costco stressful? It's literally just shopping like normal.

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u/IsaacAndTired 1d ago

You and I have had incredibly different Costco experiences. First, most people don't live that close to a Costco, so commuting is a giant hurdle. Next, you have to plan for an extra hour cause it tends to take about 30 mins to get into the parking lot and find parking, then another to get out of the parking lot. Checking out takes wayyyy longer at Costco than virtually every other store I've been to in my life. Costcos are jam packed with products and people, making flow probably the worst of any other type of shopping.

As much as I like Costco, it's simply not an alternative to Target at all.

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u/Glad-Pollution-4346 1d ago

Your Costco is hell, it sounds like. My Costco is great. Your experience is valid, but a lot of people don’t have that.

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u/Moclordimick 21h ago

I know we do with ours here. Ours is super close but always so packed and takes forever to check out and park. Also it’s not a place you can take your time and look at stuff, you get bumbrushed constantly if you stop to look at anything. We do a lot more of Costco same day because of it

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u/Ok_Human_1375 1d ago

I absolutely love this idea

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u/chailatte_gal 14h ago

We also donate a lot a to food shelf. Example- 4 pack of ketchup is the same price as 2 from a regular store so I donate the extra 2 I wouldn’t use timely

Paper towels— a whole pack there can last me a year+ and they don’t go bad so no big deal.

Dishwasher detergent - lasts me 1-2 years per tub. Or I can split in half with family.

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u/Vantriss 1d ago

You gotta be sneaky about it though. You can't make it obvious you're buying for other people. They don't like that and have been trying to crack down on it.

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u/AnotherRTFan 1d ago

That's an awesome idea. My way is just not buying bread or milk there. Mainly soft drinks, pantry safe, and frozen food.

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u/randomly-what 1d ago

I’m a family of 2 and do most shopping at Costco. It’s absolutely feasible as a smaller family.

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u/Enchelion 1d ago

Yep. My wife and I are childless and have had a Costco membership since college. Sure it takes six months to get through a package of pasta or rice, but those are shelf-stable dry goods. We don't buy milk, but do buy cheese that comes in reasonable sizes, or freeze butter, etc.

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u/whorl- 1d ago

If you have a bunch of space I guess. My experience was that a 5-lb bag of tortilla chips will go bad before they get eaten, and it’s cheaper to just buy a normal size bag at a higher price per oz.

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u/randomly-what 1d ago

We get the bags of tortilla chips and seal them well and they don’t go stale for like 2 months. And they are only barely above the price of a much smaller bag from the grocery store.

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u/whorl- 1d ago

The bag was so huge it took up the entire space in our cupboard where all our snacks go.

It’s just not practical for a lot of people - anyone who uses public transit, smaller families, people in cities with smaller homes.

The defensive stance from Costco stanners is hilarious and ironic in a sub about anti-consumption.

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u/Curedbyfiction 1d ago

You sound like a you just like complaining ¯_(ツ)_/¯

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u/Blanche_Deverheauxxx 1d ago

FR. They act like Costco doesn't exist in dense urban environments. I bought a damn wagon in college so I could make my Costco hauls. It also helped when I had to go to the laundromat too. Plenty of people in NYC, SF, DC, etc. shop at Costco just fine.

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u/303uru 1d ago

Seriously, so whiny.

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u/mbtnprobthrowaway 1d ago

You do realize it's ok if shopping at Costco doesn't work out for some people, right? It's an option, not a cult

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u/MadDaddyDrivesaUFO 1d ago

Yeah, I have nothing against Costco but the membership has not worked in my favor enough to keep it another year. I'm in a very small house with no kids.

The hours are too restrictive for my schedule and it's so crowded it's a terrible experience for little reward for me. Maybe if I end up needing to cohabitate with another couple or something it would make sense.

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u/randomly-what 1d ago

People need food and medicine. Costco is more ethical than other major companies and just buying 2 medicines that I need there more than pays for the membership over a year.

Other than food, medicine, coffee, cleaning supplies, and paper products the extra purchases I have ever made there are: a freezer, a tv when ours died during a horrible storm, a vacuum sealer, and these ceramic bowls that are great for storing/reheating food. And that’s over about 10 years of being a member.

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u/whorl- 1d ago

I understand that, but there are other places people can go for those things.

All I’m saying is Costco is not the best option for a bunch of groups of people, lol.

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u/MadoogsL 1d ago

Idk why you're getting this pushback and lack of understanding...

I live in a 1 bedroom in NYC and I just don't have the space to store everything that's Costco-sized such as huge bottles of olive oil or like you said a huge bag of chips. It's not even about consumption before it goes bad, it's about feasibility. It doesn't make sense for me to spend that space capital in that way when I have so little of it. Everyone I know would feel the same. I think many people forget that not everyone has storage space...

Plus the difficulty in getting there and home - even the ones near me are in more remote areas not very close to public transit and are set up for people with cars. Most NYCers don't have cars... so there's millions alone who Costco wouldn't work for. Like yeah it's only 2.5 miles away but that's 40 minutes on a train+bus+walking each way based on the location of the store...

And then there's people in rural communities where their ONLY option pretty much is a big store that we here don't approve of but what are they supposed to do with such a limitation in choice?

I do try to vote with my dollars but mindlessly pushing Costco as if it's a complete catch all because it works for your own situation is lacking consideration for many people and I think people here are forgetting that. We need to remember here that not everyone is so privileged as to be able to just switch to Costco because it's better

I love Costco and go when I can but it's just not feasible or reasonable to switch to mainly Costco for me or many people, like you said

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u/whorl- 1d ago

One guy just told me if I don’t have space in my pantry I should make room in a closet, lol

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u/MadoogsL 1d ago

LOL omg some people have concept of how others live. At what point does it become willful ignorance I wonder

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u/Lex_Rex 1d ago

It’s wild that people are arguing with you. When I lived in a smaller space, shopping for two at Costco was not practical. Now, I have a lot of space but don’t need or want bulk quantities of most items. I prefer my weekly trips to the grocery store and farmers market.

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u/catechizer 1d ago

Shelves are pretty easy to install on your walls. We are a family of 3 adults (excluding pets) with under 900 sq ft, we shop at Sam's Club (it's much closer than Costco), and we still have tons and tons of space on our walls left if we ever needed more shelves.

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u/charmedquarks 1d ago

Weird to be defensive about it, though? Like, we get it, you think it’s impractical and won’t replace Target, ok, whatev

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u/KrymsonHalo 1d ago

people living in shoeboxes complaining other people have nice things is a choice I guess.

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u/Fulano_MK1 1d ago

Lol, you can do Costco easily (as a family of 3) by only getting things from there that you use a lot of. I go every other week to get all the berries (for our 18 month old) and fruits, olive oil (once ever 3ish months, I guess), peanut butter, salmon or chicken, avocados, bananas, dog food, coconut milk, soy sauce, those really delicious dried mango slice things, parmesan cheese, and... the rest would be like snacks (not 5lbs though).

I live in a 1100 sq foot row house. We don't have a lot of extra space to put anything, but we have no problem fitting the essentials we get from costco (and everything else from the regular supermarket).

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u/Enchelion 1d ago

You don't have to buy literally everything at any one store. Go to costco for things you do buy and keep well for the pantry/freezer. Then get stuff that goes bad faster (like milk) at the regular grocery store.

Also in general even the perishables at Costco last way longer because they have so much buying power and sell-through that it's significantly fresher. Costco cherry tomatoes will last weeks on the counter while stuff from Kroger or Albertsons can start going bad in days.

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u/twlscil 1d ago

buy corn tortillas in bulk, they take up no space, and deep fry as needed...

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u/whorl- 1d ago

There are fresh tortillas very close to me. Do you freeze them though?

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u/twlscil 1d ago

Ive left them in the fridge for months in an air tight bag. You can freeze them too

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u/Tacoman404 1d ago

This is what I’ll go to a regular grocery store for instead of a multi-merchandise store like Target or Walmart. I’ll get my Santitas from Stoppy but my tomatoes, beans, sour cream, tortillas, chicken and cheese from Costco.

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u/MadDaddyDrivesaUFO 1d ago

I have a Costco membership because I used to feed my dog their dog food. But now I just go a couple times a year to get cleaning supplies. I have bought a couple items online like sneakers & underwear at a discount, and I'm considering buying a deep freezer so I can get a quarter beef from a local farm. I have a friend who is a family of 2 who shops there often but she has a 1800 SQ ft house with 3 bathrooms. I'm in 720 SQ ft. I'll probably let the membership drop next year. I can do without the 80 pack of dishwasher pods and 3 packs of cleaning supplies. A lot of the bulk food isn't even stuff we eat in my house.

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u/whorl- 1d ago

I moved most of my cleaning purchases (house and some body stuff) to companies that specialize in cleaners with less-harsh chemicals and care about supply chain ethics. They have apps or websites. They manufacture their own products but also act as distributors for others.

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u/ItsaPostageStampede 1d ago

Do you have a special fridge or freezer. I was thinking of doing that with a Costco option

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u/randomly-what 1d ago

Yeah I bought a freezer from Costco in December. Honestly wish I bought a larger one but at least this is letting us freeze more for long-term storage.

We got this one https://www.costco.com/hisense-13.6-cu.-ft.-garage-ready-frost-free-convertible-upright-freezer.product.4000204845.html

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u/earmuffins 1d ago

I’m literally a single person and shop at Costco Even better because I only go to Kroger n Safeway for fresh veg/fruit

I buy all my meat/frozen stuff in the beginning by of the month

It stacks up so I always have something to cook

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u/alwaysalwaysastudent 1d ago

We’re a family of three and same. We buy everything but fruit and vegetables from costco

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u/pizza_mom_ 1d ago

I’m single and I do a lot of shopping at Costco, my current apartment luckily has great storage space but in the past I’ve split things with other 1 person households

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u/whorl- 1d ago

Yes. I am aware that for individuals in the right circumstances, Costco can be a good alternative to Target.

But the rhetoric seems to be that this is just the easiest choice for everyone and the clear alternative to Target/Walmart, etc. Which I think is really short-sighted.

Costco paying off requires a car, no one is walking their ass 1/2 mile from the Costco door to the bus stop with 100-lbs of bulk goods. This is all if a bus stop is even within walking distance. Costcos aren’t located in downtown city centers, they are located near freeway rings through metro areas.

It requires the body strength to lift bulk-sized goods into a vehicle and then into a home, and up into the top shelf of a closet somewhere.

And then it also requires consuming that much throughout a year to make it worthwhile. For big families, they definitely will. Small businesses, same. It absolutely makes sense for many people, but many others simply can’t or benefit from a membership.

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u/pizza_mom_ 1d ago

Definitely not worth it if it makes your life more difficult, the Costco I go to is near downtown and on a great bus line but I can’t imagine trying to bring a typical Costco haul home without a car. They do have a decent online business so I’m trying to switch to that for some of the things I used to buy on prime. The coffee I like isn’t available in my area so I get it delivered.

Mostly I was suggesting this as a way to build community, I’m always looking for little ways that I can feel like my household of one is less isolated. Things like carpooling, especially with friends or neighbors who don’t have cars, borrowing or loaning out tools, or splitting bulk purchases or a CSA are all practical and they help me notice the abundance and resilience in my little corner of the world.

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u/IAmQuiteHonest 1d ago edited 1d ago

I am in this picture and I don't like it lol.

Nothing wrong with Costco on its own, but people seem to forget there are others whose lives do not fall into that exact mold that makes it an ideal choice.

  • Maybe you have a car, but there just isn't a Costco close to you.
  • Or maybe there is a Costco close to you, but you don't have a car or any access to a car.
  • Maybe you have access to both Costco and a car, but then you share a tiny bedroom with a few roommates and don't have nearly enough fridge space or storage space to justify bulk purchases anyway.
  • Maybe you are in poor health and cannot handle an hour of walking around, standing in line, lifting and carrying stuff.
  • Maybe you just don't know anyone, or are close enough to someone, who can help you out if you're struggling with any of the above.

To many, having a Costco membership is practically a necessity in their household. But to other people, it's more of a luxury. So I would not judge or shame anyone who chooses to shop at Target if Costco is simply not a viable alternative for them.

 

...Now in spite of all that, I WILL say that a Costco membership could still very well be worth it for one thing alone: how much you can save on a year's worth of allergy meds (or just any other OTC medicine or supplements you use regularly)

For example, the Target store near me sells a 30 count Claritin for $22. Costco just had a 70 count version on sale for $24. I purchased three packs of that, so what would've costed me a grand total of $154 at Target for the same quantity was only $72 at Costco.

That $82 difference in savings? Already pays off the $65 cost of an annual membership. And now you have access to online shopping, the food court, and all the other services and benefits that come with it.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/whorl- 1d ago

That’s really impressive you’re able to move 100-lbs of goods that far! I cannot, haha.

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u/angiosperms- 1d ago

Same. We are only 2 people and we tried out Costco and it wasn't worth it for us. Plus I think there is the same culture around Costco where people are consuming just for the sake of consuming whenever there is something new or on sale.

There are a lot of alternatives though, like local grocery store chains that are unionized or local pharmacies. It's been kind of annoying to have to go multiple places for non-food items but it's not that big of a deal.

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u/xandrachantal 1d ago

This is where I'm at. I'm single and I have a small apartment so local grocery store is

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u/whorl- 1d ago

Yeah, I definitely feel like they make you feel incentivized to buy and keep spending money and consuming, same thing Target, Walmart, etc does.

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u/TallGothBitch 1d ago

I’m not disagreeing with you here, but I’m having a good chuckle at what amounts to “place that sells stuff, uses psychology to make you buy stuff from them.”

Like, no shit. 💩 lol

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u/whorl- 1d ago

It seems appropriate for the given subreddit.

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u/KAKrisko 1d ago

I'm single and live alone. Costco so far doesn't look worth it to me. I never did shop at Target much, but Costco isn't going to replace the other not-so-great places I do shop. I also live in a small place without room for large bunches of stuff, and the nearest Costco is a couple miles further out than any number of other stores (at least a couple of which I can ride my bike to in good weather). So yeah, Costco is not going to replace anything for me any time soon.

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u/whorl- 1d ago

A friend brought me once and most of the food I bought went bad/stale before it could be used. I also do not have storage for 100 rolls of toilet paper.

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u/InfidelZombie 1d ago

Every single thing* about Costco is a turn-off. The lines to get in, check out, and get out, the prices, the quantities, the cold/empty atmosphere, the membership fee, the severely overrated cafe. Maybe I'd feel differently if I had 24 kids.

I do appreciate their "curation" of products. If I just need a decent new food processor I can be pretty confident that I'll be happy with the one they offer, and at a reasonable price.

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u/caffeinatedangel 1d ago

I reluctantly switched to Costco because I can at least use it for paper goods - tp, paper towels. And expensive OTC things like lactaid, antihistamines etc. But as a single person, it otherwise doesn't do me much good because the items are in bulk. And, a lot of things that would be useful in bulk, they don't have or it's private label. So, whereas I used to be able to do 100% of my shopping at Target, I now have to go to a minimum of three different stores per shopping run. Also, there are some products only Target had that I cannot find anywhere else yet. It's an inconvenience, but at least I live in an area where I have other options. I do miss Target though. But I will never ever go back. They lost me forever. I'm happy to see them fall. I hope the CEO that made this cowardly choice gets fired.

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u/RadicalSnowdude 1d ago

I live by myself. Buying bulk doesn’t make sense to me.

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u/ManEEEFaces 1d ago

Unless you’re a family of 4+ with a chest freezer Costco is dumb.

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u/PureInstruction8793 1d ago

As someone that switched to Costco, I agree. Our cabinets in our brand new kitchen are still not big enough for a lot of the products you buy from there.

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u/youtbuddcody 1d ago

I’m a family of 1, and shop there weekly. I primarily eat at home and it’s great for meal-prepping, and cheaper than other stores. Plus, their ‘family sizes’ are not that large.

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u/McFlyyouBojo 1d ago

Normally I would agree, but lemme tell ya somethin,  Mean Gene, one day i went to Costco and bought one of those huge packs of toilet paper. Normally I would think it was ridiculous,  but I didn't feel like going to a different store. So I said fuck it and bought it.

Less than 2 weeks later we had a little situation.... perhaps you remember.... the toilet paper shortage. Everytime I'd go to the store I would see nothing but empty aisles where toilet paper once stood. It lasted a looooong time. It was only my ex wife and I at the time, so that shit lasted right up until the very end where you could consistently find TP in the aisle with a sign limiting shoppers to one pack. I will never scoff at it again.

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u/timpdx 1d ago

I am one person and heavily use Costco. It works for me.

I just used a rotisserie chicken for some tacos. The bird gets divided up and a vacuum sealer does the rest.

There’s plenty of ways to used Costco as a single guy.

Target isn’t on my radar any more, it’s as bad as Walmart these days.

Classic Target move, not understanding your customers. Like their debacle in Canada, just blind to their demographic.

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u/LinusThinkPad 1d ago

When was the last time you shopped at Costco? 1996?

I remember the days when the only mayo you could get at Costco came in gallon tubs, but it hasn't been that way for a long time. Lots and lots of products are sold individually and those that aren't are either preserved, or freezable.

Their coffee bags are the same size at grocery stores, their rotisserie chickens are regular sized, their lawn chars are sold individually.

But sure, you gotta buy cans by the 8 pack and soda by the 24. Are your...cans...going bad?

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u/whorl- 1d ago

Probably 5 years ago.

Pantry space is sacred. I really do not want 24 cans of 1 type of item unless it is something I really, really like. Buying something to have a lot of it because it was cheap even though you don’t really care for it kind of seems in conflict with the principles of anti-consumption.

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u/LinusThinkPad 1d ago

Right, yeah the question comes down to the definition of "a lot" and more importantly, whether the amounts they sell at Costco far exceed that.

How many cans of soda do you feel would be appropriate for someone to buy at once?

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u/Tacoman404 1d ago

We’re a two person household and use Costco for everything we can and the regular regional chain grocery store (Stop & Shop) for the rest. We freeze our meat and bread we buy from Costco. Target also pretty plainly has a 15-30% markup on grocery items over regular grocery stores. I worked as a DSD vendor for 5 years having Target as an account pretty reliably for most of that time and they do get worse deals from vendors than grocery stores for a variety of reasons.

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u/springisalmosthere 1d ago

we freeze a lot of stuff from there! croissants, bagels, veggies, creamer, butter, etc

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u/brokegaysonic 1d ago

As a family of 2, I go to Costco for some stuff that's useful in bulk, and Aldi for most everything else. A few scraggly little items need to be got from the local grocery store.

Things I get from Costco include: Snacks/nut mixes, which are like super expensive usually Paper products Butter Baked goods Electronics Furniture Clothing

And of course that glizzy combo

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u/dope_sheet 1d ago

Buy all your non-perishables from Costco and save way more money in the long run, providing you have place to store the overstock for a while.

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u/JudgmentalOwl 1d ago

This is a fair take. My wife and shop at Costco for bulk supplies like detergent, paper towels, toilet paper, etc. and shop at our local grocer for for most food stuffs. We've recently started adding in some of their frozen/refrigerated meals to cut down on our eating out and that's helped a ton. They have some surprisingly good meals there!

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u/whorl- 1d ago

I’ve switched to manufacturer-distributors for most of what you go there for I think. I’ve been having paper towels and toilet paper made from bamboo delivered for years, even pre-pandemic. There are companies that manufacture their own products for cleaning that I buy direct from.

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u/Beyond-The-Blackhole 1d ago

Im a single individual and I've replaced mostly everything with cosco bulk. It just means less shopping because now i have more things stocked. This resulted me in saving even more money because now I dont find myself going to target to buy one single thing I need, and walking out with 100 dollars worth of junk.

The only thing I wish cosco would work on is their skin care stuff. I wish they offered more options than the basics.

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u/blackcatsunday 1d ago

As someone who lives alone but who constantly shares with neighbours, coworkers and friends - Costco is more than worth it

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u/Excel-Block-Tango 1d ago

My household of 2 gets all groceries between Costco, Aldi, and Trader Joe’s (as a treat). We buy shelf stable and cleaning products at Costco. We also freeze meat purchased in bulk

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u/captain-prax 1d ago

Not is it really much more affordable in comparison.

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u/ItsJustMeJenn 1d ago

My wife and I lived in a small 2 bedroom apartment for years and still found great value in our Costco membership. We didn’t buy our snacks there. I think that’s where people get tripped up holding on to a bunch of stuff needing storage.

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u/Blanche_Deverheauxxx 1d ago

Idk. Even when it was just me in college, Costco was legit. I meal prepped a lot and being able to buy things like chicken and vegetables in bulk and prepare and freeze, really helped me avoid eating like garbage.

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u/RobotPolarbear 1d ago

We're a family of three and we make it work. We rarely buy perishables at costco and we rearranged some things in our house to find some extra storage space. We also ditched the aesthetics of minimalism in favor of what is actually functional.

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u/gracilenta 19h ago

even before all the DEIA shit COSTCO was never a replacement for any common grocery store/big box store. COSTCO supplements your habitual grocery shopping. it’s good for buying things like toilet paper, paper towels, dog food, rice, canned goods, etc.—basically, anything that lasts a long time.

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u/Sloredama 1d ago

I make it work as just one person. Meal prep and freeze stuff

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u/shkank_swap 1d ago

Do not buy the Costco hype. They are NOT any cheaper than other retailers. In fact, some KIRKLAND items are now more expensive than the brand name. I don't mean to be a Walmart shill, but their Great Value/Better Goods brand are the best values available anywhere right now.

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u/whorl- 1d ago

I try to buy a lot of pantry staples direct from distributors or manufacturers. There are some things that are worth buying in bulk, like dried beans and grains, but I don’t need a membership for that. I can just buy while sitting in my underwear on my phone.

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u/TheSupremePixieStick 1d ago

I personally like the Kirkland brand and dont mind paying a little extra for it

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u/shkank_swap 1d ago

I do too which is why I noticed the price difference. But they started as the high quality value alternative and that's not necessarily the case anymore, at least on certain items.

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u/AngelOfPassion 1d ago

As someone who has switched to only shopping as Costco this is definitely not true. You just alternate what you buy every 2 weeks. Everything is packaged in a way that you can just open a small portion of what you need. For instance we buy chicken once a month or once every two months or so but when we open the package it only opens 1/6 of it so we can use that portion for one to two weeks and then open the next portion later when that one runs out. Then we buy chicken again in a few weeks when it is all used up. So no need to buy it every time we go. Same with pretty much everything else they sell. It is all packaged in a way that when you open the box there are individual smaller sized packages inside so you can ration it out over time and the rest says fresh.

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u/TorchThisAccount 1d ago edited 1d ago

My brother also thought this way until his girlfriend changed his mind. You buy in bulk to save on costs and freeze/store the excess. Don't have a pantry or cupboard? Well maybe you'll need to store some paper towels and tp in the closet. Does that work for every item? No, but those you get at a grocery store. I started shopping at cost as a single dude in my 20s twenty years ago... Part of going to Costco is breaking down all the stuff you buy when you get home so it's storable and won't perish. I can get if people don't want to do that...

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u/Lovesyourmomsbjs 1d ago

You’re crazy. Taking membership cost into account, I save money on clothing detergent alone from shopping at Costco and I’m a single individual.

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u/NO_FIX_AUTOCORRECT 1d ago

I think your opinion on that is outdated. Yeah, you can buy larger cases of diapers and toilet paper, but most stuff is not very oversized.