To say I was thrilled to hear we were getting another Costco location in Tri-Cities, is an understatement. I absolutely love Costco, but I hate the crowds. Yes, the Kennewick location has served us well, but I agree with the Costco planning committee (assuming there’s such a committee), it was time to add another location – in Pasco to be exact. Maybe with the addition of the new store, shopping at this wonderful place won’t be so stressful.

My wife and I typically make a trip to Costco every two weeks and (with one store) we do our best to avoid going on weekends. For example, we like to go at 7:30 p.m. on a weeknight – a half hour before closing. We can usually get in and out in about 45 minutes, the crowd is manageable and we save our sanity.

Another good time to go is during a Seahawk game (or major sporting event) – there are a lot of Seahawk fans in the Tri-Cities and they don’t like missing games. I’m one of them, and I will only use this Costco shopping tactic if I can’t make it on a weeknight. The store usually has the game on their big screens anyway, so I can always check the score going in. I’ve seen the place almost empty during a Hawks game.

If the unfortunate situation arises, and we end up having to go on a Saturday or the day before a holiday (another nightmare), we plan to park away from the warehouse – it’s a madhouse near the entrance, so why not walk a few more steps and avoid the hassle of trying to find a parking spot close to the main doors, right? Remember – save your sanity.

We’ve also discovered that taking a deep breath and exhaling before we exit the vehicle helps calm our nerves. We actually laugh about it, and that helps too, because the sad truth is, some people don’t have manners. We’ve tried being polite at Costco, but that hasn’t worked for us – so we are aggressively polite (if there’s such a thing). Meaning, we assert ourselves and put our cart in a position of strength. If we don’t, we just end feeling like we’re in the way and saying, “excuse me” for an hour and a half.  Remember – save your sanity.

Once in a while when we’re in Costco, we run into people we know that we haven’t seen in years. And, in any normal circumstance we would stop and talk, but shopping at Costco is not a normal circumstance! So, we don’t clog up the aisle and catch up on old times, we shout, “great to see you too” and keep moving along. Catching up with old friends in Costco is rude. Sorry, I said it.  My friends (even old friends) will understand this.

I could go on and on about all the excitement I’ve experience while shopping at Costco and if you’re a regular, I’m sure you could too.

The bottom line? I’m super excited we’re getting another Costco so I can collect more clothes with a “Kirkland” tag, buy 5 dozen eggs at a time, pig out on $5 rotisserie chicken, dive into chocolate cake that’s to die for, dine on 250 ct. paper plates, crunch up Kirkland organic tortilla chips, wear 32 Degrees t-shirts, pick up an 85 inch TV, have enough bacon bits in a bag for all occasions, stand in line for pumpkin pie, and maybe, just maybe, meet up with old friends in the aisle – ha!

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READ ON: See the States Where People Live the Longest

Stacker used data from the 2020 County Health Rankings to rank every state's average life expectancy from lowest to highest. The 2020 County Health Rankings values were calculated using mortality counts from the 2016-2018 National Center for Health Statistics. The U.S. Census 2019 American Community Survey and America's Health Rankings Senior Report 2019 data were also used to provide demographics on the senior population of each state and the state's rank on senior health care, respectively.

Read on to learn the average life expectancy in each state.

 

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